“First of all, a specialist should be a material collector,” he is sure philologist, literary critic, senior researcher of the folklore department of the Institute of Archeology and Ethnography of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia, Doctor of Philological Sciences Armen Sargsyan.

– Mr. Sargsyan, you studied at Yerevan State University, Faculty of Philology. How did you choose your profession?

– Simply, we read a lot. imagine, I have been reading Hovhannes Tumanyan since the 2nd grade. I was also registered in the library. At that time, to be honest, there were neither any philological things in me, nor was there a guide. My father was a craftsman, my mother a villager. My knowledge was mostly acquired. From my parents, of course, by blood, from my mother, I took the most essential, the proverbial grace, and honesty, purity from my father. In short, the family has given a lot. I was 9 months old when we moved to Tiflis, but we were living in a Georgian district, my mother did not adapt, we moved to Vanadzor. Since I was reading, they thought that I should definitely study higher, so I took it and submitted my work to the Faculty of History, because history has been my essence. However, I was left out of the competition by one point. In the second year, they convinced me to go to the Vanadzor Polytechnic Institute with your hard work. they came to my mind, I started studying mathematics for 4-5 months, but I felt that it was not mine. You have to love. And I left it and this time I decided to apply to the Faculty of Philology because I didn’t want to work as a teacher, but now I miss it… I taught everywhere.

From the very first year, the professors assigned an essay… I got four or five, but there were people who made 5 mistakes in two sentences. It seemed to me that I sat in someone else’s place, and I wanted to do something… my inner historian was speaking. I had neither the gift of writing nor journalism, so I decided to seriously engage in folklore.

In the very first semester, I read a report about the comparative character of Little Mher from “Sasna Trees” among all the stories. It turned out to be something exceptional. By the way, let me tell you that my thesis was about the survival of proverbs, angry Jrbashyan, Tamrazyan, Mkryan – those greats – shouted that this is the topic of a candidate’s thesis, change the title quickly, they won’t accept it at the top. The topic was very complicated.

Then I took the proverbs from the works of Sevak, Hrant Matevosyan, and compared them with Aram Ghanalanyan’s “Proverbs”. By the way, my diploma was followed by Ghanalanyan, who said in his house: “I wish someone would continue my work.” I kept my head down.

– Are new proverbs created in our time?

– Of course they are created. In the 1930s, new proverbs were forced to be created in connection with the kolkhoz, but they did not spread among the people. Some proverbs were somehow transformed, rearranged in accordance with the thinking of the time and the people. When I went on a business trip to Estonia, they asked if we have a collection of proverbs published, I responded positively, showing “Proverbs”. They went and brought their 5-6 volumes of proverbs and put them on my table. I was amazed. They said that we have included all versions of Estonian proverbs. I bowed before those people, the people. They were small, but they held each other tightly. I came back, I tried several times to start the multi-volume collection of Armenian folk proverbs, unfortunately, they did not want to meet.

– In which regions of RA are new proverbs and sayings born?

– In the course of centuries, they get diluted, condensed, gain new strength. “School Proverb” will be ready soon. 4-5 people also wrote school proverbs, to put it mildly, unsuccessfully. There are such things that children do not need. An example is the word bribe, they write. “Bribery brings light to a dark place.” Are you directing a schoolboy to fall into a dark place, to get out with a bribe?

I even wrote out proverbs from fairy tales.

He says: “The sheep of a wise shepherd are more fortunate than the people of a foolish king.” The people of Lori have this proverb, which I recorded in the late 1970s: “Sacrifice both the life of the literate and the life of the illiterate, run away from the semi-literate.” Another one: “Position is a phalanx, one is removed from one’s head, another is placed on another”, and there is a continuation among the people of Lorraine. “Do it like this: after taking the blanket, the person underneath remains.” The proverbs are exceptional: educating, guiding.

– Did you encounter difficulties while doing field work?

– I was employed at the Institute of Archeology and Ethnography of the National Academy of Sciences at the age of 57. Kalantaryan, the director, took my workbook, looked, there was no place… By saying moment, moment, he was browsing. I have worked everywhere. It was in my favor. Wherever I worked, I tried to be useful both to myself and to the people. I have 52 tape recordings. Wherever I was, I had a pen in my hand, and if possible, I recorded. While working at the scientific-methodical center of the House of People’s Creativity, I had contact with archival materials, and I organized the entire archive.

