About song
During the 1625 Battle of Marabda against the Iranian army, nine Georgian brothers died alongside their sister and mother defending the homeland.
This song is based on a poem by Lado Asatiani called Tskhra Dzma Kherkheulidze, or Nine Brothers Kherkheulidze.
To hear another version of this song, visit the page of Gogia Todadze & Valo Shinjikashvili.
Below is a translation of Lado Asatiani's poem "The Nine Kherkheulidze Brothers" which explains more of the story behind the song that Sopia sings. This translation is from page 178 of Venera Urushadze's Anthony of Georgian Anthology published in 1958:
The Nine Kherkheulidze Brothers
Nine brothers lived and toiled together.
They ploughed and sowed on field and plain.
Where'er they worked the fields were blessed
With fragrant hay and golden grain.
And now upon that very field
The brothers come to fight the foe.
Dawn, creeping from the eastern sky,
Lights up Marabda field, and lo!
Shields, banners, swords, the cross gleam in
The sun's first rays. The trumpets blow!
The Georgians forward rush with cries:
"For Kartli, strike! Down with the foe!"
A living mass of fire and steel
Rolls on the field. Foremost of all
The brothers fight, devoid of fear,
And stand together like a wall.
They watch the youngest of the nine
To see that he fall not behind.
Though very young, his every blow
Cleaves through a helmet swift as wind,
The sword grows redder, death-shots pour,
The earth with mortal clay is spread.
The field once golden now runs red
With the blood of a myriad dead.
The enemy breaks through... Soon four
Of the brothers sink on the ground.
A horseman bearing Georgia's flag
Rides quick away for the hills bound.
The roaring mass of fire and steel
Is hushed and scattered on the field.
The sun's last rays now gleam on cold
Dead eyes and broken limb and shield.
The scythe of death a harvest reaps
Of men who died for their country;
Their names, not born to die, will live,
Their souls will light the heavens high.
Sopia Kakhabrishvili