THE GENRE OF COLOPHON IN THE POETICS OF VAHAGN DAVTYAN’S POEMS

Abstract

The famous Armenian poet of the second half of the XX century Vahagn Davtyan often
used the genres of medieval Armenian literature in his poems. In the 1980s he wrote two
poems in which he adopted the structure of colophons of Armenian ancient manuscripts. The
poem “Colophon of the Nameless Scribe” is written entirely in the stylistic genre of colophon.
The medieval Armenian scribe wrote the colophon of the “History of Armenia” by Movses
Khorenatsi at the end of his reproduction of the manuscript. The poem depicts the events of the
XIII-XIV centuries, especially the Mongol invasions, which are often found in medieval
colophons. V. Davtyan wrote the colophon in verse, but he used prosaic colophons as sources
as well. In the next poem – “Momik”, telling the story of Momik’s sudden blindness, the
colophon written by the famous medieval scribe, artist, and architect Momik himself is used as
a source.