David Guramishvili Georgian poet Country: Georgia

1. David Guramishvili: The Georgian Poet
2. A Life of Adventures and Poetry
3. Legacy and Death

David Guramishvili: The Georgian Poet

David Guramishvili was a Georgian poet and the leading representative of national pre-romanticism. He was born in the village of Gorisubani near Mtskheta, and came from a noble family descended from the Zedzenidze clan, who shared the same ancestry as the Amilakhvari family. At the age of 18, he participated in the battle of Zedavele, where the forces of the Kartli King Vakhtang VI were defeated by Turkish troops, along with the Lezgins and Georgian traitors. This defeat plunged Georgia into a state of chaos, which Guramishvili later described in his poem "The Misfortunes of Georgia". Around 1728, he was kidnapped by Lezgin bandits and spent several months in captivity before managing to escape. Guramishvili trekked through mountain ranges to the Terek Valley, where he received help from the residents of a Cossack village. From there, he traveled to Moscow and joined the entourage of the exiled King Vakhtang. Guramishvili actively participated in the cultural initiatives undertaken by the king. After Vakhtang's death in 1737, members of his entourage accepted Russian citizenship. Guramishvili was enlisted as a regular soldier in the Georgian Hussar Regiment, and he was also granted estates in Little Russia, near Mirgorod.

A Life of Adventures and Poetry

Guramishvili took part in campaigns against the Ottoman Empire, Sweden, and Prussia. During the last campaign in 1758, he was severely wounded, captured, and imprisoned in Magdeburg for about a year. In December 1759, he was freed and allowed to return to Russia. Upon his return, due to his health condition, Guramishvili retired and settled in his Little Russian estates together with his young wife, Princess Tatiana Amilashvili. There, he devoted considerable attention to agriculture (in particular, teaching Ukrainian peasants to use water mills, which were common in Georgia) and began composing the "Davitiani" (meaning "David's") - an extensive cycle of autobiographical lyrics, completed in 1787 and sent with an embassy to Georgia, where it was published in 1870. Through his verses, Guramishvili expressed his concerns for the fate of his homeland, depicted its misfortunes and events of his life, and expressed hope for the revival of Georgia. Rejecting Eastern influence, he noticeably brought the poetic language closer to colloquial speech and portrayed the everyday life of Ukrainian peasants (for example, in the anacreontic poem "Zubovka"). Simultaneously, many of his poems were marked by a tragic Christian worldview and mystical depth; his contacts with the prominent Ukrainian mystic Hryhoriy Skovoroda are widely known. In the poem "The Shepherd Katsvia", these two aspects of his creativity converge as the poet describes an idyllic life in Georgia, free from discord and war, reminiscent of the life of humanity before the fall.

Legacy and Death

Guramishvili passed away in 1792 and was buried in the Ascension Church in Mirgorod. In 1949, a monument was erected on the poet's grave. His poems have been widely translated into Russian (by N. Zabolotsky and others) and Ukrainian (by M. Bazhan).