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Satis Shroff's CATMANDU CHRONICLES
Satis Shroff's CATMANDU CHRONICLES
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Lyrik: The Professor's Wife, Times Change,A Sighing Blonde (Satis Shroff)



THE PROFESSOR’S WIFE (Satis Shroff)

My husband is mad
Er spinnt
Er ist verrückt!
Says Frau Fleckenstein, my landlady
As she staggers down the steps.

She arrests her swaying
With a hiccup
And says: ‘Entschuldigen Sie’
And throws up her misery,
Discontent, melancholy and agony.
The pent-up emotions
Of a forty year married life.

Her husband is a high-brow, an honourable man
A professor with a young mistress.
And she has her bottles:
Red wine, white wine
Burgunder, Tokay and Ruländer
Schnaps, Whiskey,
Kirschwasser and Feuerwasser
The harder the better.

She defends herself
She offends herself
With bitterness and eagerness.
Her looks are gone
Once her asset, now a liability.
A leathery skin, and bags under the eyes
Her hair unkempt, and a pot belly.
A bad liver and a surplus of spleen
A fairy turned a grumbler.

Tension charges the air
Pots and pans flying everywhere
Fury and frustration
Tumult and verbal terror
Rage and rancour
Of a marriage gone asunder.
And what remains is a facade
Of a professor and his spouse
Grown grey and 'grausam'
Faces that say: Guten Tag
When it's cloudy, stormy, hurricane.

To forgive and forget
That's human folly.
I'll bear my grudges, says milady.
And my landlord is indeed a lord
A lord over his wealth, wife and wretched life
A merciless, remorseless, pitiless existence
In the winter of their lives.
Too old to divorce
And too young to die.
What remains is only the lie...

Glossary:
Entschuldigen Sie: excuse me
Guten Tag: good day
grausam: horrible
___________________________________________________________________

A SIGHING BLONDE PRINCESS (Satis Shroff)


She had short, golden hair
Tied neatly behind
With a blue satin-scarf.
And yet I saw her
Wearing a diadem
And a flowing satin gown
Like a princess.

A meek, submissive smile
A movement of her blonde hair
Akin to a Bolshoi ballerina
In moments of embarrassment and coyness.
Her blue Allemanic eyes, sweet and honest
They knew no intrigue,
Neither treachery nor rebellion.
"I was brought up to obey," she whispered.

Pure bliss and love sublime.
A book you could read
Plain and straight
And not in-between the lines.

An openness, and yet
She's resolute and seeks
Perhaps stability
Or security?

A neglected childhood
With pain and punishment.
A legacy of the Black Forest
Nevertheless, she remained
Soft and tender, submissive and sincere.
Not demanding and aggressive
Ever alert and never omissive.

Murmurs and sighs filled the air.
Love became stormy and frantic.
Sweat and aphrodisiac mingled,
To create a moment of magic,
To recede in moans and whispers
And a thousand kisses.

Brought to reality
By the rays of the dying sun
And the sudden noise
Of birds coming home to roost.
A tranquillity after the tumult
Within our passionate souls.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

July 23, 2009 | 8:07 AM Comments  0 comments

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Holy Cows,the Soul,Longing for a Day (Satis Shroff)





THE HOLY COWS OF KATHMANDU (Satis Shroff)


Holy cow! The mayor of Kathmandu
Has done it.
Since ancient times a taboo
The free, nonchalant cows
Of Kathmandu were rounded up
In a rodeo by the Nepalese police.
Was it Nandi, Shiva's bull?
Or holy cows?
"They're cattle still," said the mayor.
"Straying cattle are not wanted".

Eighty-eight holy cows
Were auctioned
Not at Sotheby's
But in Kathmandu.
The auction yielded 64,460 rupees
Said the mayor of Kathmandu.

Cows that were a nuisance
To pedestrians and tourists at Thamel.
Cows that provided dung
And four other products:
Milk, yoghurt, butter and urine
For many a hearth.
Cows that gave urine
That the Hindus collected.
Cows that were sacred
And worshipped as the cow-mother.
Cows that were donated
And set free by Brahmins and Chettris
To set themselves free from sins.
Cows that marked the Gaijatra,
An eight-day homage to the dead.

It was a king, according to legend,
Who ordered cows to be set free
By families in mourning
In the streets of Kathmandu,
Patan and Bhaktapur.
To share the bereaved pain of
The death of a beloved prince
And a sad mother and queen.

The children disguised themselves
As grotesque cows and motley figures
And danced to Nepalese music
To make the queen laugh,
And forget her tears.

