GEORGIAN TRADITIONAL TABLE CLOTH Shota Rustaveli - Vepkhistkaosani - The Man / Knight in The Panther's Skin Very elegant and beautiful. Model: Shota Rustaveli - Vepkhistkaosani - The Man / Knight in The Panther's Skin Material: 100% Polyester Color: White Size: 210cm x140cm Can be washed at 30 C History of Georgian Table Cloth Blue table clothes has been used throughout many centuries in Georgia. In Eastern Georgia it has been used at celebrating feasts. In 19th century the blue cloth has been a must in the capital city of Tbilisi. It was also mainly been used for celebrations. The middle part of the table was used for placing a round medallion as a rounding symbol of eternity. The main decorative motifs are: crosses, fishes, birds, deers, etc. Later on, additional symbols as cuttlery, spoons, peopledressed in Georgian national dresses and costumes has been added on. The Man in the Panther's Skin Sometimes also referred to as "The Knight in the Panther's Skin", The Man in the Panther's Skin has been translated into many languages. It was first printed in 1712 in the Georgian capital Tbilisi. The manuscripts of The Man in the Panther's Skin occupy an important place among the works produced in Georgia. Two folios of this text, dating from the 16th century, are located in the Institute of Manuscripts of Georgia in Tbilisi, and some lines of the poem from the 14th century are also held there. All other copies of the poem date from the 17th century. The Man in the Panther's Skin (Georgian: ვეფხისტყაოსანი, translit.: vepkhist'q'aosani pronounced [vɛpʰxist’q’ɑosɑni] literally "one with a skin of a tiger") is a Georgian medieval epic poem, written in the 12th century by Georgia's national poet Shota Rustaveli. A definitive work of the Georgian Golden Age, the poem consists of over 1600 Rustavelian Quatrains and is considered to be a "masterpiece of the Georgian literature". Until the early 20th century, a copy of this poem was part of the dowry of any bride. Although the poem takes place in the fictional settings of "India" and "Arabia", events in these distant lands are but a colorful allegory of the rule of Queen Tamar of Georgia, and the size and glory of the Kingdom of Georgia in its Golden Age. It tells the friendship of two heroes, Avtandil and Tariel, and their quest to find the object of love, Nestan-Darejan, an allegorical embodiment of Queen Tamar. These idealized heroes and devoted friends are united by courtly love, generosity, sincerity, dedication, and proclaim equality between men and women, which is a recurring theme. The poem is regarded as the "coronation of thought, poetic and philosophical art of medieval Georgia", a complex work with rich and transcending genres. It has been described as "epic", "chivalric romance", "epic romance" and "epic poem of lyric poetry."[8] Despite its formal complexity, it bears to this day "the Georgian vision of the world." Within Georgia, the poem has been translated into other Kartvelian languages like Laz, Svan and Mingrelian languages. Outside of Georgia, interest in the poem first appeared in 1802, when Eugene Bolkhovitinov published a verbatim translation of the first stanza of the poem into Russian. In France in 1828, Marie-Félicité Brosset made his first partial French translation. In the 19th century the poem saw full translations into Polish, German and Russian. In 1845, extracts were published in Russian, French and Armenian. Vahan Terian, a prominent Georgian-born Armenian poet, translated the prelude, which was first published posthumously in 1922. It was praised by Nicholas Marr. In 1912, Marjory Wardrop published the first English translation available. In 1968, a verse translation by Venera Urushadze was published in Georgia. In 2015, an English poetic translation by Lyn Coffin was published, combining literary achievement with academic precision.[citation needed] Today, unabridged editions are available in many languages: Abkhaz, Armenian, Azerbaijanian, Bashkir, Belarusian, Bulgarian, Chechen, Chinese, Chuvash, Czech, Esperanto, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Kazakh, Korean, Kurdish, Kyrgyz, Moldovan, Mongolian, Ossetian, Persian, Romanian, Serbian, Spanish, Tatar, Turkmen, Ukrainian, and Uzbek. Among the translations, the 1989 Esperanto version by Zurab Makaŝvili and the 2015 English version by Lyn Coffin are notable not only for faithfully reproducing the content of the poem, but also for preserving the poetic structure of the epic in shairi (rhymed stanzas of four sixteen-syllable lines). Shota Rustaveli Shota Rustaveli (Georgian: შოთა რუსთაველი, c. 1160—after c. 1220), mononymously known simply as Rustaveli, was a medieval Georgian poet. He is considered to be the pre-eminent poet of the Georgian Golden Age and one of the greatest contributors to Georgian literature. Rustaveli was the author of The Man in the Panther's Skin, which is considered to be a Georgian national epic poem. Little, if anything, is known about Rustaveli from contemporary sources. Shota Rustaveli was born in 1166. He starts serving Queen Tamar as a Minister of Finance in 1191. His poem itself, namely the prologue, provides a clue to his identity: the poet identifies himself as "a certain Rustveli." "Rustveli" is not a surname, but a territorial epithet that can be interpreted as "of/from/holder of Rustavi". Later Georgian authors from the 15th through 18th centuries are more informative; they are almost unanimous in identifying him as Shota Rustaveli, a name that is preserved on a fresco and a document from the formerly Georgian Monastery of the Holy Cross at Jerusalem. The fresco was described by the Georgian pilgrim Timote Gabashvili in 1757/58 and rediscovered by a team of Georgian scholars in 1960. The same Jerusalem document speaks of Shota as a sponsor of the monastery and a mechurchletukhutsesi ("high treasurer"), echoing a popular legend that Rustaveli was a minister at Queen Tamar’s court and retired to the monastery at an advanced age. Both a folk tradition and the 17th-century royal poet Archil identify Rustaveli as a native of the southern Georgian region of Meskheti, where his home village Rustavi was located (not to be confused with the modern-day city of Rustavi near Tbilisi). He is assumed to have been born between 1160 and 1165. A legend states that Rustaveli was educated at the medieval Georgian academies of Gelati and Ikalto, and then in "Greece" (i.e., the Byzantine Empire). He must have produced his major work no earlier than the 1180s and no later than the first decade of the 13th century, most probably 1205-1207. Shota Rustaveli died between 1245 and 1250. Rustaveli was well acquainted with Persian "and was therefore able to read and appreciate its poetry without having to resort to faulty translations". Rustaveli may have composed Persian verse as well. An amazing collector unit and an extremely precious gift to any Georgian and a very elegant décor for your home! |