Two brothers

The Two Brothers

Two brothers lived together. The elder was married and had children; the younger was unmarried. They parted, no longer wishing to live under one roof, and divided everything they owned. When they divided the grain, the pits in which it was stored fell to the elder on one side of the threshing floor and to the younger on the other.

The elder brother would secretly take grain from his own pit, pour it into his brother’s pit and say:

“God has given me a wife and children, and I have someone to earn for. But my brother has no one. Let this bread go to him, let him eat it.”

But the younger brother also secretly took grain from his pit, poured it into his elder brother’s pit and said:

“I am alone in the world; wherever I wander I shall easily find food. My brother has small children, he needs it more than I do. Let this bread go to him.”

And so they lived out their whole lives. God multiplied the wealth of both brothers, and neither man’s share was ever diminished. God causes good and kind deeds to prosper.

(This is a fable from Sulhan-Saba Orbeliani’s book The Book of Wisdom and Lies, literally “On the Wisdom of Lies”. Sulhan Saba Orbeliani (1658–1725) was a Georgian statesman and diplomat, a prince, enlightener, humanist, writer, poet and calligrapher.)

Sulhan Saba was raised at the royal court. His father was the supreme judge of Kartli. In 1698 a sharp turning point came in the life of Sulhan Orbeliani. The courtier, feudal lord and fabulist became “the humble monk Saba”.

In 1713–1716 Saba was in Western Europe on a diplomatic mission, where he formally converted to Catholicism. In 1724 he emigrated to Russia with Vakhtang VI (king of Kartli; Sulhan Saba had been Vakhtang’s tutor in his childhood). He died in Moscow.

It was in the works of Sulhan Saba that the modern Georgian literary language took shape. He compiled an explanatory dictionary of the Georgian language that is still in use today. He also adapted the well-known collection of fables Kalila and Dimna.