Alexander Chochia (Alexander Abasheli), under the literary pseudonym Khomaldeli, published the letter in the monthly literary Magazine "Khomaldi" in 1922. One part of the publication was dedicated to "Collection No 1" published under the editorship of Niko Lortkipanidze in 1921. During the discussion of the mentioned edition, Khomaldeli dealt with Meliton Kelenjeridze’s work "The Types of the Knight in the Panther’s Skin". While reviewing this work, Alexander Abasheli noted: "It is also interesting to try to rehabilitate Patman's personality" [Khomaldeli, 1922:96]. This phrase was followed by the reviewer's remark: "It should be said that poet Titsian Tabidze was the first, who tried to justify Patman in one of his poems" [Khomaldeli, 1922:96]¹. It is noteworthy that Patman is mentioned in two poems of Titsian Tabidze². Khomaldeli implies Titsian's poem "Fatman-Khatun", because the second text, which is called "The Deer Praises the Alp”, dates from 1926. This remark of the critic is interesting, because it shows what was approximately the perception of Titsian's work. I am citing the sonnet:

"The memory of a hot girl shines in my soul,

Greedy eyes see Fatman-Khatun  even while sleeping.

I love this ghost even when it hurts me,

May the past return...

The singers’ praise of love is heard here,

Fatman kisses the filled horns until the down

And caravans of bulls tear the roads,

Waiting to see her pale from desire.

Her lips will never be tired of kisses,

She makes the soul to trust, but later cuts it with betrayal.

A wine-taster and Avtandil are the same for her.

Fatman, your soul lives with the dream in your warm blanket,

It is your prisoner, like a mouse in a tin trap,

It is a ring dove, which fought a war with a kite”

[Tabidze, 2015:64].

In the letter sent from Moscow in 1916, Titsian Tabidze wrote to Ioseb Grishashvili: "This sonnet, which is being sent here, is worthy of “Leila's” kiss" [Tsisperqantselebi, 2018:65]. In 1916 the collection "Leila" was published under the editorship of Ioseb Grishashvili, but without Titsian's poem [Leila, 1917]. The letter contains another interesting fact, namely, Tsisperqantseli planned to write the sequence of sonnets: "It (Fatman Khatun"³ - K. L.) is one sonnet from the crown of sonnets" [Tsisperqantselebi, 2018:65].

The crown of sonnets is a complex type of a sequence of sonnets: "The crown of sonnets consists of 15 sonnets. The most important of them is one, which summarizes all the contents of the crown. It is called Magistrali...  All the sonnets are built on the 14 lines of Magistrali" [Mikadze, 1974:139]. The reason is unknown, but Titsian could not implement the idea of writing the crown of sonnets. As indicated in the special literature, despite the wide distribution of the sonnet, the crown of sonnets was not created in the 10-20s of the previous century⁴. The first "Crown of Sonnets" was written in Georgian in 1975 [Barbakadze, 2018:154]. As for Titsian's desire, as I mentioned, the poet sent this poem from Moscow at the end of 1916. This is the period, when in Russia the interest in crowns of sonnets was unprecedentedly increased: "As famous researcher of the "crown of sonnets", Tyukin, informs us, in 1911-1920 eleven crowns were published in Russia. Their authors are the following recognized masters of solid verse forms: Balmont, Shulgovski, Voloshin, Krichevsky, Obolensky, Arkhangelski and others" [Barbakadze... 2019-2020:76]. Against this background, Titsian's desire to write the crown of sonnets becomes clearer. We should also add that in 1917, shortly after sending the letter to Grishashvili, Titsian Tabidze sent "Fatman" and wrote to Valerian Gaprindashvili: "Max Voloshin exhibited "The Crown of Sonnets" as pictures” [Tsisperqantselebi, 2018:73]. Maximilian Voloshin is a poet and a painter. As it is indicated, "the earliest original "crowns of sonnets" in Russian poetry belong to Vyacheslav Ivanov and Maximilian Voloshin (1909)" [Barbakadze... 2019-2020:76].

