labyrinths, poems
The labyrinth archetype applied to the word
found in the baroque period an extraordinary development and was called
labyrintus poeticus cubicus, metricus, retrogrades, cubus according to
different solutions.
It is possible to have alphabetical
labyrinths, labyrinths of lines or cubic labyrinths. An ancient example of
cubic labyrinth is “Sator” (see), maybe of the first century A.C. Cubic
labyrinths may create a surprising effect of virtual kinetic visuality, in the
sense that the laying up in a line of the alphabetical letters in a rhombus
form starting from the centre generates a rather evident optical disturbance.
Instances of cubic labyrinth do exist among the Egyptians of the Alexandrine
epoch. In 1700 this form was particularly in vogue in Spain
and Portugal. An example from the modern epoch is that
of the American Emmett Williams, “Meditation 2”.
Labyrinths of lines were very much in vogue
in the baroque epoch. Another type is the circular or spiral labyrinth, an
instance of the last one is the famous Phaistos disk (Crete,
1250 B.C.), with an inscription that has not yet been deciphered; it calls to
mind the Minotaur labyrinth. A modern circular form is that which has been
developed, in several variations, by the German Ferdinand Kriwet. Also
alphabetical labyrinths different from the cubic labyrinths may create
kino-visual effects, like in the instance taken from the “Primus calamus…”
(1663) di J. Caramuel de Lobkowitz (see ‘intexti, lines’, picture 68).
Line labyrinths are composed by short
strophes of 4, 5 lines, which are permuted (both lines and strophes) and
disposed so as to be read from bottom to top or diagonally or in a retrograde
way. In a labyrinth by the Portuguese Luis Nunes Tinoco combinations of line
reach altogether the number of 14.996.480 possibilities.
The verbal labyrinth is connected with the
models worked out by the Hebrew cabbala, an esoteric tendency that considered
the alphabetical letters as symbols expressing the divine name.
Pictures 81 - 84
latent, poem
It is the name that Tristan Tzara gives
to his poetry, in contrast with “direct” poetry, the traditional poetry. Latent
poetry is worked out with the collage technique, by pasting on a surface
linguistic fragments or phrases with a more or less incoherent content, an
expression of dada nihilism. See
“La première aventure céleste de Monsieur Antipyrine” (1916) and the
“Vingt-cinq poèmes” (1918).
Picture 85
lautgedicht
That is to say « speechpoem »,
« vocal poetry », synonyms of sound poetry.
lectrism
In 1947 Rumanian Isidore Isou, founder of
the lectrist movement, proposed an abstract poetry, composed only by phonemes.
The glossolalic form that originates from it, will also take possession of the
phonemes of the international phonetic alphabet, and of still more sounds, such
as breath, click, yawn, cough, raspberry, etc.; opening a whole research on the
vibrations of the phonatory apparatus; a thing that was after all previously
heralded by Luigi Russolo in “L’arte dei rumori” (The art of noises”) (1913
manifesto) and by dada phonetic poetry. Therefore lectrism after the second
world war opens again research in sound poetry.
On the other hand, Isou’s statement that
the root of lyricism originates from the unarticulated cry stimulates the
ultra-lectrists J. L. Brau, G. Wolman and most of all François Dufrêne to
proclaim the advent of the cri-rythm (1960), any kind of phonematic
improvisations. So also Henri Chopin, from 1965 on, will compose the
“audiopoèmes”, a kind of thick sound paste composed by a great many noises
produced by mouth and breath.
Another idea by Isou is the “aphonic poem”:
“On fait du silence une matière à travailler”, something to reflect upon for
John Cage. Another interesting moment of lectrism is hypergraphy, the domain of
all the existing or to be invented writings, an art of the sign in all its
meanings.
Pictures 86 - 92
liquid, poem
In 1958 A. Lora Totino and Piero Fogliati issue “Il
liquimofono”, a contrivance by which Liquid Music and liquid Poetry are
generated, inflections plunged into the “Idromegafono” (co-edition of the
Studio di Informazione Estetica – Studio of aesthetical information - and V.
Scheiwiller, Milan). The two instruments, the “liquimofono”,
a kind of water and a compressed air organ, and the “idromegafono” were built
by Piero Fogliati. Lora Totino gave very many performances in Italy and abroad of such liquid Poetry in Italy and abroad.
The liquid poetry texts consist in “poemi
profondi” (“profound poems”), a homage to the poem “Fisches Nachtgesang” (Night
song of the fish) by C. Morgenstern; in shipwreck texts (“testi-naufragi”)
(homage to Ungaretti) and in the fish languages. Liquid poetry is a form of cabaret
poetry, nothing else.
Picture 94
litotes
(exiguity)
A figure of speech consisting in a
weakening of the concept, by not saying what a thing or a person is, but what
it is not. Ex.: “Not bad” (“pretty good”); “he is not an Adonis” (“he is
ugly”).
macaronic language
A language composed by rough Latin, dialect
dressed up as Latin, “latinus crassus qui facit tremare pilastros”. It partly
derives from the uninhibited goliardic tradition and from the Carmina Burana, a
1250 collection of compositions often travesties of biblical and liturgical
texts. It originates in Padua, about the end of the fifteenth century,
in a milieu of students or professors, as a parody of Latin, but founded on
respect for the classical tradition as to morphology, syntax and metrics
(hexameter), but adapted to the dialectical lexicon in order to obtain comic
and grotesque effects. It is particularly with Teofilo Folengo that such a
linguistic mixture becomes self-aware stylistic high-level selection.
