When poetry captures the spirit of the times, the Paata Shamugia effect

Pascal Perrot   |   September 2, 2024

Some ingredients in poetry are very delicate to handle, or even to introduce. A simple overdose, a false manipulation, and the poem implodes in flight, when it does not tip over out of frame. This is the case with humor or simplicity. Remaining a poet without being overwhelmed by this thunderous guest that is laughter, which tends at all times to pull all the covers to itself, like reaching the purity of a direct writing without giving in to the sirens of simplicity, turns out to be a colossal task. Simple know-how would not be enough. This is why we should salute the total success of Paata Shamugia's "Schizo-poems", which manages to combine the two in a continuous manner, seeming to play with the rules and limits of poetry, while reaching its deep foundations.

The Georgian bard knows how to capture all the nuances of laughter and give them back to us in shimmering fabrics. From irony to nonsense, from satire to self-mockery, from tender humor to that which makes one cringe, from full-bodied black to the offbeat smile of the surrealists. A subversive talent that displeased the powers that be; one of his texts, through the scandal it triggered, earned him both the anathema of a condemnation and public recognition in his country.

But how to feed your family with
symbols?
They are consumed quickly and are not consistent,
They must be constantly renewed
So that the effect lasts.
My children are whining,
They gnawed the last metaphor yesterday
And symbolically kept a
symbol for the morning
Schizo-poems
editions La Traductière,
translated from Georgian by:
Boris Bachana Chabradzé

Whatever the theme addressed (politics, writing, human relationships), the author manages to infuse it with a beautiful impertinence, tonic in these times of soft thought.

I regret not having made
Some mistakes
That I could have made
And having let slip
More than one opportunity
To make some mistakes.
It's too late to have regrets
Fighting a shadow is meaningless

Shamugia never hesitates to mock the seriousness of certain poets, including himself, or rather this spirit of seriousness that tends to take hold of some and pushes them to write hollow texts, emptied of all substance, even if the form dazzles.
This morning,
Coming out of my tormented dreams,
I discovered that I had transformed myself into a fabulous genius.
Psychologically speaking, I have always been ready for this,
But I checked all the same:
I looked at myself in the mirror and examined my appearance -
Obviously I am a genius.
My shoulders even sag, as befits an honest titan,
Not to mention my left eyebrow which is raised.

Or:
We have already written about everything -
a friend told me.
So I decided to write about nothing,
About a beautiful nothing,
About a nothing that catches the eye

While they will certainly disconcert the supporters of classical, even academic, poetry, these "shizo-poems" will delight the taste buds of all those who appreciate strong texts, who will savor without restraint this caustic, out of step look at the era, capable of whipping the blood of dreams.

By: Pascal Perrot

See full text in French: https://www.brouillons-de-culture.fr/