Mirza Gelovani’s “Returned” Sonnets and Other Verses

Abstract

The author's English summary from the article:

Key words: “Return”, sonnets, young man from Iori, Titsian In the epoch of Soviet totalitarianism the works of many poets had been lost to Georgian writing for a long time and the poems depicting an objective picture of social life were under lock in archives.

Censorship was harsh - not a single poetic line reflecting the anti-Soviet sentiment must have reached the reader. The works of the great Georgian poet Mirza Gelovani, who was perished in the World War II, have been unfairly hidden from Georgian literary criticism and versification. Only in the early 2000s it became possible to get acquainted with Mirza Gelovani’s creativity in full: first in 2008 and then in 2009 by Archive edition. By these publications the creativity of the “returned” poet is to be assessed and it should occupy an appropriate place in the history of Georgian literature. The unique character of Mirza Gelovani’s poetry was influenced by Galaktion Tabidze’s creativity, on the one hand, and on the other - Titsian Tabidze’s tragic fate and original way of reception of the verse.

The observation the euphony of Mirza Gelovani’s verse proves that “intimate relation between word and notion”; “hesitation between sound and sense” (Paul Valeri) was realized in the verses dedicated to Galaktion Tabidze. Young Mirza presents Galaktion Tabidze’s verses on the Georgian Parnas: in a verse dedicated to Galaktion and written in 1943: “I remember you” the key words [SegvRaRadeben~, `maRlobs~, `maRals~, `maRalo~] show the poetic ideal recognized by Mirza Gelovani. In the verse dedicated to Galaktion the poet makes use of a graphical metaphor (“arms of a verse”) asking for protection, entreating poets-patrons not to keep their works under lock.

In Mirza Gelovani’s “returned” poetry of particular importance are the verses dedicated to Titsian Tabidze and Terenti Graneli – the victims of the Soviet regime. M. Gelovani wrote the sonnet “To Titsian” in 1938. It is this stable verse form by which the young poet expressed his inner protest and love to elder spiritual brothers, the victims of tragic epoch. Mirza Gelovani greatly appreciated the role of the symbolist movement Tsisperkantselebi (“Blue Horns”) in the establishment of European verse technique. New details of Mirza Gelovani’s biography which we learn from the book “The Young Man from Iori” issued in 2008, testify to the fact that the poet “remained young” identified himself as a member of Titsian Tabidze’s order: in a picture shot in 1936 Mirza Gelovani has a white carnation on the chest.

Mirza’s friend, Natela Berdzenishvili recalls that Mirza Gelovani frequently wore a white carnation on his chest. The paper explains the reason of a young poet, 19-year-old Mirza Gelovani’s particular attention to the white carnation, white color: white carnation is a response to Titsian Tabidze’s red carnation and white is appreciation of purity, honesty so much admired by Mirza Gelovani which he expressed in his verses written in the years of 1935-1936: “White Land” and “Marble”. Generally, dominant color in Mirza Gelovani’s poetry is white, snow. After Galaktion’s “snow” it was very brave of him to use the metaphors of snow – “the white garment of the land” and of beloved – “marble”.

However, Mirza Gelovani did not lack self-assurance and faith. Mirza Gelovani felt deep spiritual connectedness with Titsian Tabidze’s personality and poetry and, at the same time, he created his own, original, distinguished poetic images. To explain this fact we make use of a well-known linguist and founder of the structural linguistics Ferdinand de Saussure’s idea concerning “the power of communication” and the soul of one’s own bell tower”: the distribution of linguistic subordinate the same law as any habit, even fashion. In any group of people constantly act two simultaneous and opposite direction forces. On the one hand, particularistic, the soul of one’s own bell tower” and, on the other hand, “the power of communication” which creates the basis for relationship between people.

… If “the soul of one’s own bell tower” makes people the inhabitants of one place, “the power of communication” forces them to communicate. In a word, it is a united principle and opposes to the disconnected act of one’s own soul. Georgian poets repressed by the soviet regime were united by tragedy of situation and the sentiment of being the sons of the subjugated country that became “the power of communication” and despite the fear, forced to communicate, and, on the other hand, original vision of concrete metaphors and peculiarity of verse parameters sounded with poet’s own voice. Mirza Gelovani’s interest in “Blue Horns” movement and, especially Titsian Tabidze’s fate and poetic images did not go unnoticed among his friends.

This is evidences from the recollection of a well-known Georgian poet Gabriel Jabushanuri as he once was going to commit suicide in the city of Orjonikidze. In Mirza Gelovani’s poem unpublished before 2009, “The Toast” which presumably was written after tragic death of Titsian Tabidze, when Mirza Gelovani’s sonnet “To Titsian” was composed reminds several verses of Titsian: “Let it be their Toast”, “Ria-Ria”. Mirza Gelovani’s “Toast” is printed in several versions in the “Return” (M.Gelovani’s archival edition) and it seems the poet did not finish working at it. “The soul of one’s own bell tower” and “the power of communication” as a whole represent a source of Titsian Tabidze’s and Mirza Gelovani’s common pain in the poems: on the one hand, T.

Tabidze’s “If the Tergi be double” and, on the other hand, cited by Mirza, inspired by the title and content of T. Tabidze ‘s poem, the composition with the same title. Mirza Gelovani together with T.Tabidze follows the way of I.Chavchavadze’s patriotism and voices his protest against Georgia’s enemies. Titsian Tabidze’s urban, festive poetry of ashugs also appears in Mirza Gelovani’s works. He wrote his verse “Ashuruli” in honor to T.Tabidze and, on the other hand it is an attempt to master the technique of oriental verse in the form of the mukhambazi. The verse form of sonnet so much favored by T.Tabidze and members of the Blue Horns in Mirza Gelovani’s poetry was unknown until 2008-2009 because the poet’s pocket books were under lock in the archive and hence, neither I, nor other scholars have ever mentioned Mirza Gelovani’s sonnets.

The “returned” sonnets evidence that Mirza Gelovani wrote 7 sonnets between the years 1935-1943. He wrote his last sonnet at the front in 1943 and sent it to his friend, Nikoloz Mikava with a remark that this sonnet was about love and he himself was thinking about love. This sonnet inspired by Othello and Desdemona is canonical: with the rhyme schemes (abba abba ccd eed), strophe – 2 quatrains and 2 tertsets with metric (5/4/5). Mirza Gelovani’s sonnets “I’ve gone to the Dreamery” (1935), “Shadow-Conductor” (1943), the undated sonnets: “I am in a coat of a ghost”, “Vazha’s beads” show Mirza Gelovani’s interest in European stable verse forms. The poet wrote both by compositional scheme arranged in French sonnet (4+4+3+3) and English (12+12), and sonnets arranged by different systems of rhyming (French, Italian).

One sonnet “The Picture” written at the front is created using free verse and poetic device of repetition.

Published in the journal Sjani, vol. 16 (2015), pp. 130–146. Open the paper