Friday 21 October 2011

Jean (Hans) Arp: Sekundenzeiger (Second hand)


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http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/53/Shirt_Front_and_Fork.JPG

Shirt Front and Fork: Hans (Jean) Arp, 1922; photo by AgnosticPreachersKid, 31 May 2010 (National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.)



Sekundenzeiger

daß ich als ich
ein und zwei ist
daß ich als ich
drei und vier ist
daß ich als ich
wieviel zeigt sie
daß ich als ich
tickt und tackt sie
daß ich als ich
fünf und sechs ist
daß ich als ich
sieben acht ist
daß ich als ich
wenn sie steht sie
daß ich als ich
wenn sie geht sie
daß ich als ich
neun und zehn ist
daß ich als ich
elf und zwölf ist.


File:Minutensprunguhr.gif

Animation zur Demonstration einer Minutensprunguhr: photo by Hk kng, 2009


Melted clock, Cass Technical High School

Melted clock, Cass Technical High School: photo by Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre, from The Ruins of Detroit, 2010


Second hand

that I, as I
one and two is
that I, as I
three and four is
that I, as I
it shows how much
that I, as I
ticking and she rattled
that I, as I
five and six is
that I, as I
seven eight is
that I, as I
if it is
that I, as I
when she goes
that I, as I
nine and ten is
that I, as I
eleven and twelve.



http://hirshhorn.si.edu/dynamic/collection_images/full/66.110.jpg


Six White Forms and One Gray Make a Constellation on a Blue Ground: Jean (Hans) Arp, 1953 (Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.)


Sekundenzeiger (Second hand): Jean (Hans) Arp, from from G: Journal for Elemental Form-Creation, no. 3, 1924; English approximation by G.O. Ogle, 2011
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5 comments:

  1. ACravan21 October 2011 at 08:25

    I could tell that this was going to be great from the second I saw Shirt Front and Fork. It's just SO great. Curtis

    ReplyDelete
  2. TC21 October 2011 at 08:52

    Thanks, Curtis.

    Arp, sheer genius, plus great sense of humour. The ultimate bonus.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Barry Taylor23 October 2011 at 05:45

    Curtis, Tom -

    He's a terrific poet too:

    I am a horse


    I travel in a train
    that is overcrowded
    in my compartment
    each seat is taken by a woman
    with a man sitting on her lap
    the air is unbearably tropical
    all the travellers have an enormous appetite
    they eat without ceasing
    suddenly the men
    begin to whimper
    and long for the maternal breast
    they unbutton the women's blouses
    and suck the fresh milk to their hearts' content
    I alone do not suck
    nor am I suckled
    nobody sits on my lap
    because I am a horse
    immense and upright I sit
    with my hind-legs up on the train seat
    and comfortably lean
    on my fore-legs
    I whinny a raucous neigh neigh neigh
    on my breast glitter
    the sex buttons of sex appeal
    in neat little rows
    like the glittering buttons on uniforms
    oh summertime
    oh wide wide world

    --Hans Arp

    tr, Harriett Watts
    in *Three Painter-Poets: Arp, Schwitters, Klee*
    [Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1974]

    ReplyDelete
  4. TC23 October 2011 at 07:27

    Barry,

    That's about my favourite Arp poem, too.

    But so much of the brilliance of these pieces resides in the sound and sense plays in the original language, I thought to go to something that's a pure "form-creation," as he called it at the time.

    There was moreover the special benefit of the having the generous services of that appropriately mechanical linguist Mr. G.O. Ogle.

    ReplyDelete
  5. ACravan23 October 2011 at 08:45

    Thank you, Barry. What you sent added a lot to my Sunday morning. Curtis

    ReplyDelete