Page:Knight (1975) Past, Future and the Problem of Communication in the Work of V V Khlebnikov.djvu/143

135 :Помирап моренб, морнмбӥ морнцей
 * Bepes s Eepmmoe sepnnu.
 * yuxpaa B uopnubsx nopesb
 * Ispenh s Bepoua aspen.
 * oolupan mopea MOPGHB.
 * Bepen sepnrsau Bepasm.
 * Uploduep mopamecxn mopess
 * Bepenb Bepoan sepaea.

Or again:
 * Mu qapyencs n qypaemca.
 * Tam qapysch, anecL quaxcn,
 * To qypaxapb, T0 qapaxapb,»
 * Snack qypnns, Tau qapnuh...

and so on——there is no need to quote the poem in full.

In learning to read, a child is taught to scan the lines more and more quickly, gradually eliminating the need to speak aloud or even to whisper inwardly. Efficient literacy is achieved when the words are "recognized" without delay, without movement of the lips or vocal organs and without being heard. If all that constitutes genuine reading, then the above lines of Khlebnikov cannot be "read" at all. The lines cannot be scanned, the eyes and mind are slowed down to a crawling pace and it becomes almost impossible to avoid precisely the practice which literacy is supposed to eliminate: namely, the practice of moving the tongue or lips, speaking in a whisper or aloud. Despite himself, the reader seems faced almost with a rebellion——a re—assertion of his long-suppressed babbling tendencies and childhood reading—habits—-a temporary undoing of the work which years of literacy have achieved.