Byron's Reception in Georgia

1 THE RECEPTION OF BYRON IN EUROPE In Two Volumes Edited by Richard A. Cardwell Continuum Press, London – New York, 2004 Volume II, Chapter 21: LIBERTY AND FREEDOM AND THE GEORGIAN BYRON Innes Merabishvili At the age of twenty one Lord Byron published his famous satire English Bards and Scotch Reviewers where he set out the plans of his first journey: Yet once again, adieu! Ere this the sail That wafts me hence is shivering in the gale; And Afric’s coast and Calpe’s adverse height, And Stamboul’s minarets must greet my sight; Thence shall I stray through beauty’s native clime Where Kaff is clad in rocks, and crown’d with snows sublime. Here Kaff denotes the Caucasus, but under 'beauty’s native clime' Byron meant Georgia, the country that is situated between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, bordering with Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkey, Chechnya, Ossetia, Ukraine and Russia. Thus, being located on the crossroads of Asia and Europe, the history of Georgia has been marked by intensive interactions with other cultures and nations which, when not aggressors, were generally welcomed. In the same way Georgia welcomed Byron. By the time of Lord Byron’s intended journey across the Caucasus, Georgia had obtained peace through the patronage of the Russian Empire. In 1801 Russia abolished the Kartl-Kakhetian kingdom, which had been a Russian protectorate since 1783 and formally incorporated it into the Russian Empire. The Russian patronage, though politically oppressive, opened huge prospects to Europe and to its great men and writers. Georgia was firmly linked with Russia but this was never a one-sided connection. Georgia, where the ladies are 'extremely beautiful, full of animation, grace and elegance', as Byron’s contemporary, an English poet and diplomat, James Morier (1780-1849) noticed (Byron 1837, 777), where 'men are formed for action and women for love', as Edward Gibbon wrote (Byron 1837, 776), was the place to attract and inspire the outstanding men of Russia. It has often been noted that Georgia signified much the same to Russia as Greece meant to Britain and the whole of Europe. Lord Byron’s instinct for opposition and revolt was strongly attractive to the ideals and goals of Russian revolutionary circles striving against the oppressions of the Tsarist regime. The fact that Byron challenged imperial attitudes constituted the great and lasting fascination and interest of the Russian and Georgian intellectual and liberal movements for the poet's work and his ideas. The members of those progressive Georgian circles were men of learning, men whose literary interests were closely linked 2 with the leading Russian poets, especially Pushkin and Griboedov. Besides, when sending their rebellious sons into exile, the Russian government, in special cases, favoured the dissidents and sent them to Georgia rather than to the severer regimes of Siberia. Therefore the most progressive ideas which had inspired resistance to the Russian Tsarist regime in the Motherland came to Georgia through the most liberal Russian thinkers and intellectual exiles, especially through poets and writers. Thus it was mainly through an eccentric Russian policy in regard to revolutionaries that Byron’s name and ideas reached Georgia. Since that early period of political dissent Byron has been loved and esteemed in Georgia and his impact has been a profound one. The first period of Byronic reception is that of Georgian Romanticism. Among the writers who were exiled to Georgia from Russia were Alexandre Griboedov and V. Kyukhelbecker. They became close friends in Georgia from 1822 onwards; both of them were deeply affected by Byron. It was Kyukhelbecker who penned an inspiring poem 'Lord Byron’s Death. A Poem', which was published in volume form in Moscow in the very year of Byron’s death in 1824.1 A Russian diplomat and an outstanding dramatist, Griboedov (1795-1829), a close friend of Pushkin and the Decembrists and the man who considered Byron to be his idol, also established close relations with Georgian aristocratic circles during his mission in Georgia. In 1828 Griboedov married Nino Chavchavadze, Prince Alexandre Chavchavadze’s beautiful daughter. Griboedov’s most famous play Woe from Wits (Gore ot uma in Russian/ vai chkuisagan in Georgian) was staged for the first time in Chavchavadze’s house in Tbilisi. This drama is an echo of the tragedy Byron suffered in his own homeland. The sorrow (woe) of Chatsky, the principal character of the play, a sorrow widely experienced in Russian aristocratic circles, is inspired by echoes of the scandal and suffering Byron experienced in Britain. Among the exiles were many of those who had taken part in the Polish uprising. Polish thinkers and their progressive poet, Mickiewicz, were, thus, influential both in Georgia as much as in Russia. Giorgi Tumanishvili, a major public figure in Tbilisi, wrote: 'Georgian poets of the 30-ies of the nineteenth century, all like Pushkin and