“Irmigal” – the Enigmatic Lexeme by Galaktion Tabidze

Abstract

The author's English summary from the article:

Key words: Irmigal, Galaktion Tabidze, literary discussing group.

In the poem, On The Balcony (1922) by Galaktion Tabidze is mentioned an un- known lexeme Irmigal. It significance is not defined in the academic notes of the Twelve- Volume Works by the poet. The desirable results were not obtained from the search of the various encyclopaedias, specific dictionaries or the internet. The detailed observation of the poet’s archive, poem autographs and prosaic re- cords revealed new interesting facts about Irmigal. Relying on these material and with the help of the historical-literary realis the following have been discovered: 1. In Georgia, in the beginning of XX century alongside the other literary discuss- ing groups had to be a literary group named Irmigal about which there is no information except the sole record by G.

Tabidze. According to this record, these “senseless” literary discussing groups, among them the Irmigal, were subjected to the severe critic from the Bolsheviks. This fact brings in a completely new feature in the biography of the great poet and generally in the literary life of the 20s of the previous century. 2. The studies showed that the members of the Irmigal had to be Gal- aktion Tabidze himself and his friends, literary like-minded people like a prose writer and politician, Mikheil Bochorishvili as well as an art expert, a painter and poet, Irakli Tofadze. The trio was actively involved in the work of the periodic belle-letters literature publishing, The Journal of Galaktion Tabidze founded by the poet himself.

The magazine was issued in 1922-1923. 3. According to our hypothesis, Irmigal as a lexeme represents a pattern of the subjective-individual creative work. An abbreviation was created artificially in order to give a name to the literary discussing group. It is created from the uniting of the firsts syl- lables from the names of the above-mentioned group members. IR-akli – Mi-kheil – Gal-aktion IR-MI-GAL Mikheil Bochorishvili became the victim of the political repressions because of his involvement in the rebellion in 1924. Despite this fact Galaktion Tabidze still published his poem Irmigal in Rcheuli issue 1927, wherein the poet, among his other friends, meant Mikheil Bochorishvili encoded.

For this bravery act the poet received a sincere gratitude from Irakli Tofadze “for his distinguished ability of brotherhood” and for not forgetting the friend lost in the Russian wastelands. 4. Taking into account the context usage of Galaktion’s poem autographs and re- cords the group name Irmigal, as a symbol, means a non-existed celestial planet on the astronomical maps. And, discovery of a still unknown poetic planet represented the main goal for the young novation-seeker poets. In the Galaktion’s autographs Irmigal is re- placed by Kamchatka, as a still unknown, undefined land on the map. The free interchange of the words in the manuscripts (“Let us find that Irmigal”/” Let us discover somewhere Kamchatka”) leaves no doubt that Irmigal and Kamchatka are synonyms.

5. The symbolic meaning of Irmigal in the sense of context is close to Plus ultra*, a sonnet by José-Maria de Heredia which Galaktion Tabidze translated in the early 20s of the previous century. This Sonnet represents the desire to cross the border of the al- ready discovered “Further beyond”. The lexeme Irmigal carries the same desire as the above-mentioned sonnet as it expresses a passionate aspiration to discover some novelty. However, if the direction of Heredia is Svalbard and the North Pole for the Georgian poet it represents the sun-drenched “Other Part” – an undiscovered mainland or a planet of Irmigal, the land of poetic novelties, where the poetry flag waves forever.

* In Latin means Further beyond.

Published in the journal Sjani, vol. 19 (2018), pp. 14–23. Open the paper