Vahan Tekeyan
(1878 - 1948)

Vahan Tekeyan was known as a perfectionist, because lit always looked for the precise word. He was born in Istanbul in 1978 and educated in the Armenian schools there. His first poems were collected and published in 1901. Besides his own books, he published translations of French symbolist poetry and the sonnets of Shakespeare. The sonnet remained his favorite form.

During the 1896 persecutions, Tekeyan left Istanbul for Europe. He returned, but subsequently settled in Egypt, where he was active in Armenian political life and edited the Armenian newspaper, Arev.

His books are "Burdens" (1901), "The Wonderful Rebirth" (1914), "From Midnight Until Dawn" (1918), "Love" (1933), "Armenian Songs" (1943), and "Book of Odes" (1944).