Ver- and Erschweigen: Giuseppe Ungaretti’s and Gennadij Ajgi’s sigetic Poetry

This article investigates the silence topos in selected poems by Giuseppe Ungaretti and Gennadij Ajgi. As I argue, this topos has ontological implications, which have not been exhaustively explored yet. Following Martin Heidegger’s philosophy, I aim to illustrate the particular meaning Ajgi and Ungaretti ascribe to silence. In their poetry, silence does not simply mark the absence of sound and speech. It is the expression of man’s original ontological-hermeneutical openness (Erschlossenheit) to the world, which is always tempered (gestimmt). According to Heidegger, this tempered openness can only be articulated by a ‘silent speech’, which means without naming it directly (erschweigen). Sigetic is the name of this articulation, and poetry is its best expression. Investigating Ungaretti’s and Ajgi’s modulation of silence from this philosophical perspective, I will unfold the sigetic character of their poetry.

The article is written in German.