Page:Knight (1975) Past, Future and the Problem of Communication in the Work of V V Khlebnikov.djvu/160

152 thusiastically turned. If Khlebnikov did not actually identify the "language of lightning" with his "transrational language“, he certainly seemed to see parallels between the two. The Radio—like transrational language—~was seen as exercising magical, powers. It was a "great Sorcerer and ensorceler", enveloping the globe in its spell. The Radio was, secondly, the "main tree of consciousness." In this it resembled "the wisdom of language", which Khlebnikov saw as the single consciousness of the globe:


 * Its "I" coincides with the life of the world.

The Radio was, thirdly, like “a timid bird“, its outpourings resembling "the spring flight of birds". Khlebnikov associated Radio with his dream of a humanity which would develop wings and fly: the "gift of spark—syeech" was linked with "air—sailing.“ All this made Radio resemble transrational language in another way, for this new language, too, was associated with Khlebnikov's dream of a human race which could "fly". In Ladonir he calls:


 * Harm, eoaaeanhe uenoneqhe,
 * Bee nanhme, nanee B npocrop,
 * H nepeneﬁ aelnn Hapeqss
 * B enusmﬁ cueprnux paarosop.

Conversely, man's existing system of languages—fossilized, violent and divisive—is seen as an evolutionary handicap. It is like the vestigial claw on the wing of a reptilian fossil—bird—a useless, burdensome survival from an aggressive past, weighing upon humanity's wings and hindering its flight:
 * Destruction of languages which resemble the claw on the wing... Languages on contemporary humanity—are the claw on the wing of birds: a useless residue of antiquity, a Claw of former times.