Nikoloz Baratashvili

Prince Nikoloz Baratashvili (; 4 December 1817 – 21 October 1845) was a Georgian poet. He was one of the first Georgians to marry modern nationalism with European Romanticism and to introduce "Europeanism" into Georgian literature. Due to his early death, Baratashvili left a relatively small literary heritage of fewer than forty short lyrics, one extended poem, and a few private letters, but he is nevertheless considered the high point of Georgian Romanticism. He was referred to as the "Georgian Byron".

Biography Nikoloz Baratashvili, affectionately known as Tato, was born in Tiflis (Tbilisi), Georgia's capital, which was then the principal city of Russian Transcaucasia. His father, Prince Meliton Baratashvili (1795–1860), was an impoverished nobleman working for the Russian administration. His mother, Ephemia Orbeliani (1801–1849), was a sister of the Georgian poet and general Prince Grigol Orbeliani and a scion of the penultimate Georgian king Erekle II.

In 1835, Baratashvili graduated from a Tiflis gymnasium for nobility, where he was tutored by Solomon Dodashvili, a Georgian patriot and liberal philosopher. The tragic quality of Baratashvili's poetry was determined by his traumatic personal life as well as the contemporary political situation in his homeland. The failure of the 1832 anti-Russian conspiracy of Georgian nobles, with which Baratashvili sympathized as a schoolboy, forced many conspirators to see the independent past as irremediably lost and to reconcile themselves with the Russian autocracy, transforming their laments for the lost past and the fall of the native dynasty into Romantic poetry. Shortage of money prevented Baratashvili from continuing his studies in Russian universities, while an early physical injury left him disabled and did not allow him to enter military service as he wished. Eventually, Baratashvili had to enter the Russian bureaucratic service and serve as an ordinary clerk in the Azerbaijani town of Ganja. The love of his life, Princess Ekaterine Chavchavadze, rejected him and married David Dadiani, Prince of Mingrelia.

Baratashvili died of malaria in Ganja at the age of 27. His influence was long delayed, but as the next generation of Georgian literati rediscovered his lyrics, he was posthumously published, between 1861 and 1876, and idolized. A bridge and an avenue in Tbilisi are named after the poet, and his monument stands in the central district of the Georgian capital.

Works

A key insight into the worldview of Baratashvili can be found in his historical poem Fate of Georgia (, ; 1839), an inspiring and articulate lament for Georgia's latest misfortunates. This poem, written by Baratashvili at the age of 22, is based on a real historical event: the destruction of Tbilisi in 1795 by the Persian ruler Mohammad Khan Qajar, which forced the disappointed Georgian king Erekle II to entrust his country's security to the Russian Empire. However, national problems considered in this work are viewed with a modern approach; the poem considers not only Georgia's past, but also its future in the aftermath of the failed revolt of 1832. In this poem, Baratashvili depicts the debate of Erekle II with his chancellor, Solomon Lionidze, who opposes the union with Russia and thinks that this will result in the loss of Georgia's national identity. Lionidze's wife asks her husband, in a lament that became familiar to all literate Georgians: "What pleasure does the tender nightingale receive from honor if it is in a cage?" Losing hope in human happiness, Baratashvili is captivated by superhuman historical figures such as Erekle II and Napoleon, whom he deems to be beyond joy and unhappiness. Among his most significant works are the poems The Evil Spirit (, ; 1843), Thought on the Riverside of Mtkvari (, ; 1837), and Pegasus (, ; 1842). This latter poem fascinated later Georgian poets as a mystic, apocalyptic vision of the future. In it the omnipotent mind, inspired by faith, calls for the poem's lyrical hero to knowingly sacrifice himself in the name of his brethren. The tragic optimism of Pegasus is a striking manifestation of the romantic spirit: active, life-asserting, and full of revolutionary aspirations. Pegasus is a prominent work of Georgian Romanticism both from an ethical-philosophical view, and from an artistic-aesthetic point of view.

Poetry "Do not say something, sweetheart, your lover thy heart, certainly" "Turned out to be illuminated in the east, like the sun alive" "Blew the rudy wind , led me like a Flower" "Thought on the Riverside of Mtkvari" "I bless the day of my birth, I am happy, cup" "The grace of your Creator, beautiful, woman shavtvalebiano" "Merani" "I am happy with you presence" "My lover, I remember your eyes" "The grace of your Creator, beautiful, blackeyed woman" "Will Dry My Tears" "Colour of the sky, blue colour" "I have found a real church, standing in the wilderness" "The fate of Kartli" ("Bedi kartlisa") "Nightingale on the rose" "Duke barataevis azarpeshazed” "Nathan, the singer on the piano” "To Napoleon” "War of the nobleman-peasant-to-face” "Tomb of King Irakli” "Earring” "Orphan spirit” "Hyacinth and a bit” "Thoughts on the edge” "Twilight mtatsmidazed” "To my friends” "My Pray” "To my stars” "Babies” "Chinari” "Chonguri” "Mysterious voice”

Ancestry

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