To teach the idea of "Merani" or "only the companions of the stars"

ანოტაცია

Dimitri Uznadze’s words “Baratashvili’s entire literary work is just an odyssey of his soul striving for self-determination” are precisely the most important formula-key that helps us search for and clarify all the most important coordinates of the poet’s spiritual adventure. In this literary work, along with other lyrical works, the soul striving for self-determination in the process of learning reveals another height in the poem “Merani”.

Despite the fact that Nikoloz Baratashvili, the poet of an orphaned soul,’s poem “Merani” has become the object of numerous studies and analyses, the problematics presented by the poet in the work still arouse many thoughts and questions.

For a long time, literary criticism has unanimously recognized how this lyrical masterpiece by the great Georgian romantic poet of the 19th century, Baratashvili, is related to the legacy of Avtandili, one of the main characters in the 12th century genius poet Shota Rustaveli’s “The Rider in the Tiger’s Skin,” and acquires a kind of hereditary value in relation to it.

Particularly significant are Avtandili’s words, according to which, despite the loss and destruction of everything, even the sacrifice and destruction of life far from loved ones, the establishment of a “native homeland” or a heavenly kingdom for the soul is the most precious and desirable thing for him. The tireless and indomitable fighter lyrical hero of “Merani” also considers being far from loved ones, beloved, and even death to be nothing if he fulfills his long-awaited goal. The hero, trapped in an enchanted circle of black fate, wants to break through, to cross the “border of fate”, beyond which the promised land – the world of stars – awaits.

The main idea of ​​the poem, we think, is expressed precisely in these words:

“Only to the stars, my companions, did I reveal the secret of my heart..”

After all, he believes that only in the heavenly, divine realm will he find the keeper of his heart.

It is impossible not to recall the outstanding representatives of world romanticism, especially Giacomo Leopardi’s “Night Song of a Shepherd Wandering in Asia”, George Byron’s “The Voyages of Childe Harold”, John Keats’ “Hope” and Adam Mickiewicz’s “Paris”, when analyzing the ideological essence of which we can tangibly and clearly see Baratashvili’s ideal of being with the world of the supernatural. In twentieth-century Georgian poetry, this longing and aspiration is manifested by the great poet Galaktioni, for whom intervention in the transcendental has already become a habitual path and for him it is seen as an organic trajectory of movement, spiritual adventure “either up or down”. Galaktioni’s poem “Star” is not only etymologically, but also essentially equal to the idea of ​​Baratashvili’s poem. “We have slightly similar crowns” (Galaxy) – on the basis of the kinship and similarity of ideas, poetic masterpieces reflecting the highest ideal emerge. We believe that people with a spiritual structure similar to Baratashvili have indeed paved the way to this highest ideal, although it is also worth considering that the poet’s contemporaries did not have a romantic thinker like him. Therefore, in principle, we do not share the opinion that the main idea of ​​“Merani” is only paving the way for brothers. We consider it permissible that this is only one sub-idea, and only after the goal has been achieved, that is, the action orientation in the form of the final harbor of the soul (the world of stars) has been set. If we also take into account the view that Baratashvili's contemporaries do not have his spiritual relatives, or people who think like him, then, of course, the path blazed by the orphaned poet would later serve his kindred spirit, becoming a kindred spirit for his fellow human beings, becoming a kindred spirit for their brothers and sisters on the path of personal freedom, in order to attain the highest ideals - to reach the cosmic homeland, the native land, or the kingdom of stars.