I CARD - პერგამენტზე

The Man in the Panther’s Skin

Shota Rustaveli
Fragment of the Georgian medieval epic poem from XII Century
Translated by Lyn Coffin

First Letter Written By Tariel To His Beloved

With my own eyes, I gazed at my beloved’s unexpected

note.
‘O moon, not even the sun is as beautiful as you,’ I wrote.
‘I don’t need or want any more from God than you on
whom I dote!
My life has fully returned to me. In a dream I seem to float.

„I said to Asmat: ‘Better answer than this I cannot devise.’

Say thus to her: ‘O sun who has let your light for my sake
arise,
You’ve brought me back to life. I shall avoid fainting as you
advise.
Whatever you ask, I will do, even if it means my demise.’

„Asmat said to me: ‘She told me: ‘You must tell him how to
proceed
Let no one discover my discourse with him, even if they
plead.
Pretending he’s in love with you, let him come to me with
all speed.’
She entreated me, ‘Tell the Amirbar this is the screen we
need.’
II CARD

Photo: Dmitry Ermakov

Hat shop in Tbilisi. 1900’s
The National Parliamentary Library of Georgia
The Complete Poems in English
Nikoloz Baratashvili
Translated by Lyn Coffin
Published by Museum of Literature. Tbilisi 2017

To My Star
Star of my fate, you rage against me. Why?
I love you, though you often make me die.
The soul absorbs the cloud that you resemble,
The heart is used to feeling sorrow’s tremble!

You can’t embitter me, my fate, you’ll fail –

Though wrapped within a blizzard’s mistry veil:
You do not know what joy you’ll bring me when
Flickering through the mist, you shine again.

No matter with what face you appear to me,

Bright sky dawner, you’ll be clear to me.
Your light lights up the soul in every part-
You, cheerer of the obfuscated heart!

Come flickering here, and for my sake, be bright,

Because of you, the darkened heart turns light;
Wrap yourself in heaven’s fires vast,
And glimmers of your charm upon on me cast.

1837
 III CARD

Photo: Niko Pirosmani.

1900-1910. the exact
date unkown
White Cow
Oil on Cardboard
Gogotur and Apshina
Vazha-Pshavela
Fragment
Translated by Rebecca Ruth Gould

...The angels who were supposed to be

Protecting him
Must have pitied the warrior!
Innumerable times, thinking begged him:
„Come visit me at court.“
And just as many times,
The brave man answered him:
„Your Majesty, I cannot breath on the plains.
The mountain breeze lightens my face.
My heart weeps like a woman.
I cannot bear bread or water.
My cursed soul is aflame.“
Gogotur’s lips were shut light.
His body was seized with sickness.
He was tormented by the thought
That his battle cry might never again be heard,
That would bring his voice to an end,
That the celebrations would be over
When the sun set.
He set at home in idleness,
Forrowing and ploughing the earth.
…

1887
IV CARD

IV CARD
Photo: H2SO4

Text: H2SO4

http://dspace.nplg.gov.ge/bitstream/1234/147211/1/
H2SO4_1924_N1.pdf
აქედან შეგვიძლია აღება. ვიზუალიც და ტექსტიც.
უბრალოდ უნდა მივაწეროთ წყარო.

amas akedan ver avigeb, fotoc dabali xarisxia da

tekstebi akarefi

The National Parliamentary Library of Georgia

IV CARD

1936
In 1936 Days of Georgian
Culture were held in Moscow.
Faces of Georgian writers and
public figures on the photo are
being erased with blue ink, af-
ter they became victims of the
“Great Purge” in 1937. Later,
in 1953 Lavrentiy Beria’s face
was also erased. In this photo
the First Deputy Chairman of
the Council of Ministers of the
Soviet Union, Beria stands near
Stalin (fifth at his right).
IV CARD

photo: David Kakabadze

The More Away
Galaktion Tabidze
Translated by Innes Merabishvili

The more away, the more I love!

In you I love my dearest dream,
It feels – as if in Eden lives,
Untouched – as if the sun’s bright beam.

You differ, maybe, from what dream,

I never grieve about it now!
My aching heart is apt to wish
You were an angel white endowed.

Let ardour strange all burn my heart,

Let seas be filled with tears I shed,
To trust the miracle of Love,
And ravings of a lover mad.

