Iavnana
Iavnana ( Georgian იავნანა ) is a genre of Georgian folk song that was traditionally intended as a lullaby / lullaby, but historically also includes healing songs for sick children. Some of the Iavnana texts also have a didactic or heroic character.
The name of the genre comes from its refrain “iavnana” (or “iavnaninao”, “nana” “naninao” etc.), which contains the word “nana” ( Georgian ნანა ), which is said to be derived from the name of a pagan mother goddess. Some of its variants, for example "iavnana vardo nana", combine the names of the flowers "violet" (ია: ia) and "rose" ( Georgian ვარდი : vardi), which appear frequently in Georgian folklore and classical literature. They then often have a male or female symbolic character.
Over sixty versions of Iavnanas have been recorded to date. Most of these lullabies are sung directly to the child and are largely preserved in today's (2016) Georgia. Many of the Iavnana variants, however, are performed as healing songs in the presence of the sick child, but addressed to the “lords” ( Georgian ბატონები : batonebi) or “angels” ( Georgian ანგელოზები : angelozebi), spirits who were believed to be they would have taken possession of the patient suffering from smallpox, measles, scarlet fever or other infectious diseases.
The Iavnana motifs were taken up in their poetry by several Georgian poets such as Ilia Chavchavadze , Akaki Tsereteli and Galaktion Tabidze .
Web links
- Folk Song Lyrics Archive. songbat.com, accessed December 24, 2016 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Kevin Tuite : The Violet and the Rose. A Georgian Lullaby as Song of Healing and Socio-Political Commentary. (PDF, pp. 2, 3 and 8) Université de Montréal , November 16, 2005.
- ↑ გ. ჩხიკვაძე (G. Chkhikvadze): იავნანა ( Iavnana ). ქართული საბჭოთა ენციკლოპედია ( Georgian Soviet Encyclopaedia ), Tbilisi 1980, p. 37.