FROM THE DIARIES OF GOSTAN ZARIAN
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Selected and Translated by A.B.
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Beirut / April 1954
Rain.
Went to Antelias with Father Shahen and Shahan Berberian. I told them,
the Armenian church has become another shop.

April 6, 1954
Dinner with Shahen Vartabed and Shahan Berberian.
Old memories, new hopes.
Shahan understands a little of everything.
Generally speaking, the Armenian atmosphere is stifling.

Salzburg / December 12, 1956
Everywhere Mozart, Mozart, Mozart. He has become a source of revenue,
he who was buried in a paupers' grave.

Vienna / March 14, 1957
For a number of years now, we have been living like monks. Once in a
while a play or a concert, nothing else. I don't see any Armenians,
which is no great loss.

Vienna / April 5, 1957
We must oppose the concept of art as entertainment. Art must be a
mission and a destiny. One must be more than an artist.

Florence / November 26, 1957
Dinner with Mrs. Mann-Borgese [Thomas Mann's daughter]. Long
conversations about literature and her father. I didn't know that
Thomas Mann's mother was a Brazilian and he had thus a dual
sensibility: German and Latin. Mrs. Mann-Borgese is herself a talented
woman and the author of many essays. She can't be said to be a great
beauty, but is endowed with qualities far superior to beauty: a
graceful bearing and a high degree of intelligence
***
Five months now that I have not seen a single Armenian newspaper. So
much the better. The only thing that connects me to my fellow Armenians
is the language.

April 1958
We always forget that what interests us is not the nation itself but
our conception of it. (My case.)

From GOSTAN ZARIAN'S "NOTEBOOKS"
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Selected and Translated by A.B.
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Yerevan / 1961-1969
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God created the world, but the Dutch created Holland. Armenians would
have done the same if they had not relied too much on others.
***
With us, the emphasis is on cunning: a character trait of slaves,
devoid of creative impetus, never a source of strength.
***
Dante once wrote to a friend: "I found the prototype of my Inferno
right here where I now live."
***
"The world is an opinion," Marcus Aurelius tells us.
***
We are like the stars, divided by infinite spaces. By obliterating the
physical dimension, death (and here is its beauty) obliterates these
spaces too.

ZARIAN ON STYLE
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Translated by Ara Baliozian
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Translator’s note: The following passage is taken from
Gostan Zarian’s collection of essays, reminiscences,
travel impressions, diaries, and notebooks titled
NAVADOMAR (Logbook), edited with an introduction and
commentary by Youri Khachaturian (Yerevan, 1999).
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

For an authentic writer nothing can be as easy as
being difficult; and nothing can be as difficult as
being easy.
"Make it simple," Oscar Wilde once wrote to a friend
from jail, "otherwise I will think you have nothing to
hide."
That which is simple has many layers of meaning.
Simplicity is like the skin that covers muscles,
nerves, and all the other secrets of the body.
That which is difficult has nothing to say. When you
finally unravel its mysteries you discover it is
devoid of all sense. And those who praise this kind of
writing are either simple-minded dupes or cunning
operators whose hidden motives have nothing to do with
literature.