PALH 

TARBA NELLIE ZOLOTINSKOVNA

20.11.1934 - 29.01.2014


She is an Abkhazian poetess, prose writer and social activist.
She is the People's Writer of Abkhazia, Honoured Worker of Culture of the Abkhaz ASSR and the Georgian SSR, winner of the D. I. Gulia State Prize of Abkhazia. D. I. Gulia (2004; for the novel «The King of the Seas Khait»).
Member of the Union of Writers of the USSR (1957), the Union of Writers of Russia (1999) and the Union of Writers of Abkhazia. She wrote in Abkhazian.
Nelly Tarba was born in the Abkhazian village of Duripsh, Gudauta district on 20 November 1934. She graduated from high school there as well.
From 1954 to 1959 she studied at the Philological Faculty of the Gorky Sukhumi State Pedagogical Institute.
From 1952 she began to publish in regional newspapers and magazines, as well as in the Literary Almanac.
In 1955, her first collection of poems was published under the title «I Love the Roads and Trails». Then several more collections of her poems were published: «Heart of Spring» (1958), «Bzyb Story» (1961), «Youth and Dreams» (1964) and others.
From 1961 to 1989 she worked in the publishing house «Alashara» in different positions: from editor to deputy director of the publishing house.
In 1988, Tarba founded the Children's Fund of Abkhazia and served as its Chairman (until 2000) and then was its Honorary Chairman (since 2000). 
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Works:
  • In Russian in «The Soviet Writer»
  • The heart of spring. Poetry. 1961
  • The drop in the sea. Poetry. 1968
  • The White Horse. Poetry. 1983
  • Apsymra is the sun of the dead. Prose. 1983
  • The magical morning. 1988
  • The call of the land. In Kabardian. 1991
  • The Son. Poetry and poem. 1970
  • The White Happiness. Stories. A novella. A play. 1971
  • The Marvellous Argument. Children's poetry and poems. 1973
  • The White Horse. Poetry. 1974
  • The Tale of Hatajuk and Satajuk. Children's poem. 1976
  • The Song of the Fathers. Poetry and poems. 1978.
  • The Magic Morning. Poetry, dramas in verse. 1980
  • The Stubby Bear. 1979
  • «Your sons, Duripsh». Chronicle. 1982
  • «New Poetry. Mother, son and immortality». 1983
  • Poetry, ballads and lyric poems. 1984
  • While you're young. A novella and short stories. Drama. 1985
  • The Age. Poetry, poems. 1987
  • Shyardaamta. In the land of Sham. Syrian meetings. 1988
  • The Wounded Book. Poetry, prose essays, poems. 2000
  • The King of the Seas Hait. A Novel, Book 1 Dilogy. 2002
  • The pain of a homeland is the pain of a dissected heart. Poetry, prose essays, memoirs, letters. 2007
  • Works. 1 vol. Poetry. 2006
  • Works. 2 vol. Poetry. Ballads, essays. 2007
  • Works. 3 vol. Prose. 2008
  • Works. 4 vol. 2011
Plays:
  • A song is not easy to put together. Staging by N. Eshba. 1963
  • Daughter of the Sun. A drama-fairy. Staging by E. Kogonia.
  • А. N. Ostrovsky. The Snow Maiden (translation into Abkhazian by N. Tarba).
  • L. Ukrainka. The Forest Song (translation into Abkhazian by N. Tarba). 1975
Translated works:
  • A collection of poetry by Y.Lakerbay. 1968
  • J.Fucik. Reporting with a noose around the neck. 1979
  • M. Tlyabicheva. Poetry from Abazi.
  • Antoine de Saint-Exupery. The Little Prince. 1984, 2006.