Poetry
სევდის ბაღს შეველ
Not translated into English
Besarion Gabashvili · 1780
Synopsis
The lover enters the garden of sorrow to gather roses and brings back nothing. Turned away from everywhere, he sits down against the door, at the end of his strength: his ear has grown old, his eyes cloud with tears and sweat, his hands stay stretched out towards what slips away, and his heart burns. He then rails against his fate before those who see him there, and leaves them his pain to share.
Context
The poem belongs to a group of about ten pieces that critics bring together by convention under this first line, and that share one character and one mood: the nightingale, the rose, the body of the beloved recur from one piece to the next. Scholarly tradition sees in them verses inspired by Maia Eristavi, niece of King Erekle and widow of Mamuka Orbeliani, without the identification being held as established. These love poems are the last great moment of the letters of royal Georgia, a generation before the Russian annexation.
Who it is for
A short poem, with no French edition. One should know that classical Georgian poetry names its pieces by their incipit, and that what serves as the title of this one is one.
Prizes and reception
The poem that opens the love cycle by which its author remained in Georgian letters, and which is held to be the summit of his lyric poetry.