A world digital home for Rustaveli and his poem: the text, the biography, translations, illustrations, recordings and videos in one place.
რომელმან შექმნა სამყარო ძალითა მით ძლიერითა,
ზეგარდმო არსნი სულითა ყვნა ზეცით მონაბერითა,
ჩვენ, კაცთა, მოგვცა ქვეყანა, გვაქვს უთვალავი ფერითა,
მისგან არს ყოვლი ხელმწიფე სახითა მის მიერითა.The opening stanza (in Georgian)
A medieval Georgian epic poem written at the turn of the 12th and 13th centuries and dedicated to Queen Tamar. It is composed in shairi, a sixteen-syllable verse.
The story falls into two quests: Avtandil searches for Tariel, the knight in the panther’s skin, and then both search for Tariel’s beloved, Nestan-Darejan. Its great themes are love, friendship, loyalty and the victory of good over evil.
The poem was first printed in 1712, at the press founded by King Vakhtang VI.
Shota Rustaveli was a poet of the Georgian royal court at the turn of the 12th and 13th centuries. No direct biographical evidence about him survives: the poem’s prologue gives the author’s name, while the name “Shota” appears in sources only from the 17th century. Scholars have therefore put forward many theories about who he was.
The most widely held view today is that the author is Shota Rustaveli the royal treasurer, depicted on the wall of the Georgian Monastery of the Cross in Jerusalem and named in its book of commemorations.
One theory of authorship rests on 14th-century Georgian historical sources.
Some modern studies link Rustaveli’s origin to Meskheti and the great Toreli feudal family (M. Janashvili, N. Shoshiashvili, S. Tsaishvili, R. Pirtskhalaishvili, G. Arabuli).
The idea that Rustaveli and Chakhrukhadze were one person was considered in various ways by N. Marr, Meskhetian folk tradition and S. Kakabadze.
Some writers held the poet to have been the Bishop of Rustavi, or a cleric.
Z. Aleksidze saw the poet as a member of the Ruistaveli, a feudal house of Kakheti-Kukheti.
In 1926 Ingorokva devoted his monograph “Rustveliana” to Rustaveli and developed his own account of the poet’s identity. More at rustveliana.ge
The poem has been translated into more than 50 languages. Within Georgia it has also been rendered into the other Kartvelian languages: Laz, Svan and Mingrelian. Full translations into Polish, German and Russian appeared in the 19th century.
| Russian | 1841–45 | Ippolit Bartdinsky 142 stanzas, the earliest translation of the poem | |
| German | 1889 | Arthur Leist “Der Mann im Tigerfelle”, one of the first complete European translations | Open → |
| English | 1912 | Marjory Wardrop the first English translation, in prose | Open → |
| Russian | XX | K. Balmont, P. Petrenko, N. Zabolotsky, Sh. Nutsubidze four well-known Russian versions | Open → |
| English | 1968 | Venera Urushadze verse translation | |
| English | 1977 | Robert Stevenson published with UNESCO | |
| Esperanto | 1989 | Zurab Makashvili preserving the poem’s structure | |
| Persian | 1998 | Farshid Delshad the first Persian translation, Tehran | |
| English | 2015 | Lyn Coffin verse translation in the sixteen-syllable shairi | |
| Korean | — | Ju-Kwan Cho the translator received Georgia’s Order of Honor in 2017 | |
| Turkish | — | Bilal Dindar, Zeynelabidin Makas the only complete Turkish translation |
Unabridged editions also exist in: Abkhaz, Armenian, Azerbaijani, Bashkir, Belarusian, Bulgarian, Chechen, Chinese, Chuvash, Czech, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Kazakh, Kurdish, Kyrgyz, Moldovan, Mongolian, Ossetian, Romanian, Serbian, Slovak, Spanish, Tatar, Turkmen, Ukrainian, Uzbek…
Manuscripts of the 17th–18th centuries are adorned with miniatures; the 17th-century master Mamuka Tavakarashvili painted the well-known miniature of Rustaveli dictating his poem. In 1881 the Georgian intelligentsia commissioned the Hungarian artist Mihály Zichy to illustrate it; so moved was he by the poem that he refused payment. His illustrated “Kartvelishvili edition” appeared in 1888. In the 20th century, landmark illustrations were created by Sergo Kobuladze and Irakli Toidze.
The National Library of Georgia’s audiobook collection holds a 1983 Melodiya record set of the poem in English, in Marjory Wardrop’s translation.
More material is being added. If you have a recording, photo or text, write to us.
The identity of Shota Rustaveli — Davit Galegashvili on Ia Danelia’s programme (in Georgian)
Watch on YouTubeThe identity of Shota Rustaveli — Davit Galegashvili on Ia Danelia’s programme (in Georgian)
Watch on YouTubeThe identity of Shota Rustaveli — Davit Galegashvili on Ia Danelia’s programme (in Georgian)
Watch on YouTubeThe identity of Shota Rustaveli — Davit Galegashvili on Ia Danelia’s programme (in Georgian)
Watch on YouTubeThe identity of Shota Rustaveli — Davit Galegashvili on Ia Danelia’s programme (in Georgian)
Watch on YouTubeThe identity of Shota Rustaveli — Davit Galegashvili on Ia Danelia’s programme (in Georgian)
Watch on YouTubeMore material is being added. If you have a recording, photo or text, write to us.