THE BOOK OF POEMS IN TWENTIETH-CENTURY ... - TopReferat

ним поговорить? The two parts do not seem to fit together logically—the only thing
which links them is the act of forgetting. The ellipsis points to the "forgotten" words of
the original source. In a Russian translation of Chuang Tzu the passage reads:
Ловушкой пользуются при ловле зайцев. Поймав зайца, забывают про ловушку.
Словами пользуются для выражения смысла. Постигнув смысл, забывают про
слова. Где бы найти мне забывшего про слова человека, чтобы с ним
поговорить? 203
Here the Daoist philosopher, unlike Shvarts, provides a clear parallelism
between capturing the hare and capturing words. Just as the trap is forgotten once the
hare is caught, so are the words forgotten once the meaning is grasped. The concluding
question, "where can I find someone who has forgotten the words [and thus grabbed the
meaning], in order to speak with him," poses an impossible situation: you can not speak
to someone who has forgotten the words. While you may desire to have meaning given
to you from someone who has already obtained it, you must discover your own words
and your own path to truth. This message is obscured in the epigraph by the forgotten
words of Chuang Tzu, just as the answer to Evald's question is held back in the Rilke
epigraph. The technique of ellipsis thus points to a common theme in two epigraphs
taken from radically different traditions—the individuality and nontransferability of
spiritual knowledge and experience.
The concepts of ellipsis and forgetting point also to the extraordinary, yet
transitory power of words themselves. According to Chuang Tzu, words are needed to
reach a truth, but once that truth is attained, they are forgotten. By citing this at the
beginning of her book, Shvarts suggests that the many words and poems which follow are
203 Chzhuan-tszy, chapter 26, translated by V.V. Maliavin. [http://skeptik.dp.ua/lib/fil/chu/26.htm]
(accessed December 19, 2003).
151