Vardoshvili

(pseudonym of Khariton Ivanovich Nikolaishvili). Born Sept. 24 (Oct. 6), 1895, in the village of Tskhemliskhidi, now in Makharadze Raion, Georgian SSR; died Oct. 14, 1970, in Tbilisi. Soviet Georgian poet and translator.

Vardoshvili first published in 1919. His first collection of verses appeared in 1924. Vardoshvili’s early work is marked by decadent motifs, which the poet renounced in the first years of Soviet power in Georgia. His second collection of verses (1943) is filled with lofty patriotism and civic spirit ("The Hero,” “To Stalingrad,” “The Red Army Soldier,” and “A Soldier’s Letter to His Mother”). Inherent in Vardoshvili’s work is a certain poetic rationalism. Among his translations are verses and ballads of J. W. Goethe, F. Schiller, H. Heine, A. S. Pushkin, and A. Mickiewicz.