Dear Friends,

On the occasion of Independence Day, I share with you a masterpiece of Armenian poetry called “Freedom” by Mikael Nalbandian* (1829-1866).

“Freedom”

God of Freedom, since that day
you breathed life into inert clay,
my first and speechless sound
while struggling to be unbound**
was my cry for liberty.

I kept my mother without sleep
until the time I learned to speak.
Both my parents had to smile
to hear the first words of their child.
“Liberty!”

Not “Mama! Papa!” was the shout
that burst from my stammering mouth.
Fate answered, “So you insist
on freedom? Will you enlist
as a soldier for Liberty?
Those who love freedom will find
the world narrow. It will bind
them to a narrow road.”
“Yes, let fire and thunder explode
for the sake of Liberty.”

I pledged to “let my life,
be set by traps or fill with strife.
Even if hanged, until I die,
from the gallows I will cry
Liberty!”

(Translated by Diana Der Hovanessian & Marzbed Margosian)

*Nalbandian was born in Nor Nakhichevan, on the Don River, and graduated from the University of St. Petersburg. He died in exile in Saratov after being imprisoned for his political writing and incendiary poems. This poem, “Freedom,” was sun secretly both in Russian and Turkish Armenia.

**Newborn Armenian babies were tightly swaddled.

We give thanks to our heavenly Father for the great gift of freedom that we enjoy in the United States of America. May you have a happy and healthy Fourth of July.

With prayers,
Hayr Simeon
Sunday July 4, 2004


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