Amongst the angels—none may mark them out.”
In the sixteenth century, Turkish and Persian wars became fiercer and the Armenian history of this century becomes the record of the sufferings of the country during these wars. Poets of this period were Nerses Mokatzi, Minas Tokhatzi, Ghazar of Sebastia, Sarkavak Bertaktzi.
Nerses Mokatzi was an ecclesiastic and poet. Very few of his works have come down to us. One of the poems we have—entitled The Dispute between Heaven and Earth—is interesting. The poet begins by saying that Heaven and Earth are brothers. One day these brothers disputed as to which of them was the greater. “Of course,” says the poet, “the Heaven is high, but the Earth is more fruitful.”
He then goes on to report a dialogue between the brothers in which each enumerates his own possessions, declaring them superior to those of the other. The following is a short prose summary of this dialogue:—
Heaven.
Surely I possess more than you. The stars, with their radiance, are all in my domain.
Earth.
The flowers, with their six thousand colours, are in mine.
Heaven.
If I withhold my dew, how will your flowers array themselves?