Nikolos Baratashvili

Nikolos Baratashvili

Nikolos Baratashvili ( Georgian ნიკოლოზ ბარათაშვილი ; * December 4, 1817 in Tbilisi , † October 21, 1844 in Gjandscha , today Gəncə, Azerbaijan ) was a Georgian poet . His work was the culmination of Georgian Romanticism . According to Ilia Chavchavadze , his works mark the introduction of Europeanism into Georgian literature .

Life

Baratashvili was born into an impoverished aristocratic family. His mother Efemia was a sister of Grigol Orbeliani and granddaughter of the Georgian king Irakli II.

At the grammar school in Tbilisi he learned from Solomon Dodashvili , who strongly influenced him. Because his family had little money, he could not fulfill his wish to study in Russia . His career aspiration as an officer could not be realized due to physical inadequacies. To help his family, he got a simple job.

Baratashvili's personal life was dramatic. He had an intense relationship with Ekaterina Chavchavadze . Strong emotional conflicts are reflected in his personal letters.

He died of malaria in 1844 at the age of 27 . He was initially buried at the place where he died in eastern Azerbaijan. In 1893 his ashes were transferred to Tbilisi and buried with great public sympathy on the Pantheon on Mtatsminda .

Services

Baratashvili Monument in Tbilisi .

One of the keys to Baratashvili's thinking is his poem The Fate of Georgia (1839). It is based on the historical event of the destruction of Tbilisi by the armies of the Persian Shah Aga Mohammed Khan in 1795 and the question of how Georgia can survive politically. Kartlien-Kakhetien's last king, Irakli II, represents political realism, who knows that his country can only survive following Russia. On the other hand, there is Salomon Leonidze, who believes that this will lead to the loss of Georgia's national identity. Although the poet's sympathies are with Leonidze, the rational concept of the king wins the upper hand in the poem as in the story.

Baratashvili developed various complex artistic and intellectual ideas. In the earlier poem Twilight over Mtatsminda (1833–36) a romantic longing for liberation from earthly burdens can be felt, which is combined with secret natural forces. His most important works were The Evil Spirit (1843), Thoughts on the Banks of the Kura (1837) and Merani (1842), in which a faith-inspired, almighty mind calls for conscious sacrifice for its brothers. The tragic optimism in Merani is like a manifesto of the romantic spirit: active, life-affirming and full of revolutionary longings.

Boris Pasternak translated his poems into the Russian language . The composer Otar Taktakishvili created an oratorio in 1972 that bears the name of the poet.

Awards

Georgia's capital Tbilisi has Baratashvili set up a memorial museum with a literary salon and library at his last place of residence at 17 Tschachrukhadze Street and named a central Kura bridge after him. In 1975 a bronze monument by the sculptor Boris Zibadze was erected on the left bank of the Kura.

Works

• The poetic work . Translated by Hans-Christian Günther, Königshausen and Neumann, Würzburg 2005, ISBN 3-8260-2856-2
• Poems . Edited by Nodar Kakabadse, Ganatleba, Tbilisi 1968
• Lirika . Khudozh. lit-ra, Moskva 1967
• Stikhotvoreniia, poema, pis'ma . Merani, Tbilisi 1968

literature

• Gaga Shurgaia (ed.): Nikoloz Baratasvili: A Georgian Romantic Poet . Königshausen and Neumann, Würzburg 2006, ISBN 3-8260-2857-0
• Arthur Leist: Georgian poet . Dresden, Leipzig 1900
• Akakiæi Konstantinovich Gaëtìserelia: Nikoloz Baratashvili: Kratkiĭ ocherk zhizni i tvorchestva . Merani, Tbilisi 1968

Web links

Commons : Nikoloz Baratashvili  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Poems by Nikolos Barataschwilis (Engl.)
• Nikolos Bratashvili's grave on the Tbilisi Pantheon ( Memento from July 21, 2011 in the Internet Archive )