Of all literary genres, poetry seems to be the most distant from everyday turmoil and current events. However, as Sir Maurice Bowra convincingly showed in his 'Poetry and Politics' (1966) politics is not at all alien to poetry. Moreover, even the non-political poetry often takes its source from political situation and can have a strong impact on the society. The present paper explores what role the translations of Irish poetry played in Georgian cultural and political life. For a small country, which had to struggle to keep its national identity as part of the Russian Empire and later under the Communist regime, translating European literature was not only a means to keep in touch with Europe where Georgia culturally belongs, but these texts often became a mouthpiece for reviving patriotic spirit. The Georgian interest in Irish literature may have been sparked by the struggles and resilience of the Irish people throughout history, and the fact that Ireland has contributed disproportionately to world literature despite being a relatively small country. The paper gives analyses of the history of translation started from Thomas Moore, the first Irish poet translated into Georgian, through William Butler Yeats, Seamus Heaney, Irish Sagas (with a forward by the first president of Georgia, Zviad Gamsakhurdia, a poet, translator, scholar, one of the first researchers of Irish Literature) and on to the most recent addition "Anthology of Irish Poetry in Georgian" (2021), which among other poets features poems by the ninth President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins.

The presented study is a part of the Fundamental Research project (FR-24-7246) funded and supported by the Shota Rustaveli National Science Foundation of Georgia.

Authors:
Manana Gelashvili, Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, Georgia

About the Presenter(s)
Manana Gelashvili, Professor and Head of the Institute of Western European Languages and Literature at Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, Georgia.

See this presentation on the full schedule – Thursday Schedule

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