“The martians speak in Georgian...” Galaktion Tabidze and Herbert Wells

Abstract

In the process of studying a literary work it is necessary to consider the archive materials of the writer. Particularly, in the case of referring to the poet possessing the miscellaneous creative inner world, such as Galaktion Tabidze. The poem “Addressing the English writer..” by Galaktion was published in 1928. It is a humorous poem, the addressee of which is a well-known British writer Herbert George Wells. The object of Galaktion’s irony is Wells’ novel “The First Men in the Moon.” The interesting point of the poem is the following: according to Galaktion’s poem, in Herbert Wells’ novel the inhabitants of the planet – Mars speak Georgian. However, this fact is not confirmed in this or any other literary writings of Herbert Wells. While studying the archive of Galaktion’s creative works the considerable attention was paid to one of the records in which the topic concerning the hegemony of a single language over the earth in the future was emerged. In the 20s of the 20th century the ideologists of communism started to consider the issue regarding the language which could have become the international language in case the world proletarian revolution had happened. Galaktion’s record clearly shows that the poet was concerned about the mentioned issue. He, as a true patriot, wanted the Georgian language to assume the status of the world language and even tried to substantiate its scientific and poetic uniqueness (e.g. the poem “Your book is…”) And this noble desire might have become the cause of the fact, that the idea, as if even aliens spoke Georgian, is attributed to Herbert Wells by Galaktion. The poet tries to present the magnitude and particularity of the Georgian language exactly in such an indirect way.