"Ah! full of splendour were the fateful days
That saw the quenching of thy quickening light,
Thou sun of Georgia, yet thy dazzling rays
Still lighten up the darkness of our night.
"Thine all-o'erpowering sword, whose mighty blows
Scatter'd like chaff the bravest of the brave,
Shall never more affright thy country's foes--
Georgia's fame lies buried in thy grave."
Orbeliani had a warm heart for the poor and suffering, and his
"Lopiana the Fisherman" and "Bokuladze the Musha" (a musha is a
carrier of heavy burdens) are masterpieces in their way.
While Orbeliani's eyes are ever turned regretfully to the past,
Akaki Tsereteli (born 1840) looks hopefully forward to the future:--
"Ah no! our love is not yet dead,
It only sleeps awhile...."
In elegant yet forcible lyrics he invites his countrymen to manfully
follow the path of progress. Tsereteli has written a great historical
poem called "Torniki," and is, besides, an orator and publicist of
the first rank.
Of the same school is Prince Ilia Chavchavadze (born 1837), who is
in many respects the most remarkable man that Georgia possesses. All
his poems, and indeed all his work, whether as a poet, a novelist,
a journalist, an orator, or a financier, breathe a spirit of the
loftiest patriotism. The return of spring and the awakening of bird
and flower to fuller life are to him a reminder of the long-delayed
awakening of his beloved land; his elegies on the Kura, the Aragva,
the Alazana are all full of the same feeling. It is, however, in
"Lines to the Georgian mother" that he most clearly expresses his
ideas; after reminding the matrons of Georgia how they have served
their country in times past, cheerfully sending their sons forth to
the fight and sustaining their courage in the hour of misfortune,
he says:--
"... But why should we shed idle tears
For glory that will ne'er return?
The ever-flowing stream of years
Leaves us no time to idly mourn.
"'Tis ours to tread an untried path,
'Tis ours the future to prepare.
If forward thou dost urge thy sons,
Then answer'd is my earnest prayer.
"This is the task that waits for thee,
Thou virtuous mother of our land,
Strengthen thy sons, that they may be
Their country's stay with heart and hand.
"Inspire them with fraternal love,
Freedom, equality and right,
Teach them to struggle 'gainst all ill,
And give them courage for the fight."
Chavchavadze's tales and poems have done more than anything else
to awaken the Georgian people to a sense of the duties they have to
perform in the altered conditions under which they now live. His poem,
"Memoirs of a Robber," which portrayed the lazy country squires who
lived on the toil of their serfs, made a powerful impression on
the class it was meant for; and the tale, "Is that a man?" which
describes the life of a young noble who spends his whole time in
eating, drinking, sleeping and folly, brought a blush to the faces of
hundreds of his countrymen, and prompted them to seek a worthier mode
of existence. At first, the more conservative part of the nobility
were bitterly opposed to the radical ideas of Chavchavadze, but he
has now succeeded in bringing round the majority of them to his way
of thinking. He is editor of a daily paper, Iveria, which is read by
all classes of society, and most of his time is spent between his
journalistic duties and the management of the nobles' Land Bank,
an institution founded for the relief of the farmers.
Besides those I have mentioned, Chavchavadze has written many other
works; with the following extract from "The Phantom" I conclude this
brief notice of him:--
"O Georgia, thou pearl and ornament of the world. What sorrow and
misfortune hast thou not undergone for the Christian faith! Tell
me, what other land has had so thorny a path to tread? Where is the
land that has maintained such a fight twenty centuries long without
disappearing from the earth? Thou alone, Georgia, couldst do it. No
other people can compare with thee for endurance. How often have thy
sons freely shed their blood for thee! Every foot of thy soil is made
fruitful by it. And even when they bowed under oppression they always
bravely rose again. Faith and freedom were their ideals."
The novel of social life is represented by Prince Kazbek, a young and
energetic writer, many of whose productions have appeared as serials
in the newspapers. The best writer of historical novels is Rtsheuli;
his "Queen Tamara" is a great favourite with the people.
The National Theatre is kept well supplied with new and original
comedies by Tsagareli and others, and Prince Ivané Machabeli, who, as
far as I know, is the only Georgian who can read English literature
in the original, has translated some of Shakspeare's plays; these
always draw a full house, and are thoroughly appreciated. Leaving
out of the question "King Lear," which has a special interest for the
people, on account of its reminding them of Irakli II., this hearty
admiration for Shakspeare is somewhat remarkable; in my opinion it is
to be explained by the fact that the Georgian people are in almost
the same state of intellectual and social development as were our
forefathers in the days of Queen Elizabeth, and they can, therefore,
the more fully enter into our great poet's way of thinking. Besides
the essential part of his work, the effect of which on the minds of
men will always be the same, there is an accessory part, a tone,
an atmosphere, which more particularly belongs to the early part
of a period of transition from feudalism to freedom, from faith to
rationalism, from the activity of war to the activity of peace; ten
or a dozen generations have lived in England since this stage in our
history was reached; in Georgia there still live men who were born
in the age of chivalry and adventure.
Prince Machabeli, in spite of the fact that he is only about thirty
years of age, is, perhaps, after Prince Ilia Chavchavadze, the man
who enjoys the greatest influence among his fellow-countrymen. His
studies at the University of Paris, and his intimate acquaintance
with the intellectual and social life of Europe, have enabled him
to bring the younger generation at least to a fuller appreciation of
the superiority of the West over the East; everything which savours
of Asia is now rigidly proscribed or ridiculed, and Romano-Germanic
ideals prevail. As the editor of Droeba (Time), a capital daily paper,
Machabeli had an opportunity of spreading his opinions throughout
the country, but an imprudent article brought about the suppression
of the journal by the Censure.
This notice would be incomplete without a brief reference to the
venerable Bishop Gabriel of Kutais, whose homilies are at once
elegant in style and simple in doctrine; they have had a very powerful
influence on the Georgian people, and their author is sincerely loved
by all his countrymen. An English translation of his earlier sermons
has been published by the Rev. S. C. Malan.
The popular literature of Georgia is rich in folk-tales, fables,
ballads, riddles, &c., and would well repay an attentive study
(v. Bibliography).