A nice conversation. An uncomplicated atmosphere. Everyone at the table is dear, familiar. Well, if you don’t count me. Because I’m a stranger to them. No, I did not have that feeling. I was sitting next to a man who has been composing and singing about life for all his life. He composed and imagined stories as if he himself was present in them. And he talked, with his voice singing and expressing everything he was worrying about and immediately wanted to share. I knew it. And because of that, it seemed to me that I hear one of his songs, and we are not talking but singing, and, for some reason, we all have the same voices – and that is his voice. Probably, it was due to such a feeling that I did not feel like a stranger. After all, I was present in his song as well.
I do not know how about you, but for me, it was the first time I was sitting next to a man who is 93 years old. This is definitely a strange feeling. Try it if you have the chance. It seems wisdom is sitting next to you which brings calmness to your heart. And not only wisdom. There are also youth, childhood, mature age – there is a whole great life here! And that life has been filled with sorrow and joy and, which is more important, with happiness of creation. Happiness, granted to him by God to say, rather sing his own word.
Time was inexorably passing, and I felt more and more joy in my soul, and I felt that it was gradually transforming into real happiness. A person, talking about life. Chanson. He mentioned that he is a French chanson many times, but I felt that he surely meant he was Armenian. He understood perfectly that he could not have created without having the Armenian soul. After all, God wanted him to be born an Armenian.
And what about us? We are living. And long weekdays pass by. Acquiring life experience, we make up words and try to give an assessment of life by them. It is a waste of time. He – Charles – has lived his life with dignity. With dignity – as a person, as an Armenian, he lived so that all the nations around the world can recognize the Armenian people and Armenia by only mentioning his name. And what about us? Are we the worthy sons of our nation and Armenia?
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I’m in the room, sitting next to him at the table, with my thoughts. And suddenly, I feel very tired and unwilling to think about it anymore.
Slowly, but I came to understanding why he stopped answering political questions.
And yet, he is happy. He has the most important thing – his family. And they love him. He has his music, his songs. A huge creative potential gained. But his happiness is none of these, happiness is the part of life that is left him to live. Because he knows exactly and feels that he can and he will create since this is the essence of his life.
And I suddenly realized why he had such sad eyes. Asking me how old I am, he looked around, saying that he had lived through ages of all these people around. Sadly, he made it clear: «Oh, what a pity there is less and less time left. After all, I love to live and create so much!».
Ruben Grigoryan
