“Armenian is a difficult language. We have Classical Armenian, Central Armenian, Western Armenian, and Eastern Armenian, a colloquial language, not the common language of the street, but colloquial, and every translator must know phraseology, understand how to translate this or that phrase and expression” - this is how Yervand Ter-Khachatryan spoke about the translation within his public lecture “Conversation on Literature in Translation” at the National Library of Armenia.

On October 17, 2023, in the large hall of the National Library of Armenia named after Tamanyan, the well-known literary critic, art critic, and publicist Ervand Ter-Khachatryan spoke about the influence of the translator on translation and the role of the translator as a mediator between two languages, and also touched upon the stylistic aspects of translation.

The lecturer emphasized that the translator must have a perfect command of the language into which he is translating; in the case of translation into Armenian, he must have an impeccable knowledge of Armenian. Citing numerous quotes and metaphors from prominent figures of world culture, Ervand Ter-Khachatryan touched upon complex translation, literary and linguistic issues. Ter-Khachatryan’s speech touched on three main topics: the preservation of the Armenian language, the translation of “secrets” of “Book of the Way” by Yeghishe Charents and the translation prose of Karpis Surenyan, especially his translation of Dostoevsky’s novel “The Brothers Karamazov”.