The Image of Shota Rustaveli in the Poetry of Galaktion Tabidze

Abstract

This paper identifies and examines, with relative completeness, the poetic works of Galaktion Tabidze in which the figure of Shota Rustaveli is represented. As it turns out, Galaktion refers to the great Georgian poet with considerable frequency. For Galaktion, Rustaveli is the highest, most mag­nificent, and unparalleled creator in poetry – “the glory of Georgia,” “the pri­de of the nation,” “sublime,” “the genius of a solar people,” “a titan,” “lau­re­ate with a wreath of laurels,” “immortal,” “the sun among suns,” “divine.” Galaktion consistently elevates Rustaveli and presents his greatness alon­gsi­de that of the world's most distinguished poets – Virgil, Eschenbach, Pet­rarch, Dante, Shakespeare, Shelley, and Byron. For Galaktion, Rustaveli is the point of origin and the foundational figure of Georgian poetry. In por­traying the glory of Georgia, he almost exclusively invokes Rustaveli.

The poet describes Rustaveli as the "light of the eye" of the ancient Georgian people, a spiritual beacon, and the creator of "mighty, heroic" poet­ry. For Galaktion, Rustaveli’s poetry embodies the “great celebration of cre­ation,” a joy akin to communion with the divine. The “rhythm of words,” “the inner movement of thought,” “the diversity of sounds,” and harmony –all of these are defining features of Rustaveli’s verse. Galaktion regards Rustaveli as a creator of “pure conscience,” and The Knight in the Panther’s Skin, a guide and a mirror for life’s path, as a “book that triumphs with ho­nest conscience.” In Galaktion’s view, among all creators of the world, only Rustaveli possesses the power to save. Rustaveli is a medium – firmly grounded on earth yet reaching into the heavens, heir to the old and father of the new, standing at the intersection of horizontal and vertical dimen­sions of time and space. Hence, he is both redeemer and savior. Galaktion bows before and gives thanks to the “genius” of the past.

In Galaktion’s poetry, Rustaveli is frequently associated with Meskheti and referred to as a “Meskhetian poet.” This view derives from the first stan­za of the epilogue of The Knight in the Panther’s Skin, where a “certain Mes­khetian poet” claims to be writing in Rustaveli’s style. Galaktion appears to accept Rustaveli’s origin in Meskheti. In this understanding, Galaktion, like the Meskhetian poet of the epilogue, strives to follow in Rustaveli’s foot­steps and offer a new word to Georgian poetry. Several of Galaktion’s poems reveal parallels between himself and Rustaveli, and between their respective eras. In some verses, Rustaveli emerges as Galaktion’s second lyr­ical “I,” through whose voice Galaktion conveys his own message. He con­ceives both Rustaveli’s and his own work as texts of the universe.

In a broader sense, Rustaveli in Galaktion’s poetry is represented as the embodiment of the Georgian people. Galaktion sees in him the “titanic” po­wer, wisdom, love, indomitable warrior spirit, and self-sacrifice of the Geor­gian nation.

Rustaveli in Galaktion’s work bridges the old and new epochs – their thoughts and messages. Some poems are devoted to glorifying his grandeur, sublimity, and uniqueness, linking him to eternity. In other cases, the figure of the ancient Rustaveli is replaced by the desire for a new Rustaveli – a po­etic idea born of Galaktion’s age, meant to praise an unprecedented reality, to sing of “revolutionary Georgia,” and to glorify a new era.