Shota Rustaveli. 2010

“Since the sun shines alike on roses and middens,

be not thou weary of mercy to great and small.

The generous binds the free, and he who is already bound will willingly obey.

 Scatter liberally, as the seas pour forth again the floods they have received.”

Shota Rustaveli – georgian statesman and poet, father of the new Georgian literary language.  Years of life –  XII century.

The great humanist proclaims the freedom of an individual, the freedom of thought and feeling, advocates for human life. Rustaveli embodied the ideals and aspirations of his people. The system of his ideas is of universal significance. His freethinking anticipated the humanistic ideas of the Early Renaissance.

Shota Rustaveli served as treasurer of Queen Tamara. It was the time of the political power of Georgia and the flowering of poetry at the lush courtyard of the young queen. Familiar with the poems of Homer and the philosophy of Plato, theology, Persian and Arabic literature, Rustaveli devoted himself entirely to literary activity. He created the poem “The Knight in the Panther’s Skin” – the pride of Georgian literature. Following the best folklore traditions, Rustaveli developed and raised Georgian poetry to great heights. The poem “The Knight in the Panther’s Skin” is written in an elegant, light, musical verse Shairi –  sixteen-syllable Rustavelian Quatrain. Shota Rustaveli was a brilliant aphorist. Wise, concise, winged aphorisms spread among the broad masses of the people and turned into popular wisdom.