One fact should also be noted. It is known that the above-mentioned poem by Titsian was published in the avant-garde collection "The Fantastic Cabaret". The title of the sonnet in the collection was "Ephemeral Masquerade", the subtitle was "Fatman" [Мельникова, 1917, 1918, 1919:127]. If we think that Titsian did not abandon the idea of writing a poetic sequence, then "Ephemeral Masquerade" might be thought as the title of the crown of sonnets.

Accordingly, the poet regarded the text in question as a constituent part of the crown of sonnets and the creation of a complex type of a sonnet sequence was probably inspired by the Russian modernists’ tendency.

Valery Bryusov’s "Crown of sonnets", whose name is "The Fatal Row" (Роковой ряд), was written on 22 May 1916 [Bryusov, 1973:303-310]. In addition, each sonnet of the crown had a woman's name as its title ("Lelia", "Talia", "Mania", etc.). Considering all of these, we may suppose that Titsian's "Fatman" was inspired by the sonnet of the Russian modernist, because the letter and poem sent to Grishashvili was dated with 24 December 1916. Most importantly, in terms of motive, Titsian's sonnet approximates to Valery Bryusov's poem. Nevertheless, we cannot talk about a direct influence, because I could not find Bryusov's text, which had been published before 1918 (it was published in 1918 in April issue of "Vechernye Vedomosti" and in one of the collections⁵ published in the same year). However, as I mentioned, there are some similarities between the sonnets.

Titsian Tabidze's text is the so-called French sonnet (the scheme of quatrains: abba abba, the scheme of tercets: ccd eed) and its internal form can be conditionally divided into several parts. In general, as the connoisseurs of the verse indicate, the theme “presented in the first quatrain of the sonnet, becomes concrete in the second quatrain. In the tercets, the transition begins and the theme is finally resolved" [Khintibidze, 2009:316]. If we apply this scheme to Titsian's "Fatman", we get the following picture: in the beginning, the lyrical hero reminds the woman; then the action space of the object of the poem is shown in the following quatrain –  the memory acquires content; the first tercet presents the evaluation of the object of dedication by the lyrical hero; in the last stanza the rhetorical appeal is used   –   the lyrical hero declares "obedience" to the object of desire. Additionally, the internal form of the analytical sonnet can be conditionally divided into two parts. The first part (the first quatrain, the second tercet) is dedicated to the display of the subjective feelings of the lyrical hero, while the second part presents the reminiscence of “The Knight in the Panther’s Skin” (the second quatrain and the first tercet).

"With the reflection of one of the main attributes of the symbolist poetry  -  the mirror  -  she (Fatman - K. L.) enters Titsian Tabidze's sonnet Fatman-Khatun in her dual form" [Barbakadze, 2012:107]. Indeed, in the very first line, the occasional form of the verb "asarkebs''/reflects (The memory of a hot girl shines in my soul) draws attention. This lexeme is rare in the Georgian language⁶. After Titsian, the mentioned verb was used three times by Shalva Karmel (the poems: "Ariana", "Thin Lips", "Des'essence") and before Titsian, I probably will not be wrong if I say that it had occurred only once in the Georgian literature, namely, in Anton Bagrationi's "Tskobilsitkvaoba":

"Innocence is sacred in everything

Purifies and makes the mind sparkling,

Reflects God, equates being,

It is as God created,

Protects the faith inexplicably”

[Bagrationi, 1980:201].

It could not be confirmed, but it is not excluded that Titsian was familiar with Anton's "Tskobilsitkvaoba", which was published in 1853 by Platon Ioseliani. According to Ivane Lolashvili, "Innocence...  reflects  God" means "Innocence shows God" [Bagrationi, 1980:399]. It is interesting that the word, which Anton Catholicos uses to describe the innocence in Iambiko, is found in Titsian’s sonnet dedicated to the opposite phenomenon  -  the intoxicating power of passion.

