Sommervögel finden: Ornitophonische Übersetzungspoetiken bei Mette Moestrup und Nico Bleutge

Abstract

Finding Summerbirds: Ornitophonic Translation-Poetics in Mette Moestrup and Nico Bleutge

This article investigates selected texts and oral performances by two contemporary authors, Nico Bleutge and Mette Moestrup, who adapt or rewrite Christensen’s poems. In the works focused on (Moestrups poems “My Language” and “Hvad betyder det for sommerfuglen”, Bleutge’s speech “Den Wiederholungen folgen” and the poem “fischhaare finden”), translation plays a central role, and animals (especially winged ones) become a motor for transformational movements between languages and authors. Unsettling the semantic and structural level of language, the named birds and butterflies set loose acoustic dynamics that lead us back to Christensen’s reflections on mortality, contingency, and poetics in her essays.