გიორგი ლეონიძე და ძველი პოეტები
Giorgi Leonidze and the Poets of Old Times

Summary/Abstract: Among 20th-century Georgian poets, it is difficult to name any other writer who could, like Giorgi Leonidze, evaluate the merits of their predecessors and give a comprehensive description of their works. Not many could show such sympathy as he did, concern about the forgotten, assistance in scholarly editions of the literary heritage. Since his youth, it became his inner, spiritual need. Having had a wonderful talent for poetry, he was thoroughly acquainted with the history of Georgia, museums located in different cities, archival materials, ethnography which is evidenced in numerous letters and diaries. All this gave credibility to Giorgi Leonidze’s studies, the reliability of which has never been questioned. He expressed his love and admiration for his great predecessors especially in poetry. The title of this paper has been specially chosen. In his youth, Giorgi Leonidze wrote extremely interesting verse, which is called “The Poets of Older Generations”. First, a reference is made to the eminent poets of the past centuries; then it is said how naturally and freely their voices sounded like chanting of so many different birds and in the third stanza some of them are directly named - “Shota, Besiki, Guramishvili, Vazha-Pshavela”. This does not mean at all that Giorgi Leonidze would not mention those who are missing from this list with the same reverence. Every time he listed the earlier Georgian poets, naturally, he gave priority to Rustaveli, although he did not publish any scholarly research on the author of the “Vepkhistqaosani”, as he felt himself unprepared for this. However, to none of his predecessors, he dedicated as many verses of admiration as to Rustaveli.

• Details
• Contents