Why did Titsian Tabidze choose Patman as an object of reflection? (In accordance to Alexander Abasheli’s words) why did he bother to justify Patman? Patman had "to justify herself". The attitude towards her is well expressed by Akaki Tsereteli's words: "At the time of the fall of the country, Patmans are disgusting. They give a lot of passion to the country. Today it is inconvenient to speak more about Patmans, because... because... you will understand… because... the mirror and scales are surprising for the society" [Tsereteli, 1898:54]. As it was mentioned many times, Akaki examines the characters of “The Knight in the Panther’s Skin” from the point of view of his own era. He puts forward the social, political and ethical problems with the help of Rustaveli's characters. In this case, while characterizing Patman, the moral aspect is leading. As can be seen from Akaki's words, he is dissatisfied with the behavior of women. This implies dissatisfaction of the society in general, because according to Akaki's words: "To appreciate and value any people or any tribe, it is completely sufficient to get acquainted with its women" [Tsereteli, 1960:161]. I did not mention Akaki Tsereteli by chance. In order to give a convincing answer to the question posed in the beginning of the paragraph, I believe, it is necessary to discuss Akaki's position.

Akaki often deals with the issue of women's morality. "When we talk about the Georgian women, we go to the cemeteries and think of our departed mothers" [Tsereteli 1961: 485]. The writer's position can be clearly seen in these words. He often echoes the unfavorable morality of the Georgian women (“In the Album. To Current Women”, "Modern Woman", "Delusion", etc.) not only in the publicistic letters, but also in the poems. Akaki wrote the dramatic poem "Tamar Tsbieri", in which he exposed the moral vice and passion. In "Tamar Tsbieri", Akaki transferred the modern problem into the depths of the romanticized history and in this way,  expressed his viewpoint about the vicious present: the society and country living only by biological instincts and desire are doomed" [Doiashvili, 2008:63]. In “The Modern Problem", the researcher implied the "new ethics", the philosophy of enjoying a moment because of transience of life, which "gained a footing in Georgia and posed a great threat to the foundations of our existence   -   family and morality of women".⁷ Akaki looked at the Georgian woman with a heartache. She was entangled in the amorous intrigues and said carelessly: “What I call the motherland / was taken away by the landslide" [Doiashvili, 2008:63]. In the letter “The Assured Intention”, Teimuraz Doiashvili draws parallel between Akaki Tsereteli's "Tamar Tsbieri" and Galaktion's early poetic work "To the Cup". As the researcher writes, the story of two queens’  -  Tamar’s and Rusudan's    -   insatiable passion is told on almost the same background. In addition, according to the researcher, in Galaktion’s ballad "along with the typological and functional analogy of the main characters, the scheme of the central scene  -  the meeting of Tamar and Gotcha  -  and, most importantly, the essence of their conversation is repeated" [Doiashvili, 2008:63]. The main conceptual difference between these two works is that at the end of "Tamar Tsbieri", before drinking the poison, the adulterous queen repents her sins:

"I dedicated my past walking in the dark

to the wrong lust,

But suddenly with the changed character

I obey the highest covenant".

As for the character, “Galaktion’s Rusudan, like Tamar poisons herself after being rejected by Tchabuka. However, the content of the suicide is completely different. Exposition, rebuke and admonishment are in vain. They cannot reach the depth of the character's consciousness. There is no desire to reevaluate the sinful life. In the heart of the rejected queen, there is only the regret of the woman, who lost her youth. It is the fatal pain of failure. Gone are the days, when "many young men couldn't sleep because of her charm". "Now she has not her earlier charm and beauty" [Doiashvili, 2008:62]. According to the researcher, Galaktion's thought is focused on the apologia of passion as a supreme value. "Passion, as such, is placed higher than life in the system of value" [Doiashvili,⁸ 2008:62] .  According to Doiashvili's conclusion, "Galaktion's ballad represents a hidden controversy with the conception of Akaki's "Tamar Tsbieri". Galaktion presents "philosophy of a moment"⁹ in contrast to the national ideals.

