Perhaps no other nation has formally acknowledged the importance of translating literary works and revered translators more than the Armenians. In fact the Armenian Apostolic Church has canonized the fifth century Armenian translators who translated the Bible and other relevant theological books right after St. Mesrob Mashtots invented the Armenian alphabet. To this day the Armenian nation and the church celebrate "Tarkmanchatz Don"--Translators Day-- in the month of October, which has been designated as Armenian Culture Month. In spite of the fact that translation by its very nature is an imperfect art; and yet without translations greater societies will remain confined if not trapped in the literary or cultural cocoon of its own making.
Fifteen centuries later there is growing need for translations, but this time around by translating Armenian literary works to other languages such as Arabic, English, French, German or Russian for the growing number of Armenians who cannot read Armenian but remain interested to keep abreast with the Armenian mainstream culture.
This third volume of the sequel, The Way We Were-The Way We Are, is a collection of book reviews and translations as noted on the front cover page. The first five chapters are reviews of books. The following twenty chapters are translations of segments, stories from books and articles from journals. The translated pieces pertain to memorable happenings in the Armenian Diaspora communal life over the past century. The authors, some of whom are prominent Armenian writers, of the pieces are listed on the Index Page.