Untitled, by Murman Lebanidze:
Spring has come, Len!
The birds have made
Their nests…
I will buy you chintz, yellow and red
And you embroider the
White cloth for me!
Spring has come, Len!
I have made you miss.
The plowed field
And the forest,
The smell of the elder,
Crushed by the heel,
Far, the dome of
Betania church
And blue, unfettered
day…
I have made you miss
The plowed field
And the forest!
I will not make you
Stay at home anymore,
You will not call
The family “prison”,
Make quick boy
Go along the path –
And make him,
Like a greyhound, run ahead fast!
I will not make you
Stay at home anymore.
Spring has come, Len!
Around is heard
The twitter of birds…
I’ll buy you
Flowery chintz,
And you embroider
The white cloth for me!
Spring has come, Len!
The Georgian Language by Mukhran Machavariani:
Is Georgian only a language!?
It is the Georgians’ belief?
It is God!
It is destiny!
It is as large
as the sea!
***
Mukhran Machavariani was a Georgian poet, a member of the Supreme Council of the Republic of Georgia from 1990 until 1992, and a recipient of the Shota Rustaveli Prize of Georgia. From 1988 until 1990 he was the Chairman of the Union of Georgian Writers. He died during a performance at Rustaveli Theatre in Tbilisi.
From 1946, Murman Lebanidze worked in the editorial offices of youth literary magazines and newspapers, then as the chief editor of the Committee of the Printed Word of Georgia. From 1978, he was the secretary and then chairman of the Shota Rustaveli State Awards Committee. He was the president of the Rustaveli Society. He published his first collection of lyric poems in 1950. He won Shota Rustaveli and Galaktion awards, claimed a Medal of Honor, and in 1995, was elected an Honorary Citizen of Tbilisi. Murman Lebanidze is buried in Didubi Pantheon.
Translated by Ketevan Tukhareli
