And then isn't language repository of time? And isn't this why time worships it? And isn't a song, or a poem, or indeed a speech itself, with its caesuras, pauses, spondees, and so forth, a game language plays to restructure time? And aren't those by whom language " live" those by whom time does too? And if time "forgives" them, does it do so out of generosity or out of necessity? And isn't generosity a necessity anyhow?
- Joseph Brodsky
(Elaborating Auden's famous line " Time...worships language." Essentially meaning that it's the language which makes time - past and future, present is only shortest possible fragment of time- tangible. Time past is preserved as memories- collective or individual- and future is conceived as fantasy, but both of these need the body flesh of language to express themselves in the physical world. And it's only humans who have concept of time among species for only they have a language evolved enough to capture the dimensions of time. only humans have a conception of past and future, all others live only in present and thus have no perception- or need- of time.)
- Joseph Brodsky
(Elaborating Auden's famous line " Time...worships language." Essentially meaning that it's the language which makes time - past and future, present is only shortest possible fragment of time- tangible. Time past is preserved as memories- collective or individual- and future is conceived as fantasy, but both of these need the body flesh of language to express themselves in the physical world. And it's only humans who have concept of time among species for only they have a language evolved enough to capture the dimensions of time. only humans have a conception of past and future, all others live only in present and thus have no perception- or need- of time.)
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