Poetry in Red Dog Howls


Atom Yarjanian, better known by his pen name Siamanto (1878-1915), was an influential Armenian writer, poet and national figure from the late 19th and early 20th century. He was killed by Ottoman authorities during the Armenian Genocide. His poem, “The Prayer,” is recited byMichael in Red Dog Howls.


The Prayer


The swans, in discouragement, havemigrated fromthe poisonous lakes this evening, And sad sisters dreamof brothers under the prison walls. Battles have ended on the blossoming fields of lilies, And fair women follow coffins fromunderground passages, And sing, with heads bowed down towards the ground.


Oh,make haste! Our aching bodies are frozen in these pitiless glooms. Make haste towards the chapel, where life will bemoremerciful, The chapel of the graveyard where our brother sleeps!


An orphan swan is suffering withinmy soul, And there, over newly-buried bodies, It rains blood-it pours frommine eyes.


A crowd of cripples pass along the paths ofmy heart, And with thempass barefooted blindmen, In the divine hope ofmeeting some one in prayer.


And the red dogs of the desert howled all one night, After hopelesslymoaning over the sands For some unknown, incomprehensible grief.


And the stormofmy thoughts ceased with the rain; The waves were cruelly imprisoned under the frozen waters; The leaves of huge oaks, like wounded birds, Dropped with cries of anguish.


And the dark night was deserted, like the vast infinite; And, with the lonely and bloodymoon, Like amyriadmotionlessmarble statues, All the dead bodies of our earth arose to pray for one another.


Siamanto (1878 - 1915) 13


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