Bouatchidzé Gaston
Gaston Bouatchidzé (b. October 21, 1935, Tbilisi – d. July 13, 2022, Nantes, France) was a writer, translator, literary critic, Doctor of Philological Sciences (1990), Professor (1990), Honorary Citizen of Tbilisi (2010), head of the Department of French Philology at Tbilisi State University (TSU) (from 1981), member of the International Association of Critics and the Society of European Cultural Workers.
He graduated from the Faculty of Western European Languages of the University of Lviv with a degree in French Language and Literature (1958). From 1960 to 1990 he was a professor of French literature (TSU), and from 1991 to 2001 – an associate professor of comparative literature at the University of Nantes.
Bouatchidzé is the author of the following monographs: Rétif de la Bretonne in Russia (1972, in Russian), Guillaume Apollinaire and the Ways of Development of French Poetry (1989, in Russian); Essays: French Notes (1969), From Montmartre to Mtatsminda (1972); Essays on French and Georgian writers – Tsakhnagebi (1983, 1986); literary biography The Life of Marie Brosset (1983; in Russian); Trilogy about Georgian artists – The Painter: Book I – Pirosmani, or the Deer’s Walk (1981, in Russian), Book II – David Kakabadze, or the Squares of Imereti (“Soviet Art”, 1975, fragments No. 10–12 ), Book III – Lado Gudiashvili, or the Dream of a Fresco (“Literaturnaya Gruzia”, 1977, fragments No. 9, 10).
He systematically published articles in periodicals and literary collections in France, Belgium, Luxembourg and Italy. He translated Sulkhan-Saba Orbeliani's The Book of Wisdom and Lies into French and added a preface (Tbilisi, 1978, Paris, 1984, UNESCO series), G. Tabidze's Artistic Flowers (bilingual – 1989); Georgian Folk Tales (1988), The Knight in the Panther's Skin (1989, joint edition of Paris and Moscow). It is a poetic translation of the poem, which preserves the original meter and rich rhyme. The translation received high praise in the Georgian and French press. He also translated and prepared for publication six poems by Vazha-Pshavela and Amiran-Darejaniani for the “Library of Georgian Literature”.
In 2010, he was chosen as an honorary citizen of Tbilisi.
