Vivian Katharine

Vivian, Katharine (1917, London – 2010, ibid.), English writer and translator. She graduated from Sorbonne University in Paris. She was an auditor in the Kartvelian (Georgian) Studies seminar under Professor David Lang at the University of London. She worked as a journalist.

She published her own and translated poems and plays, as well as articles concerning Georgian life, literature, and art. She is the author of scholarly articles dedicated to The Knight in the Panther's Skin. She delivered presentations on medieval Georgian culture at numerous international symposiums in Georgia, Great Britain, and other European countries.

She translated and published in English K. Salia's monograph Georgia (1975); Sulkhan-Saba Orbeliani's A Book of Wisdom and Lies (Sibrdze sitsruisa) (1983); and The Georgian Chronicles (Kartlis Tskhovreba) (the chronicler of the time of Lasha-Giorgi) (1992).

Vivian published her translation of The Knight in the Panther's Skin twice (London, 1977; Amsterdam, 1995). Only the prologue and epilogue of the poem are arranged in verse, the rest was given in prose. The translator aimed to adapt the text to the literary taste of the contemporary English reader, often simplifying Rustaveli's complex artistic imagery, explaining or omitting certain metaphors, etc. The poem is accompanied by the translator's comments and an introductory essay, which presents significant parallels with Oriental literature and interesting conclusions regarding the poem's universal significance.

In 1995, Vivian was awarded the Marjory Wardrop Prize, established for foreign Kartvelologists. In 1977, she was elected an honorary doctor of Tbilisi State University.

E. Khintibidze