Picture 93
magic square, SATOR
SATOR is one of the probably magic formulas
as a mosaic of letters, definitely the best known and most widespread .
Composed by 25 letters disposed in space in such a way that che palindromic
phrase “sator arepo tenet opera rotas” can be read starting from the four
corners and proceeding horizontally, vertically, upwards and
downwards. The basic text, of five words,
each of five letters “tenet” even if read in reverse maintains the same sense,
is therefore a crab word; “sator”, spelt ackwards reads “rotas and “opera”
becomes “arepo”.
Graffiti of this formula can be read at Pompeii, dating back to 50, 70 A.D., and later in many other places. The translations
of the formula are innumerable : “Arepo”, the proper name of the Sator or of
an “arepennis” angel, he who sows or “arripens”, he who takes, “rotas” the
plough, torturing wheel, the wheel of the sun’s chariot, the time of destiny,
the universe; “sator” the sower, the saviour, Saturn, creator god;
“opera”. accusative plural of “opus” or
ablative singular of “opera”: “tenet” keeps back; “sator omnia continet” = he
who sows keeps everything ( Stoic philosophy).
After the two findings at Pompeii which
date Sator’s square back to the middle of the first century A.D. it is no
longer possible to maintain that the formula is of Christian or even Hebrew
origin. Some scholars suppose that the Sator may not be a semantically
consistent phrase. H. Hofmann is in favour of a pagan origin of Sator,
attributing it to stoicism (“sator omnia
continet” is already documented by Cicero) as a
statement that god who has created everything preserves everything forever,
with connections to pythagoreanism. But this interpretation clashes with
several objections. A magical superstitious formula cannot be reduced to a philosophic
statement. The formula has truly got magical, therapeutic or apotropaic
functions, which does not exclude links with Christianity, considering the
relationship between magic and Christian religious feelings. For instance
Christ may be identified with the Sower. The SATOR square clearly possesses
also a translitteral structure that overlaps it also under the guise of:
carmen cancellatum (see versus intexti):
an acrostic + a mesostic + a telestic up
to a pentacrostic. There is also an affinity of the Sator square to the frame
of crosswords (Tabulae iliacae) as well as to the verbal cube. There is also an
affinity to the ancient magical papyri, for instance the Hellenic ones.
Moreover one needs to consider the close structural link of the Sator with the
magic squares of numbers where the horizontal vertical or diagonal digits when
added up always give the same result.
A new theory by Marcovich supposes “arepo”
to be the abbreviated name of the god
Harpocrates who in the Greek papyri is
called Arpos or Arpon and in Latin Arpocra, a phallocratic god of fecundity ,
whose cult was popular at Pompeii. The Latin “tenet” corresponds to the
Greek “kratèi” and then “arepo tenet” would become Haro-krates, linking Sator
to the square-shaped magic papyri. So many and so different interpretations
might also point to structural polyvalence linked with the religious syncretism
of the time, 1st century A.D.
Picture 130
mesostic
(see: acrostic)
metaphor
(transposition)
A figure of speech of content consisting in
transferring to a word the meaning of another: “the heart of winter”; “the
flower of the years”; “at the foot of the hill”. It is based on a similarity
relation and is an “unexpressed similitude”, that’s to say such as the terms of
comparison are identified: the base of the hill is equivalent to the foot of
man: the abstract concept is rendered by metaphor through a concrete image.
metathesis
A transposition of letters within a word:
“sucido” for “sudicio”; “spengere” for “spegnere”, “vegno” for “vengo”.
metathetical, poem
(see: concordant, lines)
metonymy
(exchange of name)
A figure of speech of content, by which a
noun is used instead of another to which it is related. For ex. the effect is
indicated instead of the cause: “I always earned my living by my sweat” (with
my work); or else the cause instead of the effect: “the summer burnt in the
country” (the heat of summer); the container instead of the content: “we drank
three bottles” (the content of three bottles); the author instead of the work:
“I have listened to Chopin” (Chopin’s music), etc.
monosyllabic,
lines
For ex.: “lux, nox, pix, mel, fel, nos, vos, res cui
par nil” (luce notte pece miele fiele, noi voi, cose senza pari) (P. F.
Passerini, picked up by Caramuel).
mot-valises
A fusion between roots of words. Typòical
examples are from Rabelais, in the XV chapter of the Quart Livre; for ex.:
“il ne leur a suffit m’avoir si lourdement
morrambouzevezengouzequoquemorgautasacbacguevezinemaffressé mon paouvre
œil… »
or else this lexical monster taken from the
first page of “Finnegan’s Wake”:
“The fall
(bababadalgharaghtakamminarronnkombronntonnerronntuonntrovarrhounavnskawntoohoohoordenenthurnuk!)”.
See also sesquipedalian poem.
