Marine Petrosyan (Armenia)

Marine Petrossian, Armenian poet and essayist was born in 1960. She is the author of four poetry collections. Her first book appeared in 1993. The poems from this book were trans- lated into French and in 1995 Editions Comp’Act published it in France (“J’apporterai des pierres”, 1995). In 2015, Argentinian Audisea Editora published Petrossian’s book “Disparó el arma” in Spanish.

Petrossian has participated in many international festivals and other literary gatherings. She has lived as a resident writer in California (2005), Vienna (2013), New York (2015). Petrossian is also famous in Armenian as an essayist. Her essay “Antipoetry, or When the Poet Does Not Seek an Alibi” has aroused intense discussions in Armenian literary circles. Her writings on political issues of the day had an unprecedently large readership and made her a public figure in Armenia: many TV programs invite her to comment on public issues. These essays later were collected in her book Red Poster (2011).

 

Hey Policeman

What a nice seaport what a sunny day
how lovely are the ships and why is it

none of them is mine?
hey policeman
don’t shoot me
if I pick one of these ships
and sail to play with white whales
do not be afraid no one will know
I will return the ship to the same place come with me if you like

Translated from Armenian by Arthur Kayzakian in cooperation with the author