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The Kartvelologist The Kartvelologist” is a bilingual (Georgian and English) peer-reviewed, academic journal, covering all spheres of Kartvelological scholarship. Along with introducing scholarly novelties in Georgian Studies, it aims at popularization of essays of Georgian researchers on the international level and diffusion of foreign Kartvelological scholarship in Georgian scholarly circles. “The Kartvelologist” issues both in printed and electronic form. In 1993-2009 it came out only in printed form (#1-15). The publisher is the “Centre for Kartvelian Studies” (TSU), financially supported by the “Fund of the Kartvelological School”. In 2011-2013 the journal is financed by Shota Rustaveli National Science Foundation. 
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Georgian Hymnographers
Ioane-Zosime, The Praise and Magnification of the Georgian Language; Phillip of Bethlehem, Praise of Bethlehem, the Virgin and the Son; Borena, “O Virgin who...” In the current issue of The Kartvelologist original hymns by Georgian hymnographers of 10th century are presented in Georgian with English translation by English Kartvelologist Donald Rayfield (first published in D. Rayfield, The Literature of Georgian: A History, London, 2000). Consented by the Translator. The Editor keywords: Category: GEORGIAN LITERATURE IN ENGLISH TRANSLATION Authors: Ioane Zosime
Speech of Alaverdi-Khan Undiladze at the Court of Shah Abbas I
The present publication is an overview of Alaverdi-Khan Undiladze’s speech at the royal court of Shah-Abbas I, proposing the resumption of the Persian-Turkish war, delivered by him at the ending of 1599. This important historical source comes for the first time in the area of research of Georgian orientalists. It is preserved in the book of the English diplomat Antony Sherley on his travel to Persia (Sir Antony Sherley, His Relation of His Travels into Persia, London 1613). The Georgian translation is being published along with the original. keywords:Alaverdi-Khan Undiladze, Shah-Abbas I, Antony Sherley Category: GEORGIAN LITERATURE IN ENGLISH TRANSLATION Authors: ELGUJA KHINTIBIDZE
THE MAN IN THE PANTHER SKIN - Prologue
The traditional section of our journal “Georgian Literature in English Translations” might seem peculiar in the present issue. It features the Prologue of MPS in all English language translations to date. These are by Marjory Wardrop, done at the turn of the 19th-20th c. (the text is taken from the 1912 London edition (The Royal Asiatic Society); Venera Urushadze (first issue 1968; the text is printed according to the author’s revised edition (Tbilisi: Sabchota Sakartvelo, 1986); Katharine Vivian (London: The Folio Society, 1977); Robert Stevenson (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1977). The Georgian text is printed according to the edition of the Commission for the Establishment of the Academic Text of MPS (Tbilisi: Metsniereba, 1988). What is the publication of the Georgian text with the four parallel translations due to? MPS is the peak of Medieval Georgian literary and socio-political thought. The poem clearly echoes the progress of European Christian thought from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance. This process of social thinking is reflected in MPS not only in its artistic system but in its theoretical-discursive form as well – mainly in the Prologue. This fact imparts special significance to this section of the poem. Though Rustvali’s language of the Prologue is plain Georgian; with its theological-philosophical connotations it differs essentially from modern Georgian philosophical definitions. The Prologue conceptions of MPS on the Creation by the Supreme Being, definition of spirit and perspective of motion, man’s moral and physical virtues, the essence of poetry and love with the forms of its expression; as well as on the twelfth-century Georgian royal court and the poet’s relation to, the provenance of the plot of the poem and the principal manifestation of the emotional activity of the characters – are formulated by the poet using the philosophical-theological and scholastic-mystic thought definitions of his time. The conceptions found in the Prologue of MPS rest firmly on biblical – largely New Testament – theology, on the one hand, and Greek philosophy of the Classical and Hellenistic periods, namely Plato, Aristotle and Dionysius the Areopagite, on the other. Gaining insight into the essence of these unique conceptions of medieval philosophical-theological thought forms an actual question of present-day Rustaveli studies. The interest taken in this problem, and in general in MPS as a whole, by European intellectual circles, in particular medieval and Renaisance researchers, clearly taking shape in recent decades, calls for the presentation of the text of MPS, and primarily its theoretical conceptions for the non-Georgian readers. None of the translations known to date can shoulder this mission. This is the primary reason for our decision to supply the English-language reader with all the translations of the Prologue. This attempt has naturally another no less important purpose: parallel observation of the four translations will clearly reveal the poetic merits of each of them. The desire to render Rustaveli in another language comes across numerous difficulties. Take, for that matter the title of the poem. In Wardrop’s translation it is The Man in the Panther’s Skin, in Urushadze’s The Knight in the Panther’s Skin, in Vivian’s The Knight in Panther Skin, in Stevenson’s The Lord in the Panther-skin. Of the nuances that differentiate these titles, I shall draw attention to only one Man, Knight and Lord are accepted interpretations for a natural perception of the Georgian –osan suffix (Vepkhistqaosani) in English. All these titles are more or less contradictory. An exact, though literarily hardly acceptable, rendering would be “one who wears a panther’s skin” or more precisely “wearer of a panther’s skin”. My touching on the rendering in English of the title of Rustaveli’s poem is due to the present subsection bearing the title The Man in the Panther Skin, which seems to me a modern contamination of the versions of English translations of the poem.
