Shiraz was born Onik Tadevosi Karapetyan in the city ofAlexandropol, then part of the Russian Empire. His mother, Astghik, was widowed by the Armenian Genocide shortly before his birth. Shiraz grew up in a considerable poverty. His first work called Beginning of Spring was published in 1935. Novelist Atrpet gave the talented poet the epithet "Shiraz", because "this youth's poems have the fragrance of roses, fresh and covered with dew, like the roses of Shiraz". Another version of his pen name is "Shirak azn"—a child of Shirak, the region he was from. In 1937 Hovhannes Shiraz entered the Armenian Literature Department of Yerevan's State University, where he studied until 1941. He also studied at the Moscow Maxim Gorky Literature Institute. In 1958, he published the first volume of his anthology Knar Hayastani. The second and third volumes were published in 1965 and 1974. These collections include the best examples of Shiraz's poetry. Shiraz mostly wrote and published poetry. He is an author of very popular patriotic and love poems included "Ani", "My Mother", "May my love remain a secret", "Siamanto and Khjezare", "Expromptu", "Like the Pagan Love", "My Holy Homeland", "The Fate of Armenians", "To Andranik", etc. He wrote "The Armenian Dante-esque" about the Armenian genocide, a subject that was banned in Soviet Union. The first version of this masterpiece was written in 1941. Only short passages from this work were published in Soviet Armenia during his lifetime, and some chapters were published in Beirut and Tehran. The entire poem was published in 1990 in Yerevan. He was buried at Komitas Pantheon, in Yerevan, along with other distinguished Armenians. He first married famous Armenian poet Silva Kaputikyan. His son with Kaputikyan, Ara Shiraz, was a sculptor. Shiraz had seven children with his second wife, Shushanik Shiraz, one of whom was Sipan Shiraz, a poet. Yerevan school #169 and a street in Julfa, Isfahan are named after him. Hovhannes Shiraz’s House-Museum is located in a nineteenth-century building in Gyumri.
Personality
Shiraz was known for his good sense of humour. In 1963 John Steinbeck visited poet's apartment in Yerevan, and then wrote in a letter: "...men are closest together when they laugh together. And I remember that in Yerevan we laughed together a great deal." Yevgeny Yevtushenko and Alexander Gitovich dedicated poems to Shiraz. Shiraz was an anti-establishment poet who was very popular with the people of Soviet Armenia but fought against its corrupt Soviet leadership all his life. When in 1974 the known critic Suren Aghababyan has brought to Shiraz the news about awarding of the Order of Lenin, the answer has followed: "And what they want in exchange? To buy my silence?"
Poetry
Shiraz is an author of about forty poetry books and translations. His rich vocabulary and sensitive style, enhanced by folk and colloquial elements, made his poetry one of the highest achievements of Armenian literature. Critics consider many of his works masterpieces. According to Paruyr Sevak, "The modern Armenian poetry has risen on the ridge of Shiraz". "Shiraz is a great talent, we should be proud and consider as a great honor that we personally know him", wrote William Saroyan. Shiraz built his poems with Armenian "tuff of emotions", added Yevgeny Yevtushenko. In my dreams my door was knocked at, "Who is it?" I asked from inside. Some elderly lady from the outside Answered and said, "I'd sacrifice myself for you." "I've come to ask for a piece of bread as charity I'm a poor orphan woman with no one to support me." At this point I opened my door immediately, Only to find a miracle; it was my deceased mother indeed! I was shocked but fell into her arms; And my mother said, "It's me, it's me, I've come to try you and to check on you. I hope life hasn't changed your spirit and also you?!" I came in the form of a beggar So that the whole world can be a witness To see if your conscience, my dear son, If your conscience also died along with me?!"
Poems of Shiraz are known throughout the former USSR and abroad. Anyway, as Andrey Dementyev writes, Hovhannes Shiraz, like Sergey Yesenin, uses many metaphors, so it's very hard to translate his poems. During a meeting with Soviet writers, to demonstrate what kind of poetry he liked best, Hindi writer Bhisham Sahni, showed a journal containing some poems by Hovhannes Shiraz.
House-Museum
Hovhannes Shiraz’s House-Museum is located on Varpetats Street, Gyumri. The house was presented to Shiraz by Soviet Armenian officials in July 1983. The house was built in 1886 and belonged to a millionaire. During the Soviet Union it was used as a storehouse. Due to the 1988 Armenian earthquake, the museum’s reconstruction was interrupted, and 8 homeless families found shelter in the house. In 2003 it became a house-museum by the resolution of the Armenian government.
