Georgian poet.
Paata Shamugia became known to the wide circle of readers due to his book Anti-Tkaosani (a word play on the famous Georgian medieval epic “The Knight in Panther’s Skin”), which provoked much controversy. Three years later, in 2010 he published his poetry collection “Advantage”, which immediately attracted public attention.
In 2011 Paata Shamugia received Saba Prize for the best collection of poems (The Unsettled). In 2012 the magazine Hot Chocolate named him the Person of the Year. His poetry is translated into the English, Russian, French, Turkish and German.
A Businesslike Poet
I’m visa-free in language,
I make business contracts with verbs and nouns,
I make intermissions with interjections,
I’m a businesslike poet.
I lead diplomatic negotiations with binary oppositions,
I stand after a prefix – like a gentleman,
but I turn a blind eye to past simple – simply impudent!
I check my base – I have to stand strong.
I’m a businesslike poet.
I practice the forms of interrelations – I’m in shape.
I build the crumbed infrastructure
of my body – I run.
To relax, I invest hormones
In the first girl I meet – oops!
Nothing personal, just poetry,
I’m a businesslike poet.
I set free everyone
who has been living in the prison of ready-made answers.
It’s time to be sentenced to peace!
It’s time to be sentenced to love!
We have it coming!
Zero tolerance to petty obsessions!
I’m a businesslike poet.
I try to eliminate separatism –
Separation between a language
And humans.
The one who speaks always lies.
The one who writes is always
exposed by the lies he writes.
My lie’s ordinary,
My poem’s extraordinary.
I’m a businesslike poet.
translated from Georgian by Nino Gogua