მყარი სალექსო ფორმები გაბრიელ ჯაბუშანურის პოეზიაში
Fixed Verse Forms in Gabriel Jabushanuri’s Poetry

Summary/Abstract: This work deals with the analysis of Gabriel Jabushanuri’s fixed verse forms, unknown translation of Shakespeare’s sonnet 66 and the poet’s sonnets, around twenty triolets, one verse written in terzettos, mtibluri; the essence of the poet’s versification search. The poetry of Vazha Pshavela, “Blue Horns”, Mirza Gelovani exerted special influence at the beginning of Gabriel Jabushanuri’s poetic path in the thirties of the 20th century. Gabriel Jabushanuri (1914-1968) lived and worked as other Georgian poets of the 20th century whose creative freedom was restricted by the Soviet ideology and totalitarian regime imposed on them the burden of prohibitions and rigid censorship. The year of 2014 marked the 100th anniversary of the birth of Gabriel Jabushanuri. From the vantage point of a century the reader can clearly and objectively see the chronicle of an uncompromising poet’s life irreconcilable with contemporary regime. The latest edition of Gabriel Jabushanuri’s works (“Universali” 2010) attracts the interest of the theorists of verse from the viewpoint of study of fixed verse forms too: along with the national verse variety mtibluri we come across European verse forms: sonnet, triolet... It is noteworthy that so far it has not been published and is kept in the personal archive of the poet (Fond of the manuscripts #25969 at Giorgi Leonidze State Museum of Georgian Literature) Gabriel Jabushanuri’s “Book of Translations” which contains the translations of the representatives of European, Russian, Dagestan poetry: Shakespeare, Tagore, Goethe, Verlaine, Pushkin, Lermontov, Block, Balmont, Brusov, Bunin, Pasternak, Akhmatova, Esenin, Sologub, Martynov, Lukonin, Tikhonov, Gamzatov and other masterpieces.Gabriel Jabushanuri’s interest in European fixed verse forms may have appeared on the path of sharpening his future professional skills. The student of the Faculty of Western European Languages and Literature at the Tbilisi State University got thoroughly acquainted, analyzed, translated foreign and Georgian poets’ sonnets, triolets, terzettos. Gabriel Jabushanuri devoted his sonnet “Sameba” (The Trinity) to his friends, “remained youngster” (R.Agiashvili), the tragic and untimely death of: Lado Asatiani, Mirza Gelovani and Aleksandre Sajaia. The sonnet “Mtsukhri mitovebul aulshi” (The Dusk in an Abandoned Aul) is a part of Gabriel Jabushanuri’s tragic biography. This sonnet reflects Gabriel Jabushanuri’s poetry and life. G. Jabushanuri was a witness and empathized with the Ingush tragedy when by the decision of the Soviet totalitarian regime the Ingush were forcibly deported and Khevsurs were settled there. Here the poet fell in love with Mzekali who died untimely. Two motifs constantly run through the poet’s lyrics: constant sadness from the death of his sweetheart – Mzekali and Ghilgho – witness of the Ingush misfortune, the abandoned Auls. The Ingush writer Issa Kodzoev (Iisa Koazoi), an honorable citizen of Tbilisi, one of the founders of social movement “Niskhos” of Ingushetia, dedicates to the Georgian poet an essay titled “Gabrieliada” which was published in the journal “Tsiskari” (#1-2) in 1917. The sonnet “The Dusk in an Abandoned Aul” is distinct for ten-syllable (5/5) and extremely rich, exotic, hyper dactylic rhymes, especially the first quatrain. The alliterated “kh” seems to voice the name of the village Khamkhi. Metaphor of the Soviet Union “mtsuxri”(the dusk) and its comparison with hippopotamus, its rejection to rhythmic pair (like hippopotamus – with fishbone and taste), really must have been a legal basis for heroic Ghlighvi to love Gabriel. Among European fixed verse forms triolet occurs most frequently in Gabriel Jabushanuri’s lyrics, although before speaking about triolets, we should mention one verse written in terzetto which is titled “Simghera Saniazo” (Tender Song). Four terzettos ar- ranged with triple rhythm (aaa) and high shairi (44/44) presents the poet Gabriel Jabushanuri as a spiritual successor to Vazha Pshavela which is announced in one of his programmed poem. For Gabriel Jabushanuri the poem “Simghera Saniazo” (i.e. an affectionate, cautious, subtle song) written with terzettos is a kind of poetic manifesto with which he announces his creative credo to his fellow countrymen. Similar to Vazha Pshavela’s “Songs” Gabriel Jabushanuri also composes song-poems – blend of Khevsurian poetry dialect and European verse forms creates renovated, original, modern sound to Georgian verse. With four-syllable, hyperdactilic rhymes the poet unfolds the essence of his will. In Gabriel Jabushanuri’s poetry the national verse form – mtibluri occupies a special place. It is “mtibluri songs” that the poet called his verses: “Kuchi” (Grass), “Gveli” (Sneak), “Lurjais Tvali” (A Horse’s Eye) arranged with the oldest national verse metre – mtibluri metre, asymmetric nine-syllable line – 5/4. It is known that in “mtibluri songs” there is frequent mentioning of a sickle: “O sickle, cut, edge of the road…”, “tseltsudao da tselstudao..” , “tsellamazo da collamazo”. In all three poems of Gabriel Jabushanuri a sickle is mentioned. One extract from the poet’s letter renders well G. Jabushanuri’s relation to mtibluri and lamentation: “I was moved to tears by these Khevsurian lamentations many times… I have a lot of verses written in this meter and imitation” (Jabushanuri 2010: 302). In Georgian poetry the interest in European fixed verse forms after “The Blue Horns” in the 30-50's of the 20th century was comparatively weakened due to known reasons: being afraid to be labeled an “epigone of formalism” the poets tried to avoid to compose sonnets, triolets, octaves or rondeaus. Gabriel Jabushanuri, the known anti-Stalinist, the opponent of socialist dictatorship, whose Ingush versions of anti-Soviet poems exist (Kozoev 2017: 99-100), opposes the soviet realism with numerous sonnets and triolets. Of European verse forms as is seen the Georgian poet is most of all keen on triolet of eight lines. We have found around 20 triolets in G. Jabushanuri’s collection of verses. According to subject matter, G. Jabushanuri’s triolet can be grouped in several motifs. First of all, the poet devotes his identity, ancestors, land to triolets where one and the same line is repeated three times which expresses so well the main idea: “To the Hills of Arkhoti”, “Mamasakhli” (Father’s house), “Morkeuli Mitsuri” (A shattered house). Gabriel devotes the second line of triolets to Mzekali, his deceased sweetheart and muse: “Mopasukhe”, “Varaudi”, “Shen, Gabriel” which as was already mentioned, combines two triolets: 1. “Jarji”, 2. `Go, you are no longer a man”, “Loneliness”, “Obelisk”. Usingseveral triolets Gabriel Jabushanuri expressed his worship of the sun “We and the Sun”, “The Sun has Risen, Get Up!” The poet aspires to melodies like “lamentations” and “mtibluri”. The multiplicity of triolet forms in Gabriel Jabushanuri’s lyrics was, probably, conditioned by this search: national archaic form, mtibluri, song-like, melodious order, refrain, the repetition of stanzas matches the European triolet best of all: three times repeated (1, 4, 7) lines emphasize the motif of sadness, grief. In the above-mentioned triolet this idea is rendered by the line.

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