Tale
A Book of Wisdom and Lies
სიბრძნე სიცრუისა
Sulkhan-Saba Orbeliani · 1695
Synopsis
In the frame narrative, King Phonez, his vizier Sedrak, his eunuch Rukha, his son Djumber and Leon, the prince's tutor, argue among themselves; each defends his point of view with stories. These dozens of fables and tales make up the bulk of the book: we meet cunning animals, merchants, cadis and dervishes, drawn from Georgian folklore and the literatures of the Near East, and we travel from France to India.
Context
The book was written between 1686 and 1695, when its author was in his twenties. In 1894 Oliver Wardrop published an expurgated English translation of it, printed by William Morris at the Kelmscott Press; he praised its concise, epigrammatic style. Gaston Bouatchidzé translated it into French, with illustrations by Lado Goudiachvili, published by Ganatléba in Tbilisi in 1978; a second Paris edition followed under a different title. The Oxford Georgian translation project has recently produced a selection from it.
Who it is for
Short fables within a frame narrative; each can be read separately, without following the order of the book.
Prizes and reception
His most famous work and one of the most widely read monuments of Georgian literature; the author is regarded as one of the country's finest prose writers.