21 March 2017: World Poetry Day

UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, proclaimed 21 March each year as World Poetry Day. It was first adopted during UNESCO’s 30th session held in Paris in 1999.

Poetry is the mainstay of oral tradition and, over centuries, can communicate the values of diverse cultures. In celebrating World Poetry Day, UNESCO recognizes the unique ability of poetry to capture the creative spirit of the human mind.

One of the main objectives of World Poetry Day is to support linguistic diversity through poetic expression and to offer endangered languages the opportunity to be heard within their communities.

The observance of World Poetry Day is also encourages a return to the oral tradition of poetry recitals, to promote the teaching of poetry, to restore a dialogue between poetry and the other arts such as theatre, dance, music and painting. It also aims to support small publishers and create a positive image of poetry in the media, so that the art of poetry will no longer be considered an outdated form of art, but one which enables society as a whole to regain and assert its identity.

Irina Bokova, UNESCO’s director-general, said ‘Poetry is not a luxury. It lies at the heart of who we are as women and men, living together today, drawing on the heritage of past generations, custodians of the world for our children and grandchildren.’

One of the poets that UNESCO is honouring in 2017 is Georgian poet Nikoloz Baratashvili.

Prince Nikoloz (Tato) Baratashvili (1817-1845) was referred to as the ‘Georgian Byron’ for his early adoption of European Romanticism. He was born in Tbilisi when it was a city of Transcaucasia, and is now the capital of Georgia.

He couldn’t afford to continue his studies at a Russian university, and his lameness prohibited him from joining the military. He worked as a government clerk in the Law Courts, and was transferred to Ganja, Azerbaijan, in 1845 as deputy-governor.

He died of malaria in Ganja, at the age of 27, unrecognized and unpublished. His writings were discovered and published between 1861 and 1876. There were fewer than forty short lyrical poems and a few private letters.

The 1839 poem, Fate of Georgia, was based on historical facts – the 1795 invasion of Tbilisi by the Persian ruler Mohammad Khan Qaja, which forced King Erekle II to hand over the country’s security to the Russian Empire. It also mentions the 1832 failed revolt, and the loss of Georgia’s national identity. He was a descendant, on his mother’s side, of King Erekle II, the ‘Lion of Asia.’

Baratashvili's reinterment from Ganja to Tbilisi in 1893 was a national celebration. Since 1938, his remains have lain in the Mtatsminda Pantheon of Georgian Writers in Tbilisi.

His lyrical poem Pegasus (Merani), written in 1842, seemed to be an apocalyptic vision of his future.

Merani – by Nikoloz Baratashvili

It runs; it flies; it bears me on; it heeds no trail nor spoor;

A raven black behind me croaks with ominous eyes of doom.

Speed thee on and onward fly with a gallop that knows no bound,

Fling to the winds my stormy thoughts in raging darkness found.

Go onward! Onward! Cleaving through roaring wind and rain

O’er many a mount and many a plain, short’ning my days of pain.

Seek not shelter, my flying steed, from scorching skies or storm;

Pity not thy rider sad, by self-immolation worn.

I bid farewell to parents, kin, to friends and sweet-heart dear

Whose gentle voice did soothe my hopes to a hot and bitter tear.

Where the night falls, there let it dawn, there let my country be;

Only the heavenly stars above my open heart will see.

The sighs that burn, that rend the heart to violent waves I hurl;

To thy inspired, wild maddened flight love’s waning passions whirl.

Speed thee on and onward fly with a gallop that knows no bound,

Fling to the winds my stormy thoughts in raging darkness found.

In foreign lands though lay me low, not where my fathers sleep,

Nor shed thou tears, nor grieve, my love, nor o’er my body weep;

Ravens grim will dig my grave and whirlwinds wind a shroud

There, on desert plains where winds will howl in wailings loud.

No lover’s tears but only dew will moist my bed of gloom;

No dirge but vultures’ shrieks will sound above my lowly tomb.

Bear me far beyond the bounds of fate, my Merani,

Fate whose slave I never was, and henceforth – ne’er shall be!

By fate repulsed, oh bury me in a dark and lonely grave.

My bloody foe, I fear thee not – thy flashing sword I brave.

Speed thee on and onward fly with a gallop that knows no bound,

Fling to the winds my stormy thoughts in raging darkness found.

The yearnings of my restless soul will not in vain have glowed,

For, dashing on, my steed has paved a new untrodden road.

He who follows in our wake, a smoother path will find;

Daring all, his fateful steed shall leave dark fate behind.

It runs; it flies; it bears me on; it heeds no trail nor spoor;

A raven black behind me croaks with ominous eyes of doom.

Speed thee on and onward fly with a gallop that knows no bound,

Fling to the winds my stormy thoughts in raging darkness found.

An Earring – by Nikoloz Baratashvili

A butterfly gay

Like a wing-spread fay

Sways a flower in white array;

         Thus fairy light

         Two earrings bright

With curtseying shadows play.

         O happy the mind

         That calm may find

And solace in that shade.

         The earrings sway

         Like winds in May

Makes cares and troubles fade.

         O earring fair,

         That passions snare,

Whose lips thy shade will kiss?

         Who’ll quaff fore’er

         God’s nectar rare?

Who’ll cling to thee in bliss?

[Poems from Georgian Poetry, Badri Sharvadze, 2008]

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).