Venice, My Love

VENICE, MY LOVE (Satis Shroff, Freiburg)

Vive la Venice.

The Serenissima´s long dead,

But the myth of bella Venice lives on,

Created by its native sons:

Canaletto and Guardi,

In the eighteenth century,

With cheerful and festive colours

On canvas.

Venice´s epochal renaissance,

Depicted by painters from northern Europe

And the United States.

Claude Monet´s canvases

Daubed in Venice in 1908,

Only to be followed by Turner.

As a casual visitor you´re captivated

By the canals, bridges, ships,

Marketplaces and palaces

Of this beautiful lagoon city.

It inspired creativity in so many,

To paint and write their feelings

And admiration for beautiful Venice.

´Too beautiful to be painted,´ said Claude Monet,

Only to come with brushes and colours

That couldn´t resist the temptation.

Modern art´s approaches

In the historical context.

We peer in awe at the works of Old Masters

Titian, Velazquez, Rembrandt,

Hung between Bacon´s works

On the purple wall of the Fondation.

Beyeler takes us to the ´water-lily city´

An elegiac series of art,

With leitmotifs at the Piazza San Marco,

The Canale Grande, Palladio´s Maggoire,

Santa Maria della Salute churches.

Byron´s allegory of decline and fall,

His evocative imagery of Venice.

William Turner´s transcendent

Visual inventions on canvas.

Eduard Manet painted Venice in 1874,

The first modern artist,

His impression is confreres.

A delightful trend in art:

Self reflexive painting pure.

Sans subjects, sans genres,

No overwhelming with sentimental

Literary past.

Away from official Paris and London,

With their old fashioned visual stereotypes:

Clichés.

Cherish the unique air,

The ravishing beauty of Venice.

Got ´em all,

In a bid to create new,

Original imagery:

Monet, Manet, Whistler

Odilon Redon, Paul Signac.

Beyeler surprises us with

Franch and Anglo-American avant garde.

Artists who were active in beautiful Venice

From the nineteenth

Till early twentieth century:

Sargent, Monet, Renoir,

Whistler and Anderzorn,

With his art of the magnetic cosmopolitan

Fin-de-siecle Venice.

It was artists who created

The myth of Venice.

The Serenissima remains

A cult destination,

Yesterday, today and tomorrow.

Intrigued by this mysterious town,

It´s colourful everyday life,

The interplay of the sky and sea,

Ever changing light, the whiff of the waves,

Splashing water,

A symphonic harmony of colours.

Tourists, laymen and women,

Artists, lovers and photographers,

Have all been inspired

By the mysterious muse Venice

To create epochal works,

Unleashing crucial impulses

For the evolution of modern,

Contemporary art.

Art that will live on

For the delight of the connoisseur.

Art you can learn in Paris,

It´s Venice that you have to paint.

Venice, the unreality of a fairy tale.

Venice, where joie de vivre

And melancholy are at home.

The power of the Serenissima and its demise,

Where love and death doth meet,

Coming together and going apart.

Bella Venezia, you´re ambivalent.

I´m attracted to you,

Repulsed by you.

But considering everything in you,

You oldest child of liberty,

I can´t but love you.

Author Biography Information:

Satis Shroff is a writer living in Freiburg (Germany) and has written textbooks on Nepali: Sprachkunde for Germans (Horlemann Verlag, Bad Honnef) and has written for Nelles Verlag´s guidebook ´Nepal´(Munich), articles in The Christian Science Monitor, The Fryburger, The Rising Nepal, Radio Nepal, Himal Asia, the Nepalese Perspective and Nepal Information (Cologne). He has studied Medicine and Sozialarbeit in Freiburg and Creative Writing (Writers Bureau, Manchester). He is the published author of three books on www.Lulu.com: Im Schatten des Himalaya (book of poems in German), Through Nepalese Eyes (travelgue), Katmandu, Katmandu (poetry and prose anthology by Nepalese authors, edited by Satis Shroff). His lyrical works have been published in literary poetry sites: Slow Trains, International Zeitschrift, World Poetry Society (WPS), New Writing North, Muses Review, The Megaphone, The Megaphone, Pen Himalaya, Interpoetry. Satis Shroff is a member of "Writers of Peace," poets, essayists,novelists (PEN), World Poetry Society (WPS), Boloji and The Asian Writer.

He describes himself as a mediator between western and eastern cultures and sees his future as a writer and poet. He is dedicated to promoting and creating awareness for Nepal´s literary heritage and culture in his writings and in preserving Nepal´s identity in Germany. Satis Shroff was awarded the German Academic Exchange Prize.

"I was extremely delighted with Satis Shroff´s work. Many people write poetry for years and never obtain the level of artistry that is present in his work. He is an elite poet with an undying passion for poetry." Nigel Hillary, Publisher, Poetry Division - Noble House U.K.