David Hovhannes’s “Chronicle” series of eight-syllable poems is one of the unique series in Armenian literature, where the poetic word simultaneously acquires a chronological, artistic and documentary function. In the atmosphere of the end of the Soviet system, the destruction of false freedoms and orders during the Perestroika period, these eight-syllable poems not only record the historical process, but also reveal the psychological, moral and ontological fate of the person living within that history.For the poet, the transition from the 1980s to the 1990s is not just a political turning point; it is a civilizational rupture, the result of which is that public consciousness loses its former supports, entering crisis, often nightmarish territories. The feeling of “root collapse” recorded in the eight-syllable poems refers not only to the end of an era, but also to the loss of a value system, a person’s identity. For this reason, “Chronicle” is read as a map of the parallel collapse of the inner and outer world, where poetic word becomes one of the last forms of moral resistance.The density of language in this series is noteworthy: historical events are conveyed not as a simple record, but as a fragmentary movement of consciousness, sometimes with sharp irony, sometimes with tragic silence, sometimes with sober factuality. The poet manages to combine political history, civic disappointment, and the inner anguish of the individual in the same line, forming what can be considered a unique genre of poetic chronicle.

Keywordstime documentation chronicle stream of consciousness most ruined reality Artsakh movement beginning of new order modern-day ruler without a symbol of honor.