Armin T. Wegner meets Avedik Isahakian

Armin T. Wegner was the editor of Der Neue Orient in Berlin, when he met the famous Armenian poet Avedik Issahakian (also Avedis Issahakian) in 1919. The German educated poet, inspired by Heinrich Heine, introduced his poem Abul Ala Mahari to Wegner, who immediately liked it and published the poem in Der Neue Orient after he had it translated into German by Heinrich Noeren. The poem is considered as Issahakian’s masterpiece. Actually, Abul Ala Mahari is the name of the 10th Century anti-establishment Arabic poet (Abul ‘Ala AlMa’arri 973 – 1058 A.D.). Issahakian created an imaginary scenario, in which Abul Ala Mahari, fed up

with the corruption, injustice and political charlatanry in his city, decided to get out of Baghdad never to return. Wegner most probably identified himself with the poem’s hero, since he himself too had to leave Baghdad in disgust, just a few years ago after surviving war, deadly diseases and witnessing tyranny. A passage from the poem:

I hate and despise what I loved before- in the soul of man such things I have seen; The spirit of man, so lofty and grand, is filled with evil, and passions obscene.

Was früher ich liebte, das hasse ich jetzt: was ich in der Seele des Menschen sah. In menschlichen Seelen zählte ich tausend ekle und eitle Laster ja.

For Avedis Issahakian as a token of my friendship for Armenia and in heartfelt admiration of his poetic power and beauty.