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The Medieval Church · c. 1002
The Book of Lamentations
Narek
Grigor Narekatsi · c. 951–1003
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What it is
Ninety-five prayers of overwhelming self-accusation and equally overwhelming hope, addressed to God from a monk who piles up images faster than any translator can follow.
Why it lasted
The supreme work of Armenian literature, kept in households as a healing object as much as a book, and its author was named a Doctor of the Church in 2015.
Where to read it
Public domain and free to read in full, though not held here. The archives below have it.
These open a search on each archive rather than a direct link, which is the honest way to point at an edition nobody here has checked line by line.
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