Language, like I? A close reading of a poem by Nazar Honchar

One of my favorite poems by Nazar Honchar reads (looks?) like this: see above.

 

МОВА [MÓVA] is Ukrainian for LANGUAGE, Я [YA] being I.

 

You see LANGUAGE disintegrate and I separate from МОВ [MOV] (which means like or as [if being] and is slightly more “poetic” Ukrainian word used for comparison than the usual як [yak]).

 

The I staggers and falls. In line 4 it virtually lies on its side. The final line is merciless: the reader falls silent at the very end of the poem (you cannot “say” or “pronounce” the Cyrillic “soft sign” the I turned into and you cannot compare (see МОВ) LANGUAGE (see line 1) with anything that can be pronounced.

 

In his German book of poems (LIES DICH: Performative Dichtungen und Lyrik, Leykam Verlag, 2008) Honchar provides his own two “versions” of how this poem can be rendered into another language:

 

SPRACHE

WIE ICH

WIE ICH

WIE ....

WEICHHEITSZEICHEN

 

and

 

ALSO

ALS   O

ALS   SEHR  O

ALS   0

 

ALS