Join us for a special poetry reading to celebrate the literary jewel of the Armenian Middle Ages, Grigor Narekatsi’s Book of Lamentations. Marking the 27th of February, the date Pope Francis I chose to mark Grigor’s canonisation in the Roman Catholic Church, we’ll hear the Narek in seven languages, including the original Classical Armenian (Grabar), Eastern and Western Armenian, English, Dutch, French and Russian.

The evening will be introduced by Theo Van Lint, Calouste Gulbenkian Professor of Armenian Studies at the University of Oxford, a specialist on Grigor Narekatsi and translator into Dutch. We’ll then hear the Narek in all its beautiful, polyglot glory, before ending with some exciting new discoveries in the AI archives from Mischa Kudian, one of Narekatsi’s English translators…