Lermontov, were under the spell of Lord Byron and Mickiewicz, whose cult was greatly popularized by the Polish men exiled in Georgia.'2 (Tumanishvili 1913, 100) The Georgian dramatist, Giorgi Eristavi, was sent into exile to Poland where he learned the Polish language and began to study its literature; consequently he became a great admirer of Mickiewicz and, through him, Byron. He was the first to translate Mickiewicz’s poems into the Georgian tongue. One of his famous comedies Sheshlili (The Mad), created in 1839, includes an expression of praise for Lord Byron.3 The frustration caused by the failure of the Russian Decembrists’ movement of 1825 found its way into the writings of the exiles and the Georgian liberals and was shared wholeheartedly by Georgian thinkers and men of letters. The initiative for the planned revolt began with a conspiracy of Georgian noblemen resident in St. Petersburg and Moscow and soon took root in Georgia itself. This plot gave them the impetus to inaugurate a new wave in the national liberation movement in Georgia. At the same time, the political aspect of the planned revolt was profoundly influenced by Byron's achievements in Greece and in the sentiments expressed in his verses. 1Kjukhelbekera V., Stikhotvorenie 'Smert Bairona', Moskva: Tipographia imperatorskogo moskovskogo teatra, u sod. Pokhorskago, 1824. 2 tsarsuli saukunis 30-iani tslebis kartveli poetebi, kvelani, ise, rogorc pushkini da lermontovi, ikvnen baironis da mickevichis poeziis mkhiblavi gavlenis kvesh, romelta kultsac dzlierad avrcelebdnen sakartveloshi gadmosakhlebuli polonelebi. 3'And you, nations, who are enemies to bards, / are full of envy,/ were you not laughing at great Byron?' ('da tkventca, erno, momgeralt mterno, savseno shurit, tkven ar ikavit, dastcinodit did Baironsa?'), quoted in G. Eristavi, Tkhzulebani (Works), Tbilisi, 'Literatura da Khelovneba', 1966, 116. 3 Historically, Georgia has never lacked courage and heroism so that the rebellious tone of Byron's poetry found an echo in the Georgian spirit, in its reasoning and longings. Byron’s death in Missolonghi shocked the world and united Hellas; with the independence of Greece his name flared even more brightly with the result that Byron became a symbol of disinterested patriotism. It made him an icon of freedom abroad and the source of idealistic inspiration and ready imitation in Georgia. The plot of 1832 against the oppressive Russian Tsarist regime involved several Georgian noblemen, men who were deeply anxious about the future of their Motherland. Unfortunately, the plot of 1832 had the same fate as the Decembrists in 1825 and the Russian rulers were extremely severe in the punishments meted out. Many liberals were arrested and sent into exile. The Tsar, Nicholas I, prohibited all publishing activities in Georgia so that no books were printed in the country between 1832 and 1839. During those six years the Georgian nobility only had recourse to Byron through French and Russian translations and, thus, there was no hiatus in the spreading of his liberating and revolutionary ideas in spite of the ban. Indeed, Georgian aristocratic circles positively fed on Byron. The reception of Byron in Georgia started, then, during his lifetime. Prince Alexandre Chavchavadze (1786-1846), an outstanding Georgian poet, a great popularizer of Oriental and European literature in Georgia and Lord Byron’s almost exact Georgian contemporary, was the first to translate his poems into the Georgian tongue. Unfortunately, the translated pieces did not survive but the extant sources confirm the fact. (Mtatsmindeli 1886, 35) Apart from his translations, Lord Byron’s influence is strongly felt in Chavchavadze’s original poems. His poem 'Gogcha' ('Gocha' [a lake in Armenia]) shows a great similarity of ideas with those of Lord Byron’s Hebrew Melodies. He expresses, like Byron with Greece, his concern at the lost spiritual power of the country. Chavchavadze also follows Byron in describing the beauty of nature thus becoming the first Georgian poet in this vein. The giant mountains of the Caucasus, so majestic and mighty, rushing torrents, virgin forests and velvety meadows vividly rise before one’s eye. Here is the poet’s description of Gogcha, same as Sevan, the largest lake in Caucasia: Gogcha, a vast lake, imitating the sea in sounds, At times with foaming billows waves ferociously, Sometimes, like crystal sincerely pure, motionless, Within itself paints azure of skies and green mountains.4 (Linear translation) Like Byron, the main themes of his poetry are patriotism, loyalty to one's ideals, the beauty of nature, love and friendship among nations. Chavchavadze’s biography also confirms his acquaintance with European culture. Son of Garsevan Chavchavadze, the Georgian Ambassador to the Emperor of Russia, he was the godson of the Tsarina Ekaterina II. In 1813-1814, as an officer in the Russian Army, he took part in the Napoleonic wars and entered Paris with the Allied forces.

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