Sos Bagramyan
Hovhannes Massehian (1864-1931): Massehian was an Armenian born in Tabriz , Iran . By profession, he was a diplomat in the Persian government and he served as ambassador in Berlin , London and Tokyo . Massehian is best remembered today as the first serious, and still unsurpassed, translator of Shakespeare’s works into Armenian. There had been admirers and and translators of Shakespeare before, but none of them had undertaken the task as seriously and devotedly as Massehian. Massehian had hoped to publish all of Shakespeare’s plays before his death. Of his fourteen translations, twelve are extant and published. This presentation of the complete works of Shakespeare in Armenian has, for the first time, brought all twelve of his translations together in one collection.
Khachik Dashtents (1909-1974): Born Khachik Tonoevitch Tonoyan, Khachik Dashtents was born in the village of Dashtayan of Sasun. He later adopted the literary nom de plume, Dashtents, after the village in which he was born. He moved to the city of Gyumri (then Alexandropol), and in 1932 Dashtents graduated from the Yerevan State University, and in 1940 – from the English Language department of the Moscow Institute of Foreign Languages. Among his many literary achievements, Dashtents was also an accomplished translator of William Shakespeare. He translated many of Shakespeare’s works and is regarded the best translator of Shakespeare after Massehian. Along with translating Shakespeare, he also translated into Armenian the poem “The Song of Hiawatha” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
Stepan Eghieh Alajajyan: Stepan Alajajyan was an Armenian Soviet writer born in Haleb , Syria . He received a degree in philology from Yerevan State University in 1951. In his novels, he portrayed the national liberation movements of the people of the middle east as well as the spiritual bond of the middle east diaspora with their homeland. He also wrote about the heroic battles fought by Armenians against foreign invaders. He was noted for having a concise writing style that concentrated on the psychology of his characters. In addition to his novels, Alajajyan is known for his translations of Shakespeare as well as translations of the works of H.G. Wells, Jean Paul Sartre and William Saroyan.