"THE POEM TO UTTER” BY MIKHA KHELASHVILI AND ITS FOLKLORISTIC ROOTS

Khvtiso Mamisimedishvili

Khvtiso Mamisimedishvili Doctor of Philology, Associated Professor of Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, Tbilisi, I. Chavchavadze Ave. 1, 0179, Georgia, http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1038-324X

Abstract

In the Soviet period, the stories about Mikha Khelashvili’s hectic life and his poems were spread by word of mouth. Mikha Khelashvili’s poetry was particularly popular among the mountain peoples due to some reasons. First, the poems the poet composed mainly with Pshavi dialect were close to folklore and folk motifs. The topics and motives Mikha Khelashvili wrote about were a subject of interest and concern for people. Another reason for his popularity was that Mikha Khelashvili remained in the memory of the people as a hero who fought for the freedom of his homeland. Mikha Khelashvili, a prominent fighter of Kakutsa Cholokashvili’s Band of Sworn Men, lived and died in such a way, which are often the topics of big tragedies in the works by genius writers. The killers hired by the Bolsheviks betrayed 25-year-old Mikha Khelashvili and killed him. The betrayal was especially appalling as the young poet’s closest friends were its accomplices.

Mikha Khelashvili’s poetic masterpiece "The poem to utter" has root parallels with one of the Chechen folk songs " The earth will dry upon my grave", which L. Tolstoy attributed to the number of "wonderful songs expressing revenge and strength". This old Chechen song was first included by I. Ipolitov in his publication "Ethnographic Essay of the Arghun District", published in 1868 in Tbilisi, in Russian "Collection of data about Caucasian mountains" (Сборник сведений о кавказских горцах).

The report uses historical-comparative and structural methods to analyze the parallels between Mikha Khelashvili’s poem and the Chechen folk song.

Keywords: Mikha Khelashvili; Folklore; Chechen song.

Author Biography

Khvtiso Mamisimedishvili, Doctor of Philology, Associated Professor of Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, Tbilisi, I. Chavchavadze Ave. 1, 0179, Georgia,

In the Soviet period, the stories about Mikha Khelashvili’s hectic life and his poems were spread by word of mouth. Mikha Khelashvili’s poetry was particularly popular among the mountain peoples due to some reasons. First, the poems the poet composed mainly with Pshavi dialect were close to folklore and folk motifs. The topics and motives Mikha Khelashvili wrote about were a subject of interest and concern for people. Another reason for his popularity was that Mikha Khelashvili remained in the memory of the people as a hero who fought for the freedom of his homeland. Mikha Khelashvili, a prominent fighter of Kakutsa Cholokashvili’s Band of Sworn Men, lived and died in such a way, which are often the topics of big tragedies in the works by genius writers. The killers hired by the Bolsheviks betrayed 25-year-old Mikha Khelashvili and killed him. The betrayal was especially appalling as the young poet’s closest friends were its accomplices.

Mikha Khelashvili’s poetic masterpiece "The poem to utter" has root parallels with one of the Chechen folk songs " The earth will dry upon my grave", which L. Tolstoy attributed to the number of "wonderful songs expressing revenge and strength". This old Chechen song was first included by I. Ipolitov in his publication "Ethnographic Essay of the Arghun District", published in 1868 in Tbilisi, in Russian "Collection of data about Caucasian mountains" (Сборник сведений о кавказских горцах).

The report uses historical-comparative and structural methods to analyze the parallels between Mikha Khelashvili’s poem and the Chechen folk song.

Keywords: Mikha Khelashvili; Folklore; Chechen song.