Georgian poet
Prince
Nikoloz "Tato" Baratashvili
(
Georgian
:
??????? "????" ???????????
; 4 December 1817 ? 21 October 1845) was a
Georgian
poet. He was one of the first Georgians to marry modern nationalism with
European
Romanticism
and to introduce "Europeanism" into
Georgian literature
. Due to his early death, Baratashvili left a relatively small literary heritage of fewer than forty short lyrics, one extended poem, and a few private letters, but he is nevertheless considered to be the high point of Georgian Romanticism.
[1]
He was referred to as the "Georgian
Byron
".
[2]
[3]
Biography
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]
Nikoloz Baratashvili, affectionately known as Tato (????), was born in
Tiflis
(Tbilisi), Georgia's capital, which was then a principal city of
Russian
Transcaucasia
. His father, Prince Meliton
Baratashvili
(1795?1860), was an impoverished nobleman working for the Russian administration. His mother, Ephemia
Orbeliani
(1801?1849), was a sister of the Georgian poet and general Prince
Grigol Orbeliani
and a scion of the penultimate Georgian king
Erekle II
.
Baratashvili graduated, in 1835, from a Tiflis gymnasium for nobility, where he was tutored by
Solomon Dodashvili
, a Georgian patriot and liberal philosopher.
[4]
The tragic quality of Baratashvili's poetry was determined by his traumatic personal life as well as the contemporary political situation in his homeland. The failure of the 1832 anti-Russian conspiracy of Georgian nobles, with which Baratashvili was a schoolboy sympathizer, forced many conspirators to see the independent past as irremediably lost and to reconcile themselves with the Russian autocracy, transforming their laments for the lost past and the fall of the native dynasty into Romanticist poetry. Shortage of money prevented Baratashvili from continuing his studies in Russian universities, while an early physical injury ? his lameness ? did not allow him to enter military service as he wished. Eventually, Baratashvili had to enter the Russian bureaucratic service and serve as an ordinary clerk in the Azerbaijani town of
Ganja
. The love of his life, Princess
Ekaterine Chavchavadze
, rejected him and married David
Dadiani
,
Prince of Mingrelia
.
Baratashvili died of
malaria
in Ganja, unmourned and unpublished, at the age of 27. Baratashvili's influence was long delayed, but as the next generation of Georgian literati rediscovered his lyrics, he was posthumously published, between 1861 and 1876, and idolized.
[1]
Baratashvili's reinterment from Ganja to Tbilisi in 1893 turned into a national celebration. Since 1938, his remains have lain in the
Mtatsminda Pantheon
in Tbilisi.
Works
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A key insight into the
worldview
of Baratashvili can be found in his historical poem
Fate of Georgia
(???? ????????,
bedi k'art'lisa
; 1839), an inspiring and articulate lament for Georgia's latest misfortunates. This poem, written by Baratashvili at the age of 22, is based on a real historical event: the 1795
ruining
of Tbilisi by the Persian ruler
Mohammad Khan Qajar
, which forced the disappointed
Georgian king Erekle II
to relegate his country's security onto the Russian Empire. However, national problems considered in this work are viewed with a modern approach; the poem considers not only Georgia's past, but also its future in the aftermath of the failed revolt of 1832. In this poem, Baratashvili reproduces the debate of Erekle II with his chancellor,
Solomon Lionidze
who opposes the union with Russia and thinks that this will result in the loss of Georgia's national identity. Lionidze's wife asks her husband, in a lament that became familiar to all literate Georgians: "What pleasure does the tender nightingale receive from honor if it is in a cage?"
[4]
The sympathies of the poet and reader both fall on Solomon's side, but the objectively rational decision of the king prevails.
During his short creative life (1833?45) Baratashvili developed difficult concepts of art and ideas. In the words of the British scholar
Donald Rayfield
, Baratashvili "evolved a language all his own, obscure but sonorous, laconically modern, sometimes splendidly medieval, with pseudo-archaisms."
