Ajiashvili Jemal

Jemal (Simon) D. Ajiashvili (23 March 1944, Senaki – 5 January 2013) was a Georgian writer, Honored Scientist of Georgia (1990).

He graduated from the faculty of Oriental Studies at Tbilisi State University in 1967. He was the head of the Oriental Studies Department at the Sulkhan-Saba Orbeliani State Pedagogical Institute in Tbilisi (from 1993). Between 1974 and 1990, he worked as chief scientific editor of the Collegium of Translation and Literary Relations at the Writers' House of Georgia. From 2003, he was president of the Georgian Jews World Congress. He was also a member of the European Jewish Association. He published his first poems in 1961 and 1962. He made his first translations of Persian and Hebrew poetry in 1964, 1966, and 1969. Ajiashvili’s masterful translations of classical Jewish poetry became part of his first book, “Shua Saukuneebis Ebrauli Peorzia” [Jewish Poetry of the Middle Ages] (1979), and his first collection of works, “Shroshani Gheleta” (1994). Based on Ajaishvili’s translation, Tbilisi Marjanishvili Theatre staged the classical play The Suicide Lovers at Amijima by Chikamatsu Monzaemon (1981; the play was published as a separate book in 1980 and 1991). Other notable plays translated and performed were “The Blue Monster” by Carlo Gozzi (performed in 1984) and “Don Gil of the Green Breeches” by Tirso de Molina. Ajiashvili also translated the Abkhazian folk epic “Ambavi Nartebisa” (in 1980 with G. Bakanidze); furthermore, he translated Persian (Omar Khayyam, Ferdowsi), Italian (Fr. Petrarch, A. Vivaldi), and German (J. W. Goethe, R. M. Rilke, N. Zach, P. Huchel, and N. Sachs) poetry; ancient Egyptian songs; and works of Russian poets like B. Pasternak, V. Mayakovski, and O. Mandelstam. His other translations are from Belarussian, Armenian, and other languages.

Ajiashvili was a winner of the I. Chavchavadze Prize (received in 1991 for translating W. Shakespeare’s poem “The Rape of Lucrece”), the Georgan National Prize (received in 1994 for his book “Gamoigvidze, Knaro [1992]), and the Saba Literary Prize for the best translation of 2005's “Varskvlavta Chrdilshi, Maghalta Tana” [In the Shadow of Stars, Among the Great Ones].

He was a member of Georgian Parliament (1993; 1995) and an editor for the journal “Saunje” and the newspapers “Alia Sakartvelodan” and "Iveria." In 1996, he received the Order of Honor.