To reveal a relation...

“[T]o reveal a relation between poesis as experimental laboratory [1] and as potentialities of the folk, from the argot rhyme of Hugo,

Mirlababi surlababo,
Mirliton ribon ribette,
Surlababi, mirlababo,
Mirliton ribon ribo.

(Les Misérables, part 4, bk 7, ch 3),

with his conception and practice of the people's language in play with echoes, plays on words and pseudo-proverbs, -- to Finnegans Wake, apparently pure creation of the well-read and yet which incorporates into its verbal material all the comedy of the everyday.”

"[1] The Russian cubo-futurists, and Khlebnikov in particular, conceived of poetry as the laboratory of speech, useful to the people for the future complete possession of their own language."

-- Henri Meschonnic, Pour la poétique, vol. 1, 1970, p. 94 [my adapted translation]
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Published on December 21, 2014 20:46
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