Narrative
იავნანამ რა ჰქმნა?!
Not translated into English
Iakob Gogebashvili · 1890
Synopsis
Keto, a little girl from a village in Kakheti, is abducted by Lezgian horsemen and grows up in Dagestan, in another language and another faith. Grown into a young woman, she is brought back to her own people, but she recognises neither the country nor her family, who look for something to awaken her memory: what remains is the lullaby her mother used to sing to her, which gives the story its title.
Context
The story was written by the educator to whom Georgia already owed its primer of 1876, from which the country's children have learned to read ever since. It rests on a frontier fact common in the nineteenth century, the abduction of children on the lowlands of Kakheti. Its author showed there the role of song in what makes a man belong to his country: the lullaby brings memory back like a session of analysis. A bilingual French translation by Jacky Lavauzelle is available online under the title Berceuse géorgienne; no printed edition is known.
Who it is for
A short tale, written for children and readable by everyone, whose French version can be consulted online rather than in bookshops.
Prizes and reception
The best known of its author's tales, a companion to every Georgian since childhood according to the national encyclopaedia.