Karabala

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Karabala (nickname - from Turkish "black boy"; true forename Karapet, surname unknown, dates of birth and death unknown) - was a well-known Yerevan eccentric in the 1930s.

Karabala grew roses. He would take his roses to Astafian Street (now Abovian Street) 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.

A jealous Turk attempted to kill him with a knife. Karabala ejected the knife from his body and killed the assassin with his own knife.

He found himself in a jail, a prison-mate of the Armenian poet Egishe Charents, who was imprisoned by the State for writing anti-Communist poems. 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.

After 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 or 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 repeating, eventually becoming an alcoholic.

Whenever he came across flowers he gave them to girls, but Arus Voskanian, his beloved actress, had died by that time. Part of the Karabala legend is that he used to place one red rose on her grave.

He was found frozen to death.

[edit] Posthumous Honour

In 1991 a statue of Karabala was erected in Yerevan, on Abovian Street.