Galaktion Tabidze was a leading Georgian poet of the twentieth century, whose writings profoundly influenced all subsequent generations. While early works, influenced by symbolism, garnered acclaim, it was a later collection that established him as a preeminent voice in Georgian poetry for decades. His verses frequently explored themes of isolation, lovelessness, and disquieting premonitions. Despite enduring immense pressure and personal tragedy under Soviet authorities, which plunged him into depression and alcoholism, his prolific output left an indelible mark on modern Georgian literature.
This is a bilingual volume of 60 poems by Galaktion Tabidze (1891-1959), one of the greatest poets of Georgia. The English translations are by Innes Merabishvili, Professor of English and Linguistics of Translation at the State University of Tbilisi, and a well-known Byron scholar, who has rendered many of Byron's poems into Georgian and published works on the English poet. She has also published (in Georgian) a study of Galaktion's enigmatic metaphors in the monograph Enigmas in Galaktion's Poetry (Tbilisi, 2003).
With its rich heroic and mythological folk poetry and 1500 years of lyrical poetry, Georgian culture depends as much on the verse as it does on music, wine and Christianity. Lyn Coffin's anthology samples this culture by translating the greatest of Georgia's 19th century Romantics, the most beloved of 20th-century lyrical symbolists, and one of the most interesting of contemporary poets. Lyn Coffin is perhaps the first professional English-language poet to devote her time and talent to the task of translating Georgian poetry, a poetry which, largely because of the language's complexity, the extraordinary rhyming virtuosity of its poets and the often complex, half-Oriental, half-Occidental outlook of its culture has been considered one of the most resistant to translation. Nikoloz Baratashvili had the genius and mystery to attract attention outside his own land. ...the intertwining of folk myth and literary Symbolism, and the musicality: they show Galaktion Tabidze as a magus comparable to W. B. Yeats. " - Donald Rayfield, OBE, Professor, Russian and Georgian Studies, Queen Mary University of London "Dato Barbakadze speaks with a distinct voice and rare vision.... Always, poem by poem, there is within the poetry the warmth of real humanity and the brightness, the hungry intelligence of his song, fresh as new-fallen snow." - Sam Hamill (1943-2018), master American poet
