Abstract:
Four-stanza poem “The First Stables” of Galaktion Tabidze
stands out for its wealth of folk-symbols, which once again confirms
the connection of the poet’s work with the folk tradition.
The poem is full of taeps containing mythological symbolism:
“the first feast of the stables”, decorating the balconies with flowers,
searching for a flower of consolation in the forest at night,
searching for treasure in the mountains, chasing deer on horseback
in the morning, etc.
The first stanza is a kind of expository part of the poem, in
which the alternation of the words “we celebrating” and “they
who celebrating” fills the reader with the expectation of a miracle
and an elevated mood. It is clear that the poem depicts a
sacred time with mythologems, some forgotten holiday and secret ritual. The team element characteristic of the holiday creates
an important effect in the poetic work, because women and men
take part in it team by team. Just as it characterizes a secret religious
ritual, the role of women and men is differentiated in the
poem: on the night before the holiday, the young women go to
the forest in search of a flower of consolation, while a team of
guys goes to the mountains to find the “Khazina”, the same treasure:
the flower of consolation and the treasure are both artistic-
mythological symbols. In them, an invisible and unknown
secret is understood by people. The motif of the search for the
treasure is imbued with a special sacralism in the poem “The
First Stables”, because the treasure represents the highest purity
in mythology.
The final stanza of Galaktion’s poem describes the process
of chasing deer. Chasing a deer is a common story in the folklore
of peoples around the world, as is finding treasure on a deer
trail. Since the deer symbolizes supernatural beings in the myth,
I think that the moaning of the wounded baby roe deer, which,
according to the poem, makes the participants of the celebration
cry, should be considered a part of the secret ritual.
As the research showed, G. Tabidze’s poem is based on the
old Abkhazian folk holiday of the revival of the forces of nature
and Easter, which was held in the spring: 1. both reflect the
spring ritual of the first flowering, which G. Tabidze calls “The
First Stables” holiday; 2. young women from both go to the forest
on the night of the holiday; 3. according to the Abkhazian
holiday, the purpose of women going to the forest was to search
for the “five-eared flower”, while according to G. Tabidze, – finding
the “flower of consolation”; 4. one of the main elements of
both G. Tabidze’s poem and the Abkhazian holiday is the search
for “treasure” by the guys in the forest at night (near Galaktion –
in the mountains); 5. it is true that the scene of the morning of the holiday in the Abkhazian ritual and Tabidze’s poem is more
or less different, but both are united by the motif of the sacred
animal – the deer, which in both of them embodies a heavenly
being, a suprarational substance.
Thus, in the poem “The First Stables” of Galaktion Tabidze
we find a representation of the ancient Abkhazian mystery,
which the poet preserved with extremely high artistic skill, the
mood of the holiday, deep mystery and sacred charge.
