Narrative
მგზავრის წერილები
Not translated into English
Ilia Chavchavadze · 1861
Opening lines
დილის ექვსი საათი შესრულდა თუ არა, იმ სასტუმროს წინ, რომელიშიაც მე წინა ღამეს ჩამოვხტი, რუსის პირდაუბანელმა და თავდაუვარცხნელმა „იამშჩიკმა“ ფოშტის პოვოსკა მოაყენა. ეს იყო ვლადიკავკასში.
No sooner had six in the morning struck than, in front of the inn where I had put up the night before, an unwashed, uncombed Russian “yamshchik” drew up the post cart. This was in Vladikavkaz.
Translation by Erostrate
Text quoted from ka.wikisource.org
Synopsis
A young Georgian returns from his studies in Russia along the Georgian Military Road through the Caucasus. He notes what he sees along the way, compares the Russian steppe and the mountains, and meets a Mokhevian peasant, Lelt Ghounia, whose words and manner of speaking reveal to him, among his own people, a civilisation that Russian schooling had not promised him. The beauty of the country, the misery of the people and the future of the nation are interwoven in his letters.
Context
The text, written on its author's return from his studies, first appeared as a serial in the 1860s and in book form in 1871. It is carried by the word Tergdaleulis, “those who have drunk the water of the Terek”: the word first designates the nobleman educated in the Russian manner who has crossed the river to be enlightened, then, as the book goes on, the peasant who lives on its banks. The travel narrative form serves here as a manifesto.
Who it is for
A short travel narrative, mixing description and pamphlet, which does not exist in French; its attack was aimed at the Georgian nobility that had turned to Russian.
Prizes and reception
Regarded as the most important political writing of the Georgian generation of the 1860s, and as one of the founding texts of the modern country.