Bregvadze Bachana
B. Bregvadze
Bachana Bregvadze (b. February 11, 1936, village Skhvava, present-day Ambrolauri Municipality – d. February 14, 2016, Tbilisi) was a writer, literary critic, translator, Doctor (1996), Professor (1996), member of the Georgian Academy of Sciences (2013), winner of the I. Machabeli Prize (1980), Honorary Citizen of Tbilisi (2014).
Bregvadze graduated from the Faculty of Philology of Tbilisi State University (TSU) (1960). He worked at the Department of Classical Philology of TSU (1961–1966), in 1966–1973 – he worked as a senior scientific editor at the Editorial Department of Language and Literature of the Georgian Encyclopedia. He was the head of the Main Editorial Board of Literary Translation at the Georgian Writers' Union (1973–1994), worked at the Department of Byzantine Studies of the Institute of Oriental Studies (2001–2006), and at the Institute of Philosophy from 1999.
His first translations were published in the early 1960s: miniatures by Gabriela Mistral, poetic works by Antonio Machado, Juan Ramón Jiménez, Federico García Lorca, as well as excerpts from Plotinus's The Enneads. Bregvadze's translations of highest level include: Plato's books: The Symposium (1964–2020), Phaedo (1965–2020), Ion, Hippias Major, Meno (1972, 2020), Crito. He also published translations of Dante's La Vita Nuova (1966, with T. Chkhenkeli), Marcus Aurelius' Meditations (1981, 2008, 2014), Pseudo-Longinus' On the Sublime (1975), Aristotle's Poetics (1976), Blaise Pascal's Pensées (1981, 2 volumes in 1994, 2016), Paul Valery's Selected Writings (1983), Niccolò Machiavelli's The Prince (1984, 2019), New Testament (Bible, 1989, 2020), François de La Rochefoucauld's Maxims (1991), José Ortega y Gasset's The Dehumanization of Art and Other Essays on Art (1992) and The Revolt of the Masses (1993), Henri Bergson's Immediate Data of Consciousness (1993), Arthur Schopenhauer's Aphorisms of Life Wisdom (1993), Paul Valéry's Crisis of the Soul (1994), Plato's Timaeus (1994, 2020), Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra's Don Quixote (1994, 2010, 2014). He is the author of important essays The Poetry of Michelangelo (1979), Blaise Pascal (1985), Socrates (1988), Essays – 4 volumes (2011–2012), The Knight in the Panther's Skin – prosaic version (2013) as separate books.
Bregvadze's literary taste and erudition are clearly manifested in his transparent, clear and refined linguistic style. His books are accompanied by his own prefaces and comments containing deep and complex problems.
He has been awarded two Orders of Honor (1995, 2006). At various times he was awarded the Golden Order of St. George, the I. Chavchavadze, Saba (twice) and other prizes.
He is buried in the Mtatsminda Pantheon of Writers and Public Figures.
Literary work: ბოლო წლების ჩანახატები, თბ., 2010; თხზულებანი 4 ტომად, თბ., 2011–12.
Literature: ბაჩანა ბრეგვაძე, ბიობიბლიოგრაფია, თბ., 2016.
T. Chkhenkeli