The Editor keywords:Rustaveli, The Man in the Panther Skin Category: GEORGIAN LITERATURE IN ENGLISH TRANSLATION Authors: SHOTA RUSTAVELI
[The Story on Tiflis]
keywords: Category: GEORGIAN LITERATURE IN ENGLISH TRANSLATION Authors: Unknown Author
Avtandil and Tariel (The Knight in The Man in a Panther-Skin – whether emotional or rational)
When studying the artistic images of Rustaveli characters, various issues arise, the revelation//formation of the nature of the characters being the most significant amongst them. There rises a question: How is the ideal artistic image of a knight seen by Rustaveli.
keywords:Rustaveli, The Man in the Panther-skin Category: GEORGIAN LITERATURE IN ENGLISH TRANSLATION Authors: SHOTA RUSTAVELI
The Mystery of the Unknown Poem by Rustaveli
A compilation of poems translated from Arabic into French titled as “The Islamic Songs of War and Love” was published in 1942 in Marseille. The translator as well as the editor of the book was Franz Toussaint. The compilation includes prosaic translations of Arabic, Persian, Afghan, Belujistan, Altarian, Turkish, Egyptian, Maroconian, Hogarian, Cherqezian and Georgian poems with the following subtitle – “Géorgie” The Georgian part of the book includes four poems: Prince Zoumali La Rose, Chavtali L’ Embarras, Roustoual La Peau de Léopard, Anonime Nuit. However, the poems have not been identified by Georgian sources and only Rustaveli and Shavteli are considered to be the authors of the poems, whose names are suggested in an altered transliteration by a French compilation – Roustoual, Chavtali. Georgian media learned about the compilation only in the middle of the previous century and the controversy over the facts concerning the genuinity of the publication is still going on. The authorship of Rustaveli is one of the major issues of the discussions. Some commentators fully deny the genuinity of the facts provided by Franz Toussaint since the poems have not been verified by Georgian sources and some parts of the reports are obscure. The name of the Rustaveli poem The Tiger Skin fails to reveal any links with The Knight in a Panther Skin by Rustaveli. The reason the names of Shavteli and Rustaveli are mentioned is absolutely unclear. Georgia is surrounded by Muslim countries and what is more important, adoption of Rustaveli’s name for other poems in newspaper or journal publications in the 19th-20th Century is not scarce at all (The Anthology by A. Thalasso, translations by Trikoglidis). The opinions of the commentators supporting Franz Toussaint’s publications as to be the most important novelty are based upon the following viewpoints: Franz Toussaint is far from being an armature writer or a journalist, seeking for sensational facts and financial benefits. Rather, he is an outstanding expert of Oriental studies as well as a translator of Arabian, Persian and Sanskrit poetry. His publications are designed for wide variety of people rather than for one or two nations in particular. His compilations include examples of a classical works of Oriental literature such as: Jalal ad-Din Rumi and Hize, Rubiyát of Omar Khayám, extracts from The Thousand and One Night, etc., more importantly the examples of the religious Oriental literature such as verses from Quran.
keywords:Rustaveli, Franz Toussaint Category: GEORGIAN LITERATURE IN ENGLISH TRANSLATION Authors: ELGUJA KHINTIBIDZE |
Categories Journal Archive |
Rustaveli’s characters tend to be various: women, men, kings and queens, masters, vassals, knights, mer-chants, warriors, pirates, viziers and servants. The ideal knights being of the most significant amongst them. They are ideal not only from the “excellence” point of view but also as in terms of being created by the author through the fantasy. These aren’t real-empirical heroes extracted from the reality but rather the characters produced//created through the fantasy of the author, based on conventionality and exaggeration, elevating and rethinking of a human nature, created through the author’s imagination in particular. The best friendly couple, created through the similar artistic style is that of Avtandil and Tariel.
The present issue of the Journal introduces a French translation of the unknown poem considered to be written by Rustaveli along with Georgian translation performed from that French original. The French translation of the poem caused a lot of controvery among Georgian scholarly circles and mass media in the 20th century.