Life and Works of Erekle Tatishvili

Abstract

The paper examines life and works of Erekle Tatishvili (1884-1946) a polyglot, erudite, philosopher, essayist and translator. He was educated in Europe: studied philosophy and law at Leipzig University. Later graduated École Libre des Sciences Politiques in Paris. He also studied journalism in London and Edinburgh.

Erekle Tatishvili was inivited to lecture International Law and History of Diplomacy at the newly-founded Tbiisi State University. Besides these subjects he also taught foreign languages and later became the founder and the first chair of the department of Foreign   Languages. The name of Erekle Tatishvili is associated with the upbringing of a notable group of researchers and translators from Western European languages ​​and literature.

The article analyzes the essays and translations published by him in the journals and newspapers of the Georgian Writers’ Academic Association in the 1920s (“Kavkasioni”, “Kartuli Sitkva”, “Sakartvelos Samreklo”, “Ilioni”), including two essays “Ecstasy” and “Per Aspera as astra”, which represent an understanding of the creative process. Two essays by Erekle Tatishvili on Indian philosophy “Shakyamuni” and “Krishna” are also discussed. Both essays are characterized by the motif of eternal cycle and renewal-liberation. The author wanted to create essays on Christ, Mithras, Apollo and Dionysus in the style of "Shakyamuni" and "Krishna'', because, in his opinion, the sacred knowledge scattered in different religions does not fundamentally deny each other, but rather complements each other.

Erekle Tatishvili's translations are truly remarkable for their stylistic diversity. Due to his distinctly expressed writing style, there was a concern that he might unintentionally incorporate his style into his translations. However, a simple review of these translations dispels such concerns: each one captures a unique intonation. This article explores the artistic features of Edgar Allan Poe's "Silence" and how they are translated into Georgian.

The paper pays special attention to  the Georgian translation of Thus Spake Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche created in the 30-40ies of the 20^th century.  Erekle Tatishvili’s interest in Nietzsche started in his student years at Leipzig University. His essay on Nietzsche published in the journal “ILION’’ (1922) is a good source to apprehend Tatishvili’s  interpretation of Nietzsche’s philosophy and at the same time large fragments of text from Zarathustra  enable  us to compare them with the same passages from the translation completed some twenty years after. Such a comparison is invaluable in understanding of the evolution of the style of the translation.

The study of the text clearly shows that this translation of Thus Spake Zarathustra is characterized by fidelity to the original and formal beauty and the translator created an aesthetic equivalent of the source text. The analysis clearly reveals why the book was unacceptable for the Soviet regime. It was not only because of its ideas, which Soviet ideology associated with fascism, but also because of its poetics which did not fit in with the aesthetics of socialist realism and cost Erekle Tatishvili an arrest under Stalin’s purge.