[1]
In his earlier poem
Dusk on Mtatsminda
(?????????? ???????????,
shemoghameba mt'ats'mindaze
; 1833?36) the reader can feel a romantic aspiration to be freed of earthly burdens and joined with secret natural forces. Baratashvili's love-poetry reached its acme with his unhappy obsessive love for Princess Chavchavadze and is impregnated with an idea of the orphaned soul as in
The Orphaned Soul
(???? ?????,
suli oboli
; 1839).
[5]
Despaired of human happiness, Baratashvili admires the superhuman historical figures, such as Erekle II and
Napoleon
, whom he deems to be beyond joy and misery.
[6]
Among his most significant works are the poems
The Evil Spirit
(???? ??????,
suli boroti
; 1843),
Thought on the Riverside of Mtkvari
(????? ??????? ?????,
p'ik'ri mtkvris piras
; 1837), and
Pegasus
(??????,
Merani
; 1842). This latter poem fascinated later Georgian poets as a mystic, apocalyptic vision of the future. In it the omnipotent mind, inspired by faith, calls for the poem's lyrical hero to knowingly sacrifice himself in the name of his brethren. The tragic optimism of
Merani
is a striking manifestation of the romantic spirit: active, life-asserting, and full of revolutionary aspirations.
Merani
is a prominent work of Georgian Romanticism both from an ethical-philosophical view, and from an artistic-aesthetic point of view.
Poetry
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- "Do not say something, sweetheart, your lover thy heart, certainly"
- "Turned out to be illuminated in the east, like the sun alive"
- "Blew the rudy wind , led me like a Flower"
- "
Thought on the Riverside of Mtkvari
"
- "I bless the day of my birth, I am happy, cup"
- "The grace of your Creator, beautiful, woman shavtvalebiano"
- "
Merani
"
- "I am happy with you presence"
- "My lover, I remember your eyes"
- "The grace of your Creator, beautiful, blackeyed woman"
- "Will Dry My Tears"
- "Colour of the sky, blue colour"
- "I have found a real church, standing in the wilderness"
- "
The fate of Kartli
" ("Bedi kartlisa")
- "Nightingale on the rose"
- "Duke barataevis azarpeshazed”
- "Nathan, the singer on the piano”
- "To Napoleon”
- "War of the nobleman-peasant-to-face”
- "Tomb of King Irakli”
- "Earring”
- "Orphan spirit”
- "Hyacinth and a bit”
- "Thoughts on the edge”
- "Twilight mtatsmidazed”
- "To my friends”
- "My Pray”
- "To my stars”
- "Babies”
- "Chinari”
- "Chonguri”
- "Mysterious voice”
Baratashvili Bridge
, an avenue in Tbilisi are named after the poet with his monument standing in the center district of the capital of Georgia.
[7]
Ancestry
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Ancestors of Nikoloz Baratashvili
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| | | | | | | | | 16. Shermazan Baratashvili
| | | | | | | 8. Luarsab Baratashvili
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 4. Nikoloz Baratashvili
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 2. Meliton Baratashvili
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 1.
Nikoloz Baratashvili
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 6. Zurab Orbeliani
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 3. Ephemia Orbeliani
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | 28. Tamaz Andronikashvili
| | | | | | | 14. Zakaria Andronikashvili
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 7. Khoreshan Andronikashvili
| | | | | | | | | | | | 30.
Heraclius II of Georgia
| | | | | | | 15.
Princess Elene of Georgia
| | | | | | | | | | 31.
Darejan Dadiani
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
|
Notes
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]
- ^
a
b
c
Rayfield, p. 145.
- ^
Nechkina, Militsa
Russia in the Nineteenth Century: Volume II of The History of Russia, Volume 1
p.449
- ^
Степанов, Теймураз
Тбилиси, легенда и быль
1968
- ^
a
b
Suny, p. 124.
- ^
Rayfield, pp. 145?6.
- ^
Rayfield, p. 146.
- ^
"Tbilisi Travel Guide. Tourist Routes"
. Retrieved
2011-05-18
.
References
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Links
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Nikoloz Baratashvili. Six poems translated into English by Venera Urushadze (audio)
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