იოსებ გრიშაშვილის ურითმო (თეთრი) ლექსები

აბსტრაქტი

სტატიიდან აღებული ავტორის ინგლისურენოვანი რეზიუმე:

Key words: blank verse, Petrarchan, alliteration, anaphora, repetition.

The paper presents a general survey of the history of a blank (unrhymed) verse in Georgian poetry and Ioseb Grishashvili’s relation to it. The unrhymed blank verse (a literal translation of the French term vers blanc ‘blank verse’ in English) is a rarity in Georgian poetry and its history is associated with A.Chavchavadze’s translations of A.Pushkin’s and N.Akhverdov’s blank verses. A.Chavchavadze himself did not write in blank verse. In Georgia the history of the blank verse starts with Grigol Orbeliani’s unrhymed verses (“The Worker Bokuladze”, “The Psalm”, Onikov’s Concerns”). In Ioseb Grishashvili’s view the choice of 14 syllable (5/4/5) metre for the unrhymed verse was Ilia Chavchavadze’s merit.

Ilia made use of this metre for translation of Bayron’s poems: Caen, Manfred (the passages), and with Shakespeare’s King Lire he paved the way to this metre for translation of Shakespeare’s works. Tamar barbaqaEZe Ioseb Grishashvili’s first blank verse My Evening dating from 1915 has a remark “A novel in blank verse”: It is really an attempt on the path to approximate the verse and prose which is evidenced by the negation of a strophe and vividness of the plot. In my view Ioseb Grishashvili’s verse My Evening must be inspired by Ilia Chavchavadze’s reciting and G. Orbeliani’s unrhymed verse Onikov’s Concerns read by Ilia. In Georgian literary criticism of the tenth of the 20th century I.Grishashvili was already given the names: “Georgian Petrarch”, “Georgian Heine”.

In the analyzed blank verse I.Grishashvili really writes “...What’s up?Would love you as much as Petrarch was in love with Laura” Of five models of love concepts some scholars consider that it was petrarchaism that gave rise to European erotic poetry. In Georgian poetry Petrarch’s reception is sought in Galaktion’s poetry (A.Bakradze, I.Shurghulaia). In Petrarch’s Canzonieres Laura (Daphne) is perceived as a symbol of greatness, immortality, sharing. To our mind, the influence of Petrarchaism is also traced in I.Grishashvili’s verses (To My Sweetheart, Wet Evening, On the Concert of Waves, The Wordless Verse, etc.). The Petrarchan model of love in I.Grishashvili’s love poetry is mainly found in 1913-1928.

The last verse of this model seems to be the verse “You will be spoiled”. Instead of Petrarch’s Laura and Heine’s To Louise I.Grishashvili devoted his verse to Lia. It is indicated that Petrarch’s influence is especially reflected in Heine’s lyrics. Like Petrarch, Heinrich Heine describes woman’s beauty using specific epithets (swan’s neck, sapphire eyes, ruby lips, etc.). In Heine’s works instead of Laura the names of his contemporary beloved women are found: Ilse, Auta, Louise, Katherine… The likeness of Ioseb Grishashvili’s love lyrics with the above-mentioned peculiarities is so evident that it is not surprising at all why literary critics gave I.Grishashvili the name “Georgian Heine.

I.Grishashvili’s verse Heine’s Legend mirrors the poet’s attitude to Heine’s lyrics. Similar to Heine’s “swan’s neck”, the neck of Ioseb Grishashvili’s lady-love reminds him the “swan’s profile”. On 14 August, 1931 the poet wrote a blank verse sonnet “She was sitting with me in a dark slums”. Unfortunately this sonnet was published just in 1992 by publishing-house “Nobati” in I.Grishashvili’s “unpublished verses” which compiler and the author of the preface is Nodar Grigorashvili. It is a great pity that the only blank verse sonnet was not included into a new four-volume edition (2012) of I.Grishashvili’s works by the editorial group. Both of the above-mentioned blank verses are devoted to the concretization of one and the same acute and cold feeling of death.

In Georgian poetry the unrhymed sonnets are not so frequently found. As is known, its classical example was created by Valerian Gaprindashvili (1916). It is noteworthy that both the unrhymed sonnet and blank verse sonnet are targeted for conversation with the soul distant from the poet because of the death. The blank verse “A Letter to My Brother” written in the same 1931 is also devoted to sorrowful recollections of the deceased friends. The poet is sharing his sorrow concerning the death of their common friends with the addressee of the verse, Siko Pashalishvili. This blank verse is really written in the form of a letter. This verse letter of around 70 lines is not divided into passages at all.

As is well known in the theory of verse in the blank verse the phonics can serve as a rhyme. K.Chichinadze wrote to A.Rembo about P.Iashvili’s translation of a “Drunken Ship”: Translation is unrhymed but alliteration plays perfectly the role of a rhyme”. Among I.Grishashvili’s unrhymed verses written in 1931 there can be stand out: “The Letter”, blank verse “She was sitting with me in a dark “slum”, “A Letter to My Brother”. These verses represent a kind of intellectual confession of a poet researcher who considers that his activity as a poet has been finished together with his youth and after this (after the thirtieth) hard work is waiting for him as a researcher of the old manuscripts.

I.Grishashvili’s unrhymed verses are written in 14 lines (5/4/5) and rhythmic sound is preserved by alliteration. “A Letter to My Brother” with the help of anaphora binds the verse lines into rhythmic passages without rhyme. In T.Doiashvili’s view the euphony is not passive in relation to compositional organization of the verse. It helps to separate rhythmic units – the lines, helps to in link them. It should be mentioned that in one of the pages of M.Baratashvili’s “Chashniki”, the edition of 1920 there is a remark written by I.Grishashvili: “The day will come when do not write the verse in rhythms but recollect old fashion and in a new manner the unrhymed verses will be spread as in old times the iambikos”.

L.Bregadze in his letter “Rhythm and Mind” specially dwells on the choice of rhymed or unrhymed verse forms by a poet and indicates that poet’s attitude in relation to this question is determined by the plot, theme of a verse. Repetition as a stylistic device and a support of phonics, acquires an original function in I.Grishashvili’s blank verse: “Today I have turned 40 years old” written in 1928”. For Ioseb Grishashvili “blank verse and “working word” are synonyms: in poet’s view an unrhymed verse is an ordinary everyday colloquial speech; it is not grown by acute emotion or feeling. Ioseb Grishashvili’s blank verses are mostly inspired by the knowledge of the history of Georgian verse and theory: the poet-researcher with competitive desire chooses the blank verse to adjust Petrarch’s and Heine’s love concept with Georgian reality.

The study of Ioseb Grishashvili’s blank (unrhymed) verses is necessary for objective understanding of the poet’s creativity.

გამოქვეყნებულია ჟურნალში „სჯანი“, ტ. 15 (2014), გვ. 104–114. ნაშრომის გახსნა