The folklore archive was going back and forth, I organized it. They were the manuscripts of our gusans, hermits, Sheram, Havasu, and others. In the end, I felt that these materials would be lost, stolen, trampled, I moved everything to the National Archives, it was saved.

– You have recently published a book in which you refer to your birthplace, Shamut.

– After my heart surgery, I decided to fulfill my soul’s duty. I had lived in my birthplace for 9 months, and I decided to return my debt of 9 months. 18 clans with family trees, ethnography, folklore are presented. I recorded such ethnographic materials that were not known to ethnographers before. There are words that are not in the dictionaries of Ararat dialect, Lori dialect, but they are in the Artsakh dialect. The reason was that 10-11 families from Shamut came after 1795 and settled in settlements where there were mills and khachkars. There is a khachkar from 1315. In the 60s of the 19th century, people from different places came to this settlement and settled, and I attributed the influence of the Artsakh dialect to this.

In the last 15-20 years, the people of Lorraine have started using the words “malina” and “malinkut”. Malina is called “morut” by the people of Lorraine, malinkut is “morut”. Sometimes the Language Committee does not do what is necessary.

Let’s say, why don’t they use “forget”? They call it raspberry. The words that are radical come from ancient times. And literary Armenian is enriched at the expense of dialects. For example, we use the word “pregnant” even though the dialects have the word “tsotkovor”. That word is used by Hovhannes Shiraz, Hrant Matevosyan… Shiraz says: let the Armenian fields and fields be plowed. And pregnant is the right word. This is what the people of Artsakh say: “I’ll go and get my aunt’s daughter pregnant, I’ll come.” It is the word to accompany.

I get nervous at every step.

– What makes you nervous?

– It is annoying that starting with the Government and the National Assembly, they speak with “A”. Where did the “e” of our literary Armenian go? It’s a shame.

– Which folklore species are endangered?

– There are genres and types of folklore that have already left the scene. Today, fairy tales, myths, legends, epics are hardly created. I have also been involved in children’s folklore, published “Children’s Fun Talks” and “Children’s Laughter”. Every child presents his worldview in an original way. Let me tell you a few episodes. We celebrated my 70th birthday, my grandson went home saying that his grandfather’s birthday was very sad. When asked what was sad, he answered that there was no candle to blow out. Actually, it was a personal incident, there was no heart and passion, but I felt so bad! I tell all parents, no matter whose birthday it is, put one candle for the children to blow out, just so they don’t get sad.

Let me tell you one more thing. the other grandfather took my grandson to kindergarten, on the way home he said: let’s go in and buy a bun, the grandfather said: I’m in sports clothes, I don’t have money with me. On the next day, the grandson warns him not to forget and bring him with those clothes. He is only 5 years old.

– In the Shamut book, you included Hrant Matevosyan’s story “We Are Our Mountains”.․ what is the reality like?

– Let me tell you the background. After returning from the army, my uncle (by the way, he is the only hero whose name has been changed from Seryozha to Revaz) mother, aunt, says in the evening that the sheep are not there, look, where are they? Man goes as he comes, reaches Ahnidzor, uncle’s daughter hugs him and asks when did you come, she says in the morning, and adds that the sheep are not there. The girl says that Pavel and Ishkhan ate. He goes to them, they say that they have eaten, and now they will give him the money. They bring the saddle, load it with wheat, give something more than its value and leave. My uncle happily returns home, after 15-20 days they call the police and say, “You son of a counter-revolutionary, we took your father and shot him, do you want us to take you too?”

He says, “But what have I done?” They say, “Why did you hide the enemies of the state, why didn’t you come and tell us that your sheep were stolen?” He answers that they are neighbors, they know everyone, they even gave him double wheat. They say, well, we will judge you with them, you will know what it means to hide the enemies of the state. The trial took place in the fall of 1952, in the village of Dsegh. Each was sentenced to 4 years in prison.

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