In the beginning, I mentioned that the poem conceived as a constituent part of Titsian's "Crown of Sonnets" reveals closeness to Valery Bryusov's "Crown of Sonnets" ("The Fatal Row"). Before writing a few words about the similarities between these poems, I should mention that in Doiashvili's above-mentioned article, the worldview reflected in Galaktion's "The Bowl" is related to Valery Bryusov and the European and Russian decadent-symbolist worldview. The same article cites the Russian modernist's paper "The Passion" published in 1904: "Passion is a brilliant flower that grows from our body as from a seed". The body exhausted from passion turns into dust. It dies without regretting the death. Passion is not subject to evaluation. A person cannot change anything in it. Our time, which sanctified passion, for the first time, gave artists the opportunity to depict it without shame, confident in their work... Chastity is wisdom in passion, awareness of purity of passion. An individual, who underestimates passionate feelings, is sinful" [Doiashvili, 2008:64-65]. The viewpoint, which is expressed in the article, is reflected in Valery Bryusov's erotic ballads (in which the idea of the supremacy of passion is presented) included in the book "Urbi et Orbi", which was published in 1904.

The aesthetics of passion is striking in Titsian's "Fatman"   -  bulls and passionate Patman, whose lips never get tired of kisses. In the book published by the Museum of Literature, the sonnet ends in the following way:

"Fatman, your soul lives with the dream in your warm blanket,

It is your prisoner, like a mouse in a tin trap,

It is a ring dove, which fought a war with a kite”

[Tabidze, 2015:64].

"Ephemeral Masquerade. Patman" published in "The Fantastic Cabaret" shows the different situation:

"Patman, your soul lives with the dream in your warm blanket:

The yellow mouse caught in the iron trap.

Only one passion lights my way"

[Мельникова, 1917, 1918, 1919:127].

With such a change (in addition to the euphonic improvement), the passion, which is implied and expressed in all the lines, seems to be "lexicalized". In Valery Bryusov's "Crown of Sonnets", the lyrical hero remembers the past. Each sonnet of "Crown of Sonnets" of this Russian modernist poet has a specific addressee, a real woman [Горелик,  2020]. Passion, kisses, remembering the past, a poet in love   -   these are the topics that make Valery Bryusov's "Crown of Sonnets" similar to "Fatman". The atmosphere of "Fatman" shows proximity not only to this sequence, but also to Bryusov's poems dedicated to Cleopatra.

Grigol Robakidze’s article "The Georgian Modernism", which was published in 1918, points to the lack of "women with erotic psyches" in the Georgian literature: "erotic was dying in the pieces of Georgian poetry (I exclude Rustaveli), created by men" [Robakidze, 2014:534-535]. Titsian relies on such tradition as Rustaveli, while depicting eroticism. ”The [Georgian woman] neither knows how to explain love (she is proudly reserved), nor sexual blossoming (she is asexual, due to the remnants of Amazons’ madness):  -  the Georgian woman does not know a real "romance" [Robakidze, 2014:534]. Patman of "The Knight in the Panther’s Skin"  is opposite of the Georgian woman described here. For this reason, the modernist poem depicts this woman, who knows the "real romance" and is a wife of enterprising and passionate Vachartukhutsesi. What is "less or not compatible with the concept of medieval/Rustvelian love, is interesting and attractive in the era of modernism" [Letodiani, 2017:138].

Patman of “The Knight in the Panther’s Skin” is an outstanding character of this poem. A number of opinions were expressed about Patman's image in Rustvelology. One group of authors presents her as a loose and depraved woman, the second group shows the tendency of idealization of Patman's intimacy and there is the third, the moderate position, according to which Rustveli presents Patman sympathetically. However, the awkward sides are also noticeable [Baramidze, 1979:3]. We cannot share the tendencies of idealization or marginalization of  Patman's image. However, the viewpoint of the third group of researchers, which is between two extremes, is quite acceptable. On the one hand, Patman is a woman, whose "heart cannot be satisfied with one". On the other hand, she is a woman of a "deep nature", who suffers from "some inner sadness and dissatisfaction with the life" [Karbelashvili, 2017:26]. Tariel says about this character: "Patman was like mother and sister to my sun, in your domain" [Rustaveli, 2015:307].

