Georgian poet, born in 1939 in Tbilisi. She graduated from Tbilisi State University Department of Philology. Her first poetry collection Trees in a City was published in 1965. She is the author of 20 poetry and 2 prose collections. In different years she received the major Georgian literary prizes, including Galaktion Tabidze Prize, Ilia Chavchavadze Prize, Shota Rustaveli Prize; as well as the National Prize of Georgia. In 2013 she was awarded with SABA prize for the best poetry book of the year.
She has participated in numerous international forums and festivals in Israel, Germany, Spain, France etc. Her poems are translated into several languages.
February
I’m good at talking with the dead,
but still, whatam I to say?
Speaking with you I keep saying
the same faded words:
this is hard, that is strain,I can’t deal
with myself, my memories, the fall…
Even harder it is toplay self-sufficient:
music,organised onthe paper,
becomes refinedthough,
I walk under the careful eyes,
the voice beaten with rocks
is not meantto be heard,
no matter how farmydaughtergoes,
shelooks out of my thigh,
her husband died,her child
sprouted on my second thigh,
I walk around like a blossomed lilac -
it’s spring and time for someone to like me.
Is your heaven the same?
Nor ours any longer. It’s just my imagination,
like a sunny day…
translated by Dalila Gogia