Karabala
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Karabala (Nickname - from Turkish "black boy", real name Karapet, real family name unknown, dates of birth and death unknown) - a well-known Yerevan eccentric in the 1930s.
Karabala grew roses. He would take his roses to Astafian Street (now Abovian) where he would stand and give them to girls.
Karabala was in love with famous actress Arus Voskanian. The actress used to walk along Abovian Street to the theater and get one beautiful red rose every morning.
Jealous Turkish guy attempted to kill him by knife. Karabala ejected the knife from his body and killed the assassin by his own knife. So he received his nickname.
As a result he found himself in a jail far from flowers and smiles. By chance, Karabala became a prison mate of famous Armenian poet Egishe Charents, who was imprisoned by the State for writing poems against the politics of Communism.
Charents liked Karabala, and among the few poems saved from Charents' prison writings is one about the Flower Man.
He puts on a mackintosh And then suddenly tatters. I didn't know if he is an Artist or Karabala, who is growing flowers.
When Karabala was released, he encountered circumstances that were even gloomier than his life in prison.
His wife and son left him; he didn't have a house and a garden any more and his roses were all uprooted.
"I am not Karabala any more, I'm Dardy Bala ('dard' means sorrow in Armenian)," he kept saying, wandering sadly in town and embracing his only reliable friend, a bottle of wine.
However he didn't stop giving flowers. When he came across flowers he gave them, which were the only delight of his life, to girls. He was waiting days long to see his beloved actress for whom he had sacrificed his whole life but he couldn't find her. She had died by that time.
Part of the Karabala legend is that he used to place one red rose on the grave of the actress.
Much else about the Flower Man is either unknown or has been forgotten.
One day "Dardy Bala" was seen sitting on a rock, hiding sadness in his eyes. The next day he was found there, frozen to death.
In 1991 the statue of Karabala was erected in Yerevan, on Abovian Street.
