The Suthor, the Text and the Reader, According to Davit Guramishvili’s “Davitiani”: (“I am asking the wise man to baptize my orphan child“)

Abstract

 The author’s spatiotemporal vision is outlined on the background of the relation between the real and the eternal. The empirical present is opp­re­ssed and severe. It requires perfection, transformation and spiritual con­tent. According to the author, this is achieved solely by means of literary creativity.

 Like the creator of the world, Guramishvili creates and forms a new artistic reality.

 In the poem, the author communicates with the reader in a self-confident manner which resembles Rustaveli’s style: ”My name being Davit Guramishvili, I have told “Davitiani...“.

 The almighty author of “Davitiani” knows from the very start that he is writing the poem for the salvation of the reader.

 According to Davit Guramishvili, there must be mutual assistance bet­ween the author and the reader. Both should feel responsibility and ob­li­gation. The didactic character of the poem proves that the reader is inferior to the author. They occupy different positions. According to “Davitiani”, all the readers are an object of the author’s care and aid.

 It is impossible to fulfill the creative mission without the reader’s re­adiness and participation. The reader created and educated by Guramisvhili should be the basis for the author’s salvation and immortality. Guramishvili managed to use poetry for achieving the communion between his pain­ful/sinful life and God. The creator/man could not have done anything more important than sharing his experience with others. He has been saved by the book, and now he has to assist the world with the book; he feels and predicts this intuitively. According to Guramisvhili, it is the reader who “makes a book”, granting life and vitality to a literary work and turning it into the book which is read.

 “I am asking the wise man to baptize my orphan child“ (10. 11). Guramishvili introduces the concept of baptizing the text. This is a supreme expression of the perfect union between the author and the reader. The communion of readers of every epoch with the text i.e. baptizing of the text, is, according to Guramishvili, the basis for the immortality of the text. In “Davitiani”, the word “baptizing” may have a religious meaning, but it may also mean revision, editing, correction.

 In the epoch of religious crisis and depreciation of values, Guramish­vili finds himself in the situation where literature should be based on the idea of human salvation; hence, his words should express the meaning of logos.

 Guramishvili is a powerful author. He has the resilience of Biblical fathers. He is uncompromising and full of faith. This helps him influence the readers and direct their thoughts, dreams and emotions.

 Guramishvili thinks that, due to his lack of wisdom and “scarcity of knowledge”, the text needs to be baptized. He distinguishes a special cate­gory of the reader – “the wise man” i.e. the reader that will appreciate the text. Thanks to such readers, Guramishvili will fulfill the mission of revision of the text, its “baptizing”, “converting” and “turning it into a Georgian text“. It is interesting to find out what kind of editing Guramishvili expects from “the wise man”, i.e. the reader. They belong to different categories. The author describes his work as follows: “translation” i.e. commenting and exp­laining of the text implies revealing of its covert idea. This is what he requires from the readers of “Davitiani”: “Grasp the idea of the fable, tran­slate it for my sake!/I have placed a grain inside the loaf of the Georgian bread!“ (68. 373). “The wise man” should revise the text from the religious-theological viewpoint: ”If the text contains something of alien faith, let him translate it into the Georgian faith“; ”If I tell lies, let him transform the text into the truth/may nothing be untrue and unfair“ [10. 11]; ”This book should be used in purity, let no one smear it with impurities!“ (64. 350). The colla­boration between the author and “the wise man” is a kind of allusion on the editing activities carried out by the metaphrasts.

 The words “turning into a Georgian text” mean genuine, untold truth. With these words, Guramishvili expresses the world vision of the epoch when the terms “Christian” and “Georgian” were identical and Christianity was the key feature of the Georgian national self-portrait. Ilia Chavchavadze wrote: “even nowadays, in the entire South Caucasus, “Georgian” and “Chris­tian” are synonyms. When the Caucasians want to say that someone was converted into Christianity, they say: “He became a Georgian”.