My favorite poet of the Zaum is Daniïl Kharms... But not sure how much of his works were (or even can be meaningully) translated into English...
I guess he was technically founder of OBERUI (collaboration of real art) which was an off-shoot of Zaum.
He was making a living publishing children's literature, which is ironic, because he hated children. But he couldn't publish his Futurist works, because they were deemed to be anti-soviet.
The most famous translation into English is probably "Today I Wrote Nothing: The Selected Writings of Daniil Kharms" by Matvei Yankelevich. You can find it on Amazon and elsewhere.
Ian Frazier, a well known author and contributor to the New Yorker, also published "It Happened Like This" which has great original translations of stories and poems.
Finally, last year, my partner and I translated 8 of Kharms' short pieces and recorded them as a spoken jazz album. If you're into Kharms and/or Ken Nordine-like absurd vocal jazz, you might like it -> https://thedaniilkharms.bandcamp.com (and on Spotify, etc.) You can also read the album's translations by hovering over the song titles and clicking "Lyrics"
I assume you speak Russian -- you might be interested in this article about the album/translation process: https://www22.zvuki.ru/R/P/82795/
His life story is very tragic, as it was for most people in the post-revolutionary times. His diaries were published and they are quite a harrowing read at times.
A monkey enters a restaurant and orders a short of vodka and a large bowl of sour cream. They serve. The monkey drinks the vodka and puts the bowl of sour cream over on his head.
The version I know ends "I get real crazy when I'm fucked up".
To deconstruct the joke: the punchline is absurd because the monkey ordered the sour cream when it was completely sober, thus setting itself up for the craziness in the first place.
The Wikipedia article is very vague on what Zaum even is. But it does compare it to the Dada moveme minus the silliness. Dada was mainly about nonsense poetry and breaking literary conventions. It originated from Switzerland during the first world war, so around the same time as Zaum.
A similar movement happened in Germany a tad later (ca. 1920-1930) with Kurt Schwitters and his Ursonate one of the most prominent examples.
Here is a recital of the poem by the author himself from 1932 [1]. Don't worry if you don't know German, you wouldn't understand more if you did anyway.
I am surprised zaum, as a Futurism derivation, "cannot contain any onomatopoeia". Probably the most famous poem by Marinetti is "Zang Tumb Tumb"[0] which is named in pure onomatopoeia :)
Russian Futurism and Italian Futurism are related but diverged in a number of ways. Worthwhile but nigh-infinite clickhole, made more impressive by the fact that Russian Futurists weren't around for all that long.
Can someone explain in layman terms what this is? Article introduces even more new terms and is clearly not for people in the know. Comments here didn't help either. Is it a poem of made up words to express something? Is it a language of made up sounds? What is it?
After a certain point even this hits uncanny valley - I find the above a bit too forceful in the nonsense and overall too on the nose that it loses its playful quality. I’m saying that after comparing the above to something like the first two lines of Jabberwocky:
Twas bryllyg, and þe slythy toves
Did gyre and gymble in þe wabe:
All mimsy were þe borogoves;
And þe mome raths outgrabe.
Frankly, to me this is a complete nonsense, unironically. I feel nothing reading it, and also I find that looking for a meaning (which authors claim there is, because their nonsense ought to be an intuitional proto-language) isn’t more useful than making sense of dreams or drug-induced trips. For some reason, which stays mysterious to me, many russian literature/culture actors were borderline… esoteric(?). Iow, on dope. This reflects in their articles, speeches, ideas. Zaum is one of these reflections. The modern russian term for things like that is “sheeza”, roughly meaning “of schizophrenic origin”. This all starts making sense only when you get fucked up enough.
Also, and this is absolutely my own perception, political movements here opposed to you know what suffer from this culture, because it’s a little disconnected, so to say. The recent century is not only a result of continuous oppression, but also some ancient, mysteriously imprinted delusion, only affecting those in higher cultural planes. As a result, no change here does good, while no change is bad. Damned in both cases. Idk if by reading russian books you’d get a glimpse into this, maybe it’s my own sheeza.
(Keep in mind that I’m a practical peasant who doesn’t get art when judging.)
Surprised there were so many comments here as I have literally no idea what the Wikipedia article is talking about even after reading it.
I went to ChatGPT to create some examples of zaum for worldwide brands, it helped a little. I still don't get it - I have a feeling ChatGPT doesn't get it either - it seems to be using florid words to evoke a feeling, absent of meaning (or with literal meaning taking a back seat to the ambiance). In other words, the literary/poetic version of a soundscape. Is that it?
Toyota: Steel dreams meld under mechanical constellations, gears and pistons dance in orchestrated harmony, roads unspool like cosmic ribbons before tire constellations, the hum of engines resonates in the cosmic silence, where the journey's tapestry unfurls with each turn of the terrestrial spindle.
McDonalds: Golden arches stand as sentinels of the fast-food cosmos, sizzling constellations of patties and fries twirl in a symphony of flavors, neon galaxies beckon from drive-thru dimensions, a celestial menu unfurls, where taste and nostalgia collide in cosmic bites of familiarity and delight.
Edit: tried McDonalds again with made up words-
Goldever Crispiflame, a sizzle-gleam delight,
Twirls in FlavoFog, a crispy zephyr's flight.
McFizzleGems dance, zaum's embrace, anew,
Bubbly bounceluxe, in zaum sauce hue.
Flavorbloom sazzy, twixt bunlace dream,
Zaumshakes laughter, a dessert supreme.
Munchkinzest zorbits, in flavorfizz mirth,
Zaumagic savorzest, ignites joy's rebirth.
I as well have no idea what this is, but reading more about it, I imagine it makes more sense for people in the Russian speaking community.
Edit:
> Toyota: Steel dreams meld under mechanical constellations, gears and pistons dance in orchestrated harmony, roads unspool like cosmic ribbons before tire constellations, the hum of engines resonates in the cosmic silence, where the journey's tapestry unfurls with each turn of the terrestrial spindle.
That's exactly how I feel when I drive my '99 Corolla, lol
I guess he was technically founder of OBERUI (collaboration of real art) which was an off-shoot of Zaum.
He was making a living publishing children's literature, which is ironic, because he hated children. But he couldn't publish his Futurist works, because they were deemed to be anti-soviet.