Sayat Nova: tra le pause di quiete e le crisi di una creazione / Sayat Nova: the pauses of quietness, the passions, the crises of invention

Sayat Nova (1712?-1795?), the ‘singer’ par excellence of the Transcaucasian peoples, and ashuq (Lover), follows the hard path of Love of the ashuq/lovers towards the Beloved (or towards the Lord, God, in a sufi, mystical approach). Being based in Tbilisi/Tiflis, siege of the court of the Georgian rulers, he composes in three languages (Armenian, Azerbaijani, Georgian). However, in his trilingual collections (defter) of songs, we could hear and feel only one discourse, or mantıq, a logic used and applied by the ashuq/gusan. It is clear enough the evidence of a continuity, in a unique environment/muhit, between Sayat Nova, the medieval Armenian tradition, the Muslim sufi poets and the Christian Masters. Sayat Nova organizes and recomposes a common way of expression between not so different traditions. In a sense, this could be considered as an extention, in a larger muhit, of the resonances of the forms of that mantıq, language, discourse, once medieval and later, at the time of Sayat Nova, more and more fresh and, naturally, intercultural.

Sayat Nova (1712?-1795?), the ‘singer’ par excellence of the Transcaucasian peoples and ashuq (lover), follows the hard path of Love of the ashuq/lovers towards the Beloved (or towards the Lord, God, in a sufi, mystical approach). Being based in Tbilisi/Tiflis, siege of the court of the Georgian rulers, he composes in three languages (Armenian, Azerbaijani, Georgian). However, in his trilingual collections (defter) of songs, we can hear and feel only one discourse, or mantıq, that is a logic used and applied by the ashuq/gusan. The evidence of a continuity, in a unique environment/muhit, between Sayat Nova, the medieval Armenian tradition, the Muslim sufi poets and the Christian Masters is clear enough. Sayat Nova organises and recomposes a common way of expression between traditions that are not very different from each other.