Three Flies

Nico Bleutge explores the meaning of words and their historical layers.

His sentences provide us with surprising connections and teaches us something about the pleasure of repetition. Whether it is a poem by Elizabeth Bishop, a picture by the Dutch painter Jacques de Gheyn II or a fragment of memory from his childhood, he always combines the poet's precise reading view with autobiographical explorations and reflections on memory and language.

In his essays and sketches, Bleutge delves into the linguistic worlds of other poets, bringing to the surface thoughts about his own writing at the same time.

In the morning, he observes the flies at his window, focusing on the power of imagination until in the end he becomes a fly himself. In another passage, he tries to incorporate the animals` view on their environment. Just as animals always have a moment of the Other, of Unequality in themselves, these texts search for the secret of phenomena, turning the seemingly familiar to let us see it as new.