Interview by Oleg Kusov. Exclusively to Vestnik Kavkaza
- Yuri, I don’t want to talk about politics today, even though Russian-Georgian relations are a topic for discussion. Although a lot has been said, there is no result. Politicians replace each other, but the problem is unsolved. You can express your ideas and thoughts through your works. You had brilliant musical shows on Saturday Radio. You spoke about Georgian, Russian, international classical musicians and music. You wrote wonderful poems and translations. I can see a book of poems in your hands. It was published in Tbilisi in Russian. It is very interesting. What is your favorite poem in the book?
- It is difficult to say, as poems are like children, you love all of them. At the same time, there is a strange aspect. When you have written a poem, have published it, there is a period of estrangement. As if it is not yours anymore…
There is a poem which is devoted to my friend, the well-known theatre director Robert Sturua, who was sent away from the theatre under Saakashvili’s regime. He had to move to Moscow, where Kolyagin took him to the Et Cetera Theatre to be the theatre director. Fortunately, at the moment he has returned to Georgia, as we have new authorities that returned him to the Rustaveli Theatre. When he didn’t live in Georgia, I wrote a poem to him. Robert helped me with an epigraph which is absolutely genius:
Shakespeare was right, the world is a stage, but the play is badly cast (Oscar Wilde)
I wrote:
We are actors and actresses,
We are staging our plays
With sense and nonsense.
We are crying and having fun,
We are choosing our own roles
Which we can afford to ourselves.
We are wild on the loose and heal our wounds.
We ignore remarks from heaven.
We are all Petrarchs writing poems about ourselves.
We are mocking power and fearing it.
When it’s hard, we are packing our luggage
And are ready to leave our land.
We are ready to start a brand new life
Everyday, and Thank God this is so.
