Tinatin Beruashvili

Master of Philology

The University of Georgia

Tamaz Beradze Institute of Georgian Studies

ORCID

t.beruashvili@ug.edu.ge

Translation of "The Martyrdom of Eustathius of Mtskheta" by David Marshall Lang
Abstract
"The Martyrdom of Eustathius of Mtskheta" recounts the martyrdom of a 6th-century Christian saint. Georgian literature has preserved several versions of the work: hymnic, metaphrastic, and synaxarion. The text is significant for many reasons: it reflects the political situation of Kartli in the second half of the 6th century, Christian preaching, legal practices, and more.
"The Martyrdom of Eustathius of Mtskheta" has been translated into English, Russian, and German at different times. The first translation of the work was done by M. Sabinin, who translated it into Russian in 1872. This translation was included in M. Sabinin’s 1882 book Полное жизнеописание святых грузинской церкви under the title Страдание святого мученика Евстафия Мцхетского. In 1901, Ivane Javakhishvili translated the work into German and published it in Berlin under the title Das Martyrium des heiligen Eustatius von Mzchetha.
As for the English translation, in 1956 David Marshall Lang published a book titled Lives and Legends of the Georgian Saints, in which, along with translations of the lives of other Georgian saints, the Martyrdom of Eustathius of Mtskheta was also included under the title The Passion of St. Eustace the Cobbler. This interpretation of the title is not found in the Russian and German translations. When discussing The Martyrdom of Eustathius of Mtskheta, Lang notes that it is one of the most important works of original Georgian hagiography, providing extensive material on the political relations between Sasanian Iran and Christian Kartli. Additionally, attention is drawn to the perspectives of Archdeacon Samuel, the final words of Eustathius, Christological issues, and so on. David Marshall Lang’s translation is based on the text established by S. Qubaneshvili and I. Imnaishvili (Lang, 1976, 95). The translation is complete, with no sections omitted from the work.
Our presentation aims to compare the Georgian text of “The Martyrdom of Eustathius” of Mtskheta with its English translation. In the course of our work, we will use methods of description, typological research, discourse analysis, and comparative analysis. We believe that with these research methods, it will be possible to identify the challenges that arise in translating monuments of Old Georgian literature into English, as well as to highlight the strategies used by translators in dealing with such issues.
Keywords: "The Martyrdom of Eustathius of Mtskheta", Georgian hagiography in translations, David Marshal Lang