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Almost twenty years ago, Guram Asatiani published his last book “At the Sources” (several attempts at revealing the Georgian character and aesthetic nature). It has been twenty years that Guram Asatiani is no longer with us. Yet to this day, “At the Sources” continues to inspire the interest of Georgian readers. In the book, Guram Asatiani asserts that “the mutual attraction of soul and matter, their harmony and fusion, is a fundamental feature of the aesthetic nature of the Georgian people”. “The spiritual and material do not diminish or absorb each other on the Georgian Parnassus, but rather participate in “extreme” form in this union, and thus make up a rare whole”. Asatiani concurs with Vazha Pshavela and maintains that “in Pshavian poetry extreme realism is combined with extreme idealism”. The author has made a foreword to “The Sources”, but did not have it published at that time. Today, we have decided to print this brief introduction... Manana Kikodze

My dear friend, my fellow countryman, I want to invite you under the large dome. I want to lead you to the familiar abode where we are awaited with amazement. They wonder how easily, without surprise, we pass through these places, as if everything should be as it is, as if this alley has grown all by itself… It was, it is and it will be here… And you, you too – go ahead, walk on, leisurely, giving no thought and without stopping…

Do you know at what expense all this has been preserved?

Do you know what kind of land it is?

Do you know, when walking like that, carrying your body in such a manner and with a very distinct gait, unlike anyone else’s, how hard it was to make sure you did not look like anybody! Do you know whose blessing was that?

Let us reflect more on that.

Maybe it would be better if we forgot our gait, our own way of going, and follow the steps of others, without being distinguished or separated from the others – get going, right-o!

Of course, you will disagree. You think my answer is the same.

But let us first weigh up everything properly, let us look around and try to understand as deeply as we can.

Was it worth the effort?

Was it worth the effort to be just as we are – was it worth all the hard work, great care taken by this sun, this air, these rays, this rainbow, this heavenly manna, these fallen leaves, these rainfalls, to give us this very expression, this very identity?

Is it worth preserving what we have been endowed with?

And if it is what exactly needs to be preserved, for what reason or purpose, and by what means?

If my memory does not fail me, it was Diderot who said that swallows think the Arc of Triumph was built for them.

Is it really us that this dome of the blue sky belongs to, the dome that has been nurturing us for such a long time? Is its mysterious depth really the reflection of our unfathomable soul, or are we here just by chance, are we only temporary tenants under this roof and need to collect all our belongings tomorrow and set off to the infinity, leaving no trace behind and letting someone else settle down where we used to live?

Let us not hurry with a response: let us give it a careful thought  t  o  g  e  t  h  e  r – calmly, without bias, to the extent that our own nature and the time running fatefully fast allows us.

Guram Asatiani