Flavio Ermini

Abstract

To direct the gaze toward things means to focus on differences, and therefore on darkness. Such a pre-verbal act implies that things can be understood only as they move from light into darkness. This story of darkness, which precedes history itself, must be told. One must follow the gaze that, removed from any linear and reassuring trajectory, fades into darkness, creating the conditions so thought can take shape. The exchange between darkness and writing becomes once again urgent and necessary, just as it remains indispensable to summon the power of imagination: one thinks only through imagination, through the ever changing utterance of the word that names. To write means to travel – even through imperfect and incomplete paths – toward ourselves, toward the abyss of being free and having to fulfill that freedom. Finally, this is the word that, remaining silent, gives voice to the words of our existence.

Flavio Ermini (Verona 1947) is poet, novelist and essayist. Some of his latest books are: Il moto apparente del sole (2006), Plis de pensée (bilingual edition, 2007), L’originaria contesa tra l’arco e la vita (2009). He is the editor of the literature research magazine «Anterem». For Moretti&Vitali he edits the novel and essay series «Narrazioni della conoscenza». He lives in Verona, where he works in the publishing sector.