SEVAK ARAMAZD, ARMEN

PREFACE

From time to time, a house has to be put in order. The hand that creates chaos by mixing up or throwing things together is the same hand that cleans each item and puts it back in its place. So one day I too decided to clear up the mess of my life; I threw open the window of my memory to air the musty room of my experiences, then I began to pick up my scattered emotions, one by one, and place them neatly in the cupboard of my thoughts; I carefully arranged the curtains of love and longing, threw away the rags of hatred and anger, and, after carefully wiping the dusty cover of my dreams, I put a little vase of the past on the table of the present and out of all its pages billowed the flaming flowers of the future. Then I sat down, exhausted, to rest a while. Suddenly I felt the inconceivable fragrance of eternity unfold in my soul and I was seized by rapture. When I came too, in the mirror of sufferings hanging on the wall of reality I saw my face and I smiled: on the table in front of me lay this book, which is both the whole of life and a piece of literature.

Sevak Aramazd