This breath-taking elliptical prose is at once a travel narrative, an allegorical journey, a caustic commentary on state building, a humanistic philosophy of life, a preparation for death, and a prophecy of resurrection, both for Armenia and for Mandelstam himself.
By commenting with these words on *The Journey to Armenia*, Bruce Chatwin attempts to assign a minimum of characteristics to a text that is, by nature, extremely difficult to categorize according to established literary criteria. He continues: "Most of the text is self-explanatory. The most one can do is urge the reader to pay attention to every line."
For the first time translated into Greek, *The Journey to Armenia* offers a poetic glimpse into the native land of the Russian dissident poet, which, along with his poetic work, constitutes a powerful political and anti-establishment commentary drawn with bitterness from his heart.
