Zaum

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Alexander Rodchenko's bookcover for Kruchonykh's treatise Zaum (1921).

Zaum links here. For an American band, see ZAUM.

Zaum (Russian: заумь or заумный язык) is a word used to describe the daring language experiments of Russian Futurist poets such as Velimir Khlebnikov and Aleksei Kruchenykh.

Coined by Kruchenykh in 1913, the word zaum is made up of the Russian prefix za- (beyond, behind) and noun um (the mind) and has been translated as "transreason" or "beyonsense" (Paul Schmidt). According to scholar Gerald Janecek, zaum can be defined as experimental poetic language characterized by indeterminacy in meaning.

As Kruchenykh has it, zaum is a transrational language, "wild, flaming, explosive (wild paradise, fiery languages, blazing coal)," which awakens creative imagination from the manacles of everyday speech. Zaum "can provide a universal poetic language, born organically, and not artificially like Esperanto."

Examples of zaum include Kruchenykh's poem "dyr bul schyl" and his libretto for the Futurist opera "Victory Over the Sun", and Khlebnikov's so-called "Language of the Birds", "Language of the Gods" and "Language of the Stars".

Khlebnikov's book Zangezi (1922).

In modern times, contemporary avant-garde poet Sergei Biriukov has founded an association of poets called the "Academy of Zaum" in Tambov. Other practitioners of zaum poetry include Serge Segay and Rea Nikonova.

Zaum is also the name of a group of musicians who make music that is totally improvised and is led by drummer Steve Harris. They have been successful in producing a new musical language whilst retaining elements of more familiar traditions. They have been called "the most exciting group in Europe today" ( Brian Morton :Penguin Guide To Jazz )