If we compare Rustveli's Patman with Titsian's character, we will see that the positive side of Patman's nature is overshadowed by Tsisperqantseli. If we did not take into account the aesthetics of modernism, we would say that the reception of Patman's image by Titsian is a kind of a stencil. In the poem, Patman's image is created by the combination of two components. In Rustveli's poem, Patman's passion (which is presented on the surface) is added to the idealization of love, nourished by the new ethics  -  a characteristic feature of modernism. Factually, the image of Titsian's Patman combines  two extreme opinions expressed in the Rustvelological literature. Patman drawn by the modernist is loose. However,  the form of her love  -   in Rustveli's words, "heartless love"   -  is romanticized.

As we have already mentioned, the reception of Patman's image is found in the second quatrain and the first tercet. In Titsian Tabidze’s poem, the caravans of merchants of “The Knight in the Panther’s Skin” are turned into the caravans of bulls, whose motivation is not  trading, but looking at Patman, who is pale from desire. Patman leaves no one "disrespected", her lips never get tired of kisses, her desire is indiscriminate ("A wine-taster and Avtandil are the same for her") and ephemeral (soon she betrays trusted souls). The basis of such an interpretation of Patman's image is the superficial similarity with the character of “The Knight in the Panther’s Skin”. The entourage of the sonnet ("The singers’ praise of love is heard here") reminds us of Patman's Rustvelian characterization ("An admirer of singers, a wine-drinker" (1065)¹⁰). The caravans of bulls remind us of the merchants' caravans and of Patman’s bull, Patman's billy-goat ("He was my billy-goat" (1192)).  Rustveli's poem shows that the husband is not enough for Patman. She has the lover (wine-drinker) and can have another one (Avtandil). However, a reader  does not get the impression that Patman's sexual desires are limitless. Despite this, it should be said that the mood expressed in the first tercet is nourished by the stanza of “The Knight in the Panther’s Skin”, which is presented in the chapter "Patman Becomes Enamoured of Avtandil". Rustveli says that it is better to stay away from the woman, because:

“She plays with you and pleases you, wins you over, trusts you, is bold.

But then she betrays you, cuts off the ties that a man thinks will hold”

(Rustaveli, 2015: 230).

These lines inspire Titsian's following strophe: "She makes his soul to trust, but later cuts it with betrayal". As I mentioned, Rustveli's Patman is ambivalent, while the image of Titsian's Patman seems to be one-sided. This fact will be better understood by recalling Patman’s archetype. Zaza Khintibidze in the article "Was Homer's epic one of the literary sources for Rustveli?!" proves that Patman's image is created by the reception of Homer's Kirke [Khintibidze, 2011:267-278]. Kirke, who is a charmer deity, exhibits both positive and negative  traits in Homer's epic. It is mentioned that the authors of the later period presented Kirke's image unilaterally, for example, in case of Apollonius of Rhodes, it had a positive function, while  Virgil and Ovid characterized it negatively. In addition, Kirke's image was later demythologized and for some authors (for example, Heraclitus Paradoxographus) this sensual goddess became a hetaera. The erotic-sexual motif became leading in her image [Erkomaishvili, 2002:137]. We think that the pre-image (Kirke) of Rustveli's Patman and the archetype of a hetaera can be seen in the image of Titsian's Patman. Nothing is said about her  "family life" in the sonnet.

If we return to the relationship of Titsian Tabidze's poem with Valery Bryusov's work, we may say that Tsisperqantseli’s sonnet was written with a sense of superiority towards the Russian culture. In particular, Titsian Tabidze believed that the connection with the ancient poetry was broken in the 60s of the nineteenth century. Besiki was thrown out of the Georgian garden by the "wasps". Tsisperqantseli imagined the confrontation of Tergdaleulebi with the previous generation as the battle of "old Georgian and new Russian ideologies". According to Titsian's words: "Gradually, the influence of the Russian art, which had the distant connection with the real art and had nothing to do with the Georgian art, becomes stronger in our country" [Tabidze, 1916:13]. This kind of incompatibility is seen not only in relation to the Russian writing of the 19th  century, but to the Russian symbolists as well: "The Russian symbolists also finished with "Kalmyk whip"” [Tabidze, 1916:13]. Titsian offers the explanation of the "fatal fate" of the Russian art in the slightly stingy and vague way. However, I thing that the point is still clear. As Titsian writes, the fatal fate is caused by Russia's unfavorable cultural past and the thought that "Russia will restore Hellenism and “Soborian” Russian culture will be created" is futile, because as a result of the vision of the brume of the past, not Hellenic culture, but the yellow Mongols  appear [Tabidze, 1916 :13-14]. The above-discussed sense of superiority lies in the fact that Titsian Tabidze, unlike the Russians, sees the potential of revival in his own past and does not need the poeticization of Hellenic culture or Hellenism, hetaera or Cleopatra. Georgia cannot connect the renaissance of its own writing with Russia and the cultural environment, which will not see anything significant for the revival of the past after the removal of "sly bashfulness". From Tsisperqantseli's point of view, "The Knight in the Panther’s Skin" is the tradition on which the Georgian Renaissance should be based. The sonnet "Fatman-Khatun" is the embodiment of this idea.

