Lullaby Poems and Songs of Speri

Abstract

Lullaby poems and songs and their performance tradition have been preserved until recently in Speri, one of Georgia’s oldest regions, which has been isolated from Georgia for centuries. In 1578, the Ottoman Empire finally annexed it, and unfortunately, the Georgian language has not been heard there for centuries.

Despite historical adversities, the Georgian folk lullaby Nana / Nanina can still be heard in Speri—the historical territory of the Bagrationi dynasty. The lyrics of this lullaby feature the local lexeme Nini / Ninini, which stems from the name of the widely recognized Georgian and Caucasian goddess, Nana. The Sperian Nini / Ninini closely resembles the Georgian Nana lullabies, particularly the versions of lullaby poems and songs prevalent in the southwestern regions of Georgia. This indicates that the genetic code of national traditions and identity is deeply ingrained in the historical memory of the Sperians, manifesting itself in lullaby poems and songs along with other folklore genres.

In the villages of Speri, we collected numerous lullaby poems and songs, recording them both in written form and in audio and video formats, performed by women—mothers and grandmothers—with the same emotional depth as in Georgian lullabies: the people of Speri gently comfort their children, creating a warm and cozy space for sleep.

The Sperian lullaby poems and songs share similarities with the general Georgian Nanas both lexically and in terms of content, as well as in mood and character. Both preserve nuances of the ancient worldview as well as household and economic realities. This is clearly illustrated in the texts of these poems and songs, which include examples of “chasing away” animals or birds, such as the Megrelian Sisa Tura and the traditional lullabies from other regions of Georgia.

In the Sperian Nininis, rhythmic repetitions are frequent, which is particularly characteristic of Georgian lullaby poems and songs. This clearly reflects a tendency in these texts toward a lexical principle – rhyming.

Thus, even with the enduring silence in the Georgian language over the centuries, the historical memory of the population of Speri – an ancient region of Georgia – has nevertheless preserved numerous nuances of oral tradition and the genetic memory of ethnographic life. Among these, we should naturally mention lullaby poems and songs.