A Post Fit for a Celebration

Photo: “Celebration of Dada’s 50th Anniversary”. Café Odéon, Zurich. (February 1966)

History was made the moment Hugo Ball stepped out in the Cabaret Voltaire in 1916. Dressed in, “a tight-fitting cylindrical pillar of shiny blue cardboard” that “looked like an obelisk”, along with, “a huge cardboard collar, scarlet inside and gold outside, which was fastened at the neck”. (Time Life, World of Marcel Duchamp 69) The full costume ensemble resembled a metallic lobster.

Hugo Ball began to recite one of his “sound poems”, an original invention:


Photo: “Hugo Ball in the Cabaret Voltaire”. (1916)

“Gadji beri bimba
Glandridi laula
Lonni cadori…”

The main objective of a “sound poem” was to place more emphasis on the way the group of words sounded together with little regard if they even made actual words.

While in Romania, 1917, a contemporary to Hugo Ball (and fellow Dadaist), Tristan Tzara wrote a poem entitled “Roar”, which was the single word “Roar” repeated one hundred forty-seven times. I am going to attempt a written dictation of the original recitation:


Photo: “Jean Arp, Tristan Tzara, and Hans Richter”. (1917)

“Roar, roar, roar, roar, roar, roar, roar, roar, roar, roar,
roar, roar, roar, roar, roar, roar, roar, roar, roar, roar,
roar, roar, roar, roar, roar, roar, roar, roar, roar, roar,
roar, roar, roar, roar, roar, roar, roar, roar, roar, roar,
roar, roar, roar, roar, roar, roar, roar, roar, roar, roar,
roar, roar, roar, roar, roar, roar, roar, roar, roar, roar,
roar, roar, roar, roar, roar, roar, roar, roar, roar, roar,
roar, roar, roar, roar, roar, roar, roar, roar, roar, roar,
roar, roar, roar, roar, roar, roar, roar, roar, roar, roar,
roar, roar, roar, roar, roar, roar, roar, roar, roar, roar,
roar, roar, roar, roar, roar, roar, roar, roar, roar, roar,
roar, roar, roar, roar, roar, roar, roar, roar, roar, roar,
roar, roar, roar, roar, roar, roar, roar, roar, roar, roar,
roar, roar, roar, roar, roar, roar, roar, roar, roar, roar,
roar, roar, roar, roar, roar, roar, roar.”

“Dada is all. Long live Dada.” -crowd chant in the Café Odéon



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