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Using provincial dialects is a matter of theme, and if the given work’s theme embraces it,
corresponding speech should be applied. And it is nothing short of a blunder when our
intelligent authors use one and the same “style” to speak about Radium or Einstein and then
describe “provincial scenes.” Would it not be a blooper if we used the dialects of Apshina
from Blo and Shiola Ghudushauri to compose “aesthetical treatises” or poems about “astral”
or “urban” universes? Yes, it would be a blunder, and, ideally, you would notice it. But the
problem is that blunders have already been given a seal of approval, so you may very well
miss them. And so we continue polluting our literature.

Everyone must be aware of this, however painful it may be, so that they may come to loathe
their writings and invest all their might and skill in purifying language.
We have been very loud and vocal about things lofty and weighty because, quoting one
Georgian proverb, “We waste neither tin nor ammonium chloride.” On the contrary, we gain
a lot, because we amaze and puzzle naïve people. But the thing is that being vocal probably
does not cut it anymore. Our culture has entered the phase of active work, and this is where
the issue of purifying language comes into play as a major task. And Georgian writers must
lead the pack in working toward this cause. But they must heal themselves before exposing
others.

It is an easy task, because all it takes is hard academic work for a while, something that will
probably seem unacceptable to “Dadaists in chokha coats,” but it must be acceptable to those
who believe in literature as a major feat and responsibility to one’s nation.

Mikheil Javakhishvili
May 20, 1924

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