Phantoms

Today’s song is from my all-time favorite Russian band, АукцЫон (Auction, or, as it is usually transcribed into English, “Auktyon” — note that the name is a misspelling of the word аукцион, and that the Ы is typically capitalized — all of which says something about the band’s idiosyncrasies). I’ll write more about the band itself elsewhere, but in general I cannot recommend them enough, although they are much less accessible than many of the other classic acts featured in this blog.

Much of this has to do with their lyrics, which are always humorous and poetically complex, and quite often veer into total inscrutability. They have a strong affinity for the “trans-sense” movement in Russian poetry led by the Futurist poet Velimir Khlebnikov, pictured above (with some artistic tampering on my part). In Russian, the movement is called заумь, a neologism suggestive of that which is beyond ум, beyond the rational mind, beyond what is rationally intelligible or expressible in ordinary language. A related term is заумный язык — language that reaches beyond the logic of everyday speech.

In some such poems (rather few, actually), the language is completely unintelligible, bearing no resemblance to any actual Russian word, beyond, at the most, vague and subjective sound associations. More often, Khlebnikov’s poetry, although often referred to as Futurist, was marked by a return to a primitive, primordial kind of language that brought the monosyllabic roots of Slavic words to the fore, or combined them in original ways (we even see this on occasion in the poetry of Khlebnikov’s fellow Futurist Mayakovsky, as in his poem Наш марш — “Our March,” included in Book 2 of my textbook series). The resulting poetry was incredibly original, and much of its delight for the reader lies in the sheer strangeness of its sounds.

That spirit informs these short couplets by Khlebnikov — which, although intelligible enough in terms of language itself, remain highly enigmatic, and, in my reading, darkly humorous. Khlebnikov entitled this series “Призраки” (ghosts or phantoms — hence the song’s title). Auktyon recorded an album (Жилец вершин - Peak-Dweller, from 1995) consisting entirely of Khlebnikov’s lyrics set to music — and the band succeeded brilliantly at this extremely difficult task, in large part, I believe, because everything they’d done to that point, with their own lyrics, was so in the spirit of Khlebnikov.

I certainly hope to present more Auktyon soon, including from this album, but their lyrics are often so difficult to translate that I sometimes balk at even attempting it. Of course, much of the point is to renounce our insistence on intelligibility, and simply to revel in the humor, the inventive word play, and of course the band’s wonderful music. In this case, they filmed a video as well.

In any event, it would be a good exercise to refer to the vocabulary notes and see what the Russian is literally conveying, without resort to the translation; almost every line is so semantically rich that it could be phrased in multiple ways in translation.

Finally, I should note that each of the couplets below is, presumably, a single, self-contained “phantom.” So, although read together here, they weren’t meant as to tell some coherent narrative. In this sense the music video is intriguing in its attempt to spin something like a story from these splinters of poetry.

Phantoms

I’m a horse skull, I’m on a linden tree.
Here, have a drink of henbane.

I am the circulation of blood, the ink flows;
I’ve been taken captive by the inkwell.

I live only in the mirror,
When it glimmers in the waking world!

I appraised all things at a five-kopeck’s price.
I’m doomed to have a five-kopeck coin.

I’ve put on the plague like a boot
And am on my way to look for my godmother.

Well, I’ll give you a familiar guise
On this dry, brownish air-cured fish.

I sniffle, jump, croak.
I seem a superfluous show-off.

I look at everyone like a saw.
I’m a bit bad and rotten.

Soon they’ll throw me behind bars and into the fortress.
I am the savage ferocity of females.

We are people — people
Of frozen mica.

We are the ruins, we are the ravings
Of a terrible victory.

I am a nag exhausted by the centuries,
Why am I — I, tell me, for what?

Like a human canoe into the embrace of the whirlwind,
I come to you, peppering your dream!

Snoring, speaking hoarsely,
Weeping, moaning, hissing.
We are a snore and a wheeze,
We are a rustling, a noise and a hoarseness.

Призраки

Я конский череп, я на липе.
Вот белены напиток выпей.

Бег крови я, текут чернила;
Меня чернильница пленила.

Я только в зеркале живу,
Когда сверкает наяву!

Я оценил всё за пятак.
И осужден иметь пятак.

Я сапогом одел чуму
И в путь иду искать куму.

А я вам дам знакомый облик
На той сухой и бурой вобле.

Гнусавлю я, прыгаю, квакаю.
Кажусь я ненужной ломакою.

Я смотрю на всех пилой.
Я немного плохой и гнилой.

Скоро меня под решетку и в замок
Я дикое бешенство самок.

Мы люди — люд
Морозных слюд.

Мы вреды, мы бреды
Ужасной победы.

Я изнуренная веками кляча,
Зачем я — я, скажите, для ча?

Людским челном в объятья смерча,
К вам прихожу, ваш сон поперча!

Храпеть, хрипеть,
Рыдать, стонать, шипеть.
Мы храп и хрип,
Мы шелест, шум и сип.

конский: adj. from конь, я: horse • череп: skull • липа: linden tree • белена: henbane • напиток: drink, beverage • пить Ь / выпить Ь: to drink • бег: running, course • кровь, и: blood • течь К: to flow • чернила: ink (neut. pl.) • чернильница: inkwell • пленять АЙ / пленить И: to captivate • зеркало: mirror • сверкать АЙ: to flash, glimmer • наяву: while awake, in the waking world (as opposed to in the realm of sleep/dreams • сапог: boot • надевать АЙ / надеть Н: to put on • чума: plague • путь, и: path, journey • искать А: to seek, look for • кума: godmother • давать АВАЙ / дать: to give • знакомый: familiar, known • облик: guise, appearance • сухой: dry • бурый: brownish • вобла: a Caspian roach, a kind of fish often air-dried • гнусавить И: to sniffle • прыгать АЙ / прыгнуть НУ: to jump • квакать АЙ: to croak (like a frog) • казаться А / показаться А чем: to seem • ненужный: needless • ломака: someone who likes to ломаться — clown around to get attention, etc. • пила: saw • гнилой: rotten • решётка: bars, grating • замок: fortress, castle • дикий: wild, savage • бешенство: rage, fury • самка: the female of a species (a male is самец) • люд: people, folk • морозный: freezing, frost- or freezing-temperature-related • слюда: mica • вред: harm, damage • бред: ravings, delirium • победа: victory • изнурённый: exhausted • век: century, age, lifetime • кляча: nag, old horse • для ча = для чего • людской: adj. from люд: people, folk • чёлн: canoe, small boat • объятие: embrace • смерч: whirlwind • перчить И / поперчить И: to pepper (subject to перец) • храпеть Е: to snore • хрипеть Е: to wheeze, to speak hoarsely • рыдать АЙ: to weep • стонать А: to moan, groan • шипеть Е: to hiss • шелест: a rustling sound • шум: a sound • сип: a hoarse sound, hoarseness