Translator, poet David Tserediani posthumously awarded Vazha-Pshavela State Prize

Georgia's acclaimed translator and poet David Tserediani has been posthumously awarded the Vazha-Pshavela State Prize, with his family accepting the honour from President Salome Zurabishvili on Tuesday.

The prize for poetry, named after one of Georgian literature's foremost writers, is the latest recognition of Tserediani's work in both poetry and translation and was handed to the family at the Orbeliani Palace residence of the president in Tbilisi.

The prize "stresses the importance of Georgian culture and literature", Zurabishvili said in her address for the formal event while also making remarks about a wider significance of culture, including during a pandemic.

Tserediani was not only a distinguished poet but a "great translator" of German- and French-language poetry, the president also told the audience at the venue. In her address Zurabishvili noted the importance of recognised translators for bringing Georgian culture to audiences abroad, and vice-versa.

Beside his own poetry Tserediani worked to bring works by Brothers Grimm, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Heinrich Heine, Rainer Maria Rilke and Paul Celan to readers in Georgia during his involvement in translation work since 1981.

The Vazha-Pshavela Prize follows the Givi Margvelashvili German-Georgian Culture Award in the list of recognitions of Tserediani's work, with the latter awarded to the translator in 2017, two years before his passing away.

His other honours include the Shota Rustaveli and Ilia Chavchavadze state prizes and the Saba Award for the Lifetime Contribution to the Georgian Literature.