Vazha-Pshavela

Poet of highland Georgia

1861–1915

Luka Razikashvili wrote as Vazha-Pshavela, «a man of Pshavi». His poems Aluda Ketelauri, Host and Guest and The Snake-Eater raised highland epic to universal tragedy.

He lived a peasant's life in the mountain village of Chargali and became one of the most profound poets of the Georgian language, translated by Pasternak and Zabolotsky.