1908
VII CARD

1 ნომერში ანას, დამნაშავე

ბუნებიდან ავიღოთ ის
ფოტო, სადაც წითელი
ვარსკვლავია.
მინაწერიც გაუკეთე რა.
Afkhazia. 2015.

Text: Lado Pochkhua.

ინგლისურ ინდიგოშია 1
ნომერში. 100 გვერდი.

Photo: Anna Dziapshipa

Afkhazia. 2015.
????
Lado Pochkhua
Fragment from the essay “War and Peace with Books”

“By night, I lay on a creaky bed in the pitch - black damp

cellar and thought about what to do in the future. The
wisdom of the entire East had been concentrated in that
bed - during the snoring of an on-duty greengrocer from
Marneuli, I realized that it isn’t necessary to do anything.
Everything essential and important will take place on its
own. “In the end, miners and shells surely don’t explode,
thus it is possible to endure it…”

Flowers don’t bloom where I am,

Flowers don’t bloom where I am,
I’m momentarily mislead by their beauty,
They bloom one day, wither away at night,
Flowers don’t bloom where I am.”
VIII CARD

photo: Giorgi Tsagareli

Lenin Statue removed from the centre of Tbilisi. 1991
Once Upon a Time in Georgia
Aka Morchiladze
Fragment

One day, a rumor started – Sergio leone was doing a re-

make of Gone with the Wind and had said he’s be filming
part of it in Georgia.

I can’t remember whether it was in the newspapers or not,

but the rumor started going around nonetheless.

I Can’t remember what year it was either; there was so

much in the papers back then it would be impossible to
remember a detail like that.

Broadly speaking, it was a time when people were more

interested in what the papers had to say about the old news
– perestroika and things like that.

Although maybe we didn’t actually call it perestroika until a

bit later on.

In any case, it can’t have been any later than 1989. Because
that was the year that Sergio Leone died. In other words,
the story took place back when everything was just begin-
ning, before the upheaval, the misfortune, and the chaos.

2012
ფოტო: Wintering Over is Over / 84 გვერდი. ფოტოს წელიც
მივაწეროთ უნდა.
Wintering Over is Over
Guram Tsibakhashvili
Fragment

„Now that he’s dead, you can lie as much as you please –
nobody will know you’re laying.“ I told my wife on the way
home, after the funeral. He was the source of knowledge
for the whole generation. The information was subjective,
though, it reached us through Karlo, already processed,
which is why I think there is a lot of Karlo’s interpretations
in our works. I met him first at the Stair Landing exhibition.
He told me right away: „I’ve seen your photos. Let’s have
the next exhibition together.“

© TBC & INDIGO Publishing / 2019

X CARD

photo: Rita Khachaturiani

Sunflower
Ink on paper. 2016
Ladies and Gentlemen!
Besik Kharanauli
Fragment

In childhood, though, the writer does not just think - he

also starts living his real life. He sees himself at the ages of
8-10 and 14-15 and starts to get involved in their lives and
in their passions...

The most important event in the writer’s childhood happens

when 8-10 nearly drowns and is saved by 14-15 while the
writer runs away.

After the rescue, 8-10, 14-15, and the writer go to their

abandoned house in the village. At night the rain comes,
as if to clear the charged air of all that is transcendent and
make reality visible again; the rain pours down off the roof
tiles, smashing through the gate in a torrent and flooding
into the yard. The writer is feeble in the face of the ele-
ments; he is alone once again…

2005
 XII CARD

Photo: Thoma Sukhashvili

Frezeti, East Georgia. IDP settlement. 2015
Ikos 1 to Simon the Cananaean
Paata Shamugia
Translated from Georgian by Manana Matiashvili & Kristian Carls-
son

Let the long year of laughter be with us,

let the buds and asphalt burst from laughter,
let the breasts of women become heavier
and half their hair turn into birds.
And every morning thereafter let them comb the nightin-
gales,
the blackbirds,
the quails,
the hummingbirds
and peafowls,
then hunters will enter their hair hanging on the braids.
They will shoot and kill the nightingales,
the blackbirds,
the quails,
the hummingbirds
and peafowls…
Whereby not only spring is implied
but something beyond spring.
Thanks be to God.

2014

Schizo-National Anthems
es ra aris
XIII CARD

Mariam Natroshvili, Detu Jincharadze