Temur Doiashvili

Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University

(Shota Rustaveli Institute of Georgian Literature)

Chief Research Fellow

PhD in Philology

Tbilisi/Georgia

galaktionologia@yahoo.com

Galaktion Tabidze’s early lyric poetry represents one of the most significant turning points in twentieth-century Georgian poetry, in which the influence of Symbolist aesthetics and its creative reinterpretation gradually become evident. Although the poet’s artistic evolution was multifaceted and cannot be confined within a single, rigidly defined literary framework, his early works clearly reveal tendencies organically connected with the poetics of European and Russian Symbolism.

In Galaktion’s early lyric poetry, the inclination toward Symbolism is manifested, first and foremost, in a perception of the world as mysterious and enigmatic. Empirical reality is no longer presented as something directly given; instead, it is transformed into a system of signs and allusions, in which objects lose their unambiguous meanings and acquire multilayered symbolic significance. In this way, a poetic space is created that seeks an intuitive apprehension of what lies beyond visible reality.

The principle of musicality also occupies an important place. In Galaktion’s poetry, sound, rhythm, and intonation function not merely as formal elements but as structural foundations for the expression of meaning. The word frequently loses its purely logical and referential function and is transformed into an emotional and associative signal, one of the fundamental characteristics of Symbolist poetics.

The early texts also reveal a transformation of Romantic consciousness, which may be regarded as a transitional stage on the path toward Symbolism. The individual’s inner drama, aspiration toward an ideal, and negative perception of reality gradually assume a more complex metaphysical form, in which the subject and the world emerge as separate systems that nevertheless remain interconnected through symbolic relationships.

Another particularly notable feature of Galaktion’s early lyric poetry is the Symbolist technique of suggestion, whereby an object ceases to function as a bearer of direct meaning and instead becomes part of a multilayered semantic field. This creates an openness of interpretation and turns the reader into an active participant in the construction of poetic meaning.

It is also important to note that Galaktion was well acquainted with the works of European and Russian Symbolist authors, including Charles Baudelaire, Paul Verlaine, Arthur Rimbaud, Alexander Blok, and Valery Bryusov. Their poetic experience did not constitute a mere literary influence on the Georgian poet; rather, he reworked these aesthetic explorations in accordance with his own creative sensibility. Therefore, Symbolism in Galaktion’s lyric poetry appears not as imitation, but as an integral component of his individual artistic system.

Thus, Galaktion Tabidze’s early lyric poetry does not represent a mechanical transplantation of Symbolism. Rather, it constitutes a creative synthesis in which the experience of European Modernism merges with the Georgian poetic tradition. It was precisely this synthesis that gave rise to the unique poetic language that guided twentieth-century Georgian lyric poetry toward new aesthetic heights.

Keywords: Galaktion Tabidze; Symbolism; poetics.