Paata Shamugia

Paata Shamugia Poems

Paata Shamugia Biography

Source: Wikipedia Paata Shamugia - the most influential and provocative contemporary Georgian poet. His texts, according to Georgian literary scholars, comprise a high amount of self-irony and sometimes, even weird linguistic performances as well. In 2015 year he became the first Georgian poet to get the most prestigious SABA literary prize twice. After publishing his début poem 'Panther's Skin' in 2006 (in which author countered so-called 'Georgian Bible' 'The knight in the panther's skin') , he gained wide popularity in Georgian public. During several months in the Georgian press and TV people had disputed around this book. After 3 years, in 2010 Paata Shamugia published book 'Preference', Was commended by the critics and estimated as an author's best book. After publishing his début poem 'Panther's Skin' in 2006 in 2006 (in which author countered so-called 'Georgian Bible' 'The knight in the panther's skin') , he gained wide popularity in Georgian public. During several months in the Georgian press and TV people had disputed around this book. Even the Georgian parliament members demanded to ban the book because of its " harmful behavior" and disrespect of the tradition. The members of the Radical Orthodox Parents' Union published a letter dedicated to Shamugia in the newspaper " Asaval-Dasavali" , in which they asked to Georgian Orthodox Church to ban the book. In 2015 year publishing-house INTELEKTI published Paata Shamugia's famous book SCHIZO-NATIONAL ANTHEMS, which brought him most prestigious literary prize of Georgia for the second time. As a literary critic and poet, George Lobjanidze has mentioned, 'Paata Shamugia's poetry is the most adequate for the reality of today, because no reader remains indifferent toward his texts. For some people - and mostly for his peers or the younger generations - Paata is an idol. Some strongly believes he's a mason, godless, anti-traditional etc...' 'One can randomly open SCHIZO-NATIONAL ANTHEMS at any page and find an inspiring quotation - an influential social message, slogan, motto - as the best sample of intertextuality; as an innovative, quite an unusual product born between poetic and mathematic logics' - Poet and literary critic Shota Iatashvili has emphasized in his review. Biography Paata Shamugia was born in Georgia (country) , Abkhazia, Graduated from the philological faculty at Tbilisi state university. Since 2018 year Paata Shamugia is a president of PEN Georgia. Shamugia's poems are translated in more than 20 languages. rewards 2012 - Paata Shamugia won SABA - the most prestigious literary award of Georgia and his book ACATISTE was named as the best book of the year. 2012 - The Art magazine HOT CHOCOLATE named Paata Shamugia the person of the Year. 2015 - Paata Shamugia won SABA literary prize for the second time - and his book SCHIZO-NATIONAL ANTHEMS was named as the best book of the year.)

The Best Poem Of Paata Shamugia

Elementary Binaries

The one who sows the wind, will reap the whirlwind,
Though, for the one who reaps the whirlwind
There might also be a certain meteorological phenomenon,
More severe and intense,
As God is merciful.
And the one who sacrifices life to poetry,
Will get killed by the prose of life.
The one who dies, will rise
Or resurrect (depends on the dictionary used) .
The one who shoots birds,
Will die a dog's death
Hearing the weird twittering
From the other side of the walls
But that would not be the twittering of birds.
The one who flies away,
Will always fail to fly back,
Though, let's start from that
The one will never get the chance to fly at all-
So regrettable.
But this is how the dialectic of life works-
Without any likelihood of desire
Or joy to alter it.

The one who laughs in the end
Is the teacher,
And time is the end of the term,
Yet occasionally, this dichotomy malfunctions embarrassingly
And the education system laughs in the end.
The one born for war
Will never die in war,
That's weird
But nothing to be done.
The one whose writing style is inimitable
Lives a trivial life
And even vice versa,
This is a kinda apology one owes the other
And, accordingly, vice versa too.
The one trying to find a philosopher's stone
Will get his skull smashed by that very stone,
So, would have been far more logical

If Prometheus had been cast into the fire
And Bruno - towards the Caucasus Mountain ridge
But we have to face a struggle to live
Under the heavy burden of controvertible truths-
That's the way life goes.

The one who lives with the fear of failure
Will gain a victory one day
Realizing no great change it will make
Apart from that hasty and magic process of
Some enemies becoming friends
And hundreds of new relatives
Claiming so much affection they've had for you, oh, GOD, so much.
The one who asks for justice
Will obtain it,
The one who asks for goodness and social equality
Will obtain it,
And the one who asks for peace
Will also obtain it -
As a good poem is supposed to have a good ending.

Translated by Inga Zhghenti

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