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.
About the Author: Vahe H. Apelian is born in Beirut. He received his primary and middle school level education at the Sourp (Saint) Nshan, presently Souren Khanamirian Armenian National School and his high school education at the Armenian Evangelical College presently the Yeprem and Martha Philibosian Armenian Evangelical College. He continued his education at the American University of Beirut where he received Sophomore Diploma in Arts and Sciences, B.S. in Pharmacy and M.S. in microbiology. Subsequently he was accepted as a fellow to be trained as a clinical pathologist at the American University Hospital. After immigrating to The United States in 1976, Vahe's career of over three decades spanned in the development of drug delivery systems with multinational pharmaceutical companies where he held scientific and managerial positions. He furthered his education while employed and received his second M.S. degree in Industrial Pharmaceutical Sciences and PhD in Pharmaceutics from St. John's University in New York. In recognition of his academic excellence, he is elected to Rho Chi, the only national Pharmaceutical Honors Society. Vahe has published, presented and co-authored in his line of specialty. He is the primary author of a U.S. Pharmaceutical Patent.

Vahe is married to Marie (Hosepian) who holds Doctor in Nursing Practitioner degree and is a former Lieutenant Colonel with the U.S. Army Reserves. They are blessed with two grown up sons.