Dance & celebration
Bazgirulai
ბაზგირულაჲ
A dance-song text that names the valley’s villages and turns distance from Badzgireti into longing.
Lyrics & translation
Explore song Dance & celebration
Khelgashlila
ხელგაშლილაჲ
A handkerchief dance, a short verse from Agara, and a name shared by several performances.
Lyrics & translation
About this song
Khelgashlila is both a dance name and a name attached to sung or instrumental performances. Shioshvili describes its handkerchief tradition and prints a four-line verse collected from Mesut Koca in Agara in 2009. It is this short text—not a compilation of internet verses—that appears below.
The musical tradition also changes over time. Kraveishvili’s 2018 dissertation lists an accordion-accompanied performance from Ioseb Sturua’s documentary, with Imer Zumbadze as soloist (audio appendix 64). The 2025 volume separately catalogues Erdoğan Avcı performing Khelgashlila in Badzgireti in 2022 (audio appendix 135). These are different records.
A community report of Badzgireti’s 2005 Marioba festival credits the lyrics of a festival performance called Helgaşlila to Uğur İmer Tanıyan. A traditional dance name therefore does not make every verse used with it an anonymous old lyric. The Agara text below is presented as its own documented version.
Recordings
This entry documents a written source. A matching playable recording has not yet been linked.
Lyrics & translation
Complete four-line text as printed in Shioshvili (2016), p. 56; collected in Agara in 2009. Dialect forms, including ჲ and sama ‘dance’, are retained. The English and Turkish versions are editorial reading translations, not singable adaptations. No matching audio has yet been linked for this exact text.
Georgian originalEnglish translation
1
ხელგაშლილაჲ გაშლილა,
სამა არ დაგიშლია;
გოგო, რავაჲ გიხდება
სამა და ხელგაშლილაჲ!
1
Khelgashlila has unfolded;
You have not broken off the dance.
Girl, how well they suit you—
The dance and Khelgashlila!
Sources & credits
- Tina Shioshvili, Shavshuri Folklori (2016) — p. 56; related text no. 68 on p. 243
- Giorgi Kraveishvili, dissertation (2018) — Shavsheti discussion; audio appendix 64
- Kraveishvili, Alimbarashvili & Damchidze (2025) — p. 165; audio appendix 135 (Erdoğan Avcı, Badzgireti, 2022)
- Badzgireti Marioba festival report (2005), Chveneburi.NET — Modern performance and lyric credit
The listed audio-appendix items identify recordings in the research publications; they are not playable files attached to this page. You can add your preferred YouTube performance to this same entry later.