The research (PHDF-21-914) is funded by Shota Rustaveli Scientific Foundation.

[1]"Rehabilitation" or "justification" of Patman before Titsian can be found in Chola Lomtatidze's story "Ubis Tsignidan": "I know Patman and I love her...  and I can't say that our great poet did not treat her a little unfairly"… So what can this woman, full of blood and flesh, do if she has not met a suitable husband!..  It is unjust when they want to make Patman disappear in the light of Nestan and Tinatin. It is a great injustice..." (http://www.nplg.gov.ge/ebooks /authors/chola_lontatidze/ubis%20cignidan.pdf)

[2]I use the following book published by Giorgi Leonidze State Museum of Georgian Literature: Titsian Tabidze, Book I, Poetry, Translations, Tbilisi, 2015.

[3]In the letter the title of the sonnet is spelled in this way. All spellings of the titles of the poem in this article are of Titsian.

[4]Valerian Gaprindashvili's remark is interesting in this regard: "No other poetry has as many types of sonnets as  our poetry". The inverted sonnet (kiramala/head over heels sonnet, lame sonnet) is typical of our poetry. There is no "crown of sonnets" in the Georgian poetry [Gaprindashvili, 2011:19].

[5]https://fantlab.ru/work1274016

[6]No dictionary of the Georgian language recognizes this form. The following lexical units can be found in the Explanatory Dictionary: ასარკავს/asarkavs, ასარკდება/asarkdeba, გადაისარკება/gadaisarkeba, ამოსარკული/amosarkuli, ასარკვა/asarkva, ასარკული/asarkuli, გაისარკება/gaisarkeba, გადასარკვა/gadasarkva, გადასარკული/gadasarkuli, გასარკავს/gasarkavs, გასარკვა/gasarkva, დასარკული/dasarkuli.

[7]In order to better understand the trend, I will quote Ivane Gomarteli’s words written in the Newspaper Kvali in 1902: "Any institution that develops selfish feelings in a person, the need to take care of himself/herself…   today should be considered as outdated and harmful. Today’s family belongs to such institutions" [Gomarteli, 1966:284].

[8]In 1915 Vakhtang Kotetishvili wrote about the new trend in the Georgian literature: "Tradition, morality and everything like them will be completely torn apart with one strike and constantly awaken human appetite will still surround flesh as an ivy of passion. Shota's words   -   "It is different, fornication is different, there is a wide border between them, do not mixed them up, please, listen to my words"   -  were not heard by Shio Aragvispireli. He did not accept them and objected to Shota's airy-beautiful love in the following way: "They only rub against each other, nothing else, neither the soul nor the flesh suit each other" [Kotetishvili, 1915:6].

[9]The extreme manifestation of the so-called  philosophy of a moment is known as the "theory of a cup of water", whose good illustration is Konstantine Lortkipanidze's work "The First Mother" [Kupreishvili, 2019:46, 50].

[10]I verify “The Knight in the Panther’s Skin” from the following edition: Shota Rustaveli, “The Knight in the Panther’s Skin”, 1966 (Editorial board: Irakli Abashidze, Aleksandre Baramidze, Pavle Ingorokva, Akaki Shanidze, Giorgi Tsereteli).