Shushanik Kurghinian

Shushanik Kurghinian (Popoljian) (1876-1927) was an Armenian poet. Kurghinian received little or no recognition for her outstanding poems. Although a socialist with some stirring poems of labour's rebellion to her name, she remained a dim star even in the Soviet era. Today she is almost unknown, away from the literary canon in Armenia and the Diaspora.

 Background 
Shushanik Kurghinian was born on August 18, 1876, in Alexandrapol, in the Yerevan province of Eastern Armenia, into a poor family of Popolji Harout. In her autobiography Shushanik writes of her childhood: “Sometimes father would bring his [shoe-repair] ‘workstation’ home, in order to save money, and I would work for him – demanding my wages, every single kopek (Coin). My mother, having been raised in a traditional household, would reprove my ‘ill behavior toward my parent,’and blamed those harmful books for corrupting me.”

 Works 
`Whoever is without hope, dulled, without spirit,
alone and lacking faith...
bring them to me
my spirit is free
I will give them of my soul...'
(Selected Works, 1982 Yerevan p260)

 Other websites 
`I Want to Live: Poems of Shushanik Kurghinian' or at ArmeniaPedia.org

Category:Armenian poets
Category:Autobiographers
Category:1876 births
Category:1927 deaths