Even today the bereaved
Families drive their cows
Through the streets of Kathmandu
On the day of Gaijatra:
The festival of the cows.
Despite the ecological control
On the cows of Kathmandu,
Lalitpur and Bhaktapur.

From ancient times
Kings, noblemen, pedestrians
Cyclists, pull-carts, cars,
Scooters and rickshaws,
The traffic snaked around the holy cows.

The umwelt-conscious mayor
Has made up his mind:
The cattle are obstructing the traffic
Long-haired Nepalese youth need a crew-cut
Horse-pulled carts and rickshaws must go.
They worsen sanitation
And environmental problems.
But the carpets and cars must stay.

Elephant-rides remain for the tourists
After all, we've developed
A yen for dollars, francs and marks.
Kathmandu is catching up
With the rest of the world.

Glossary:
Gaijatra: cow-festival in Kathmandu
Umwelt: German word for environment
Braahmins, Chettris: high castes in Hinduism


WHEN THE SOUL LEAVES (Satis Shroff)

Like Shakespeare said, 'All the world's a stage'
And we've played many different roles in our lives
In various places and scenarios.
As we grow old and ripe, our knowledge of the world grows.
We hold what we cannot see, smell, taste and touch in our memories.
We only have to walk down memory lane
To find the countless faces, places, sights and sounds that we have stored,
To be recalled and retrieved through association
In conversations with others
Or when we contemplate alone.

Why should elderly people be scared of social terror and ageing?
Ageing is a biological phenomenon.
We should be glad that we have lived useful lives,
Filled with good experiences.
The wonderful children that we have created,
The very gems of our genes,
Each so individual in their personalities.
The house we lived in and filled
With love, laughter, songs and music.
The parents and grand-parents, friends and relatives
We have had the time to share with.
But we should be able to assert our exit from this earthly existence
In the manner that we desire,
And not leave it in the hands
Of an intensive life-extension unit.

Let us dwell on common experiences and encounters
That we can take with us,
When the soul leaves the body
And races towards space and becomes unified
With the ever expanding, timeless cosmos.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

LONGING FOR A DAY (Satis Shroff)

She was only ten years old one wintry night,
When her father seized her,
Warmed and satisfied himself
With her growing, glowing, shivering body.
He said in his smelly, hoarse, drunken voice:
'You are mine.
You belong to me.
I'm taking only what's mine.'
She whined, shook and cried, to no avail.
She had no word for it, this nefarious deed.
She told her Mom with tears in her eyes, but she only said,
'Hush, my daughter. This is taboo.
You shouldn't talk about it.
Never tell it to anyone,
For everyone will shun and curse us,
And leave us to starve.'

Despite what my Mom said,
This was my tragic story and it clung to me.
I had to let it out.

Nine months later, I, who was still small, got a child.
The splitting image of my Dad.
Shortly thereafter my Mom died of grief and shame.
Now I was alone with my wretched father.
My son was my solace.
His winning smile help me ease my pain.
He knew not what evil existed in this world,
And that he was created illegally.

I had hope in my helplessness.
I could perhaps mould him to an avenger
Of his mother's disgrace and shame.

I'm waiting for that day.
___________________________________________________________________

Der Verlust des Sohnes einer Mutter (Satis Shroff)

Der Gurkha[1] mit einem gefährlichen Khukuri[2]
Aber kein Feind in Sicht,
Arbeitet für den UNO, und wird erschossen
für Einsätze, die er nicht begreift.
Befehl ist Hukum[3], Hukum ist sein Leben
Johnny Gurkha[4] stirbt noch unter fremdem Himmel.

Er fragt nie warum
Die Politik ist nicht seine Stärke.
Er hat gegen alle gekämpft:
Türken, Tibeter, Italiener, und Inder
Deutsche, Japaner, Chinesen,
Vietnamesen und Argentinier[5].

Loyal bis ans Ende,
Er trauert keinem Verlust nach.
Der Verlust des Sohnes einer Mutter,
Von den Bergen Nepals.

Ihr Großvater starb in Birmas Dschungel
Für die glorreichen Engländer.
Ihr Mann fiel in Mesopotamien,
Sie weiß nicht gegen wen,
Keiner hat es ihr gesagt.
Ihr Bruder ist in Frankreich gefallen,
Gegen die teutonische Reichsarmee.

Sie betet Shiva[6] von den Schneegipfeln an
Für Frieden auf Erden, und ihres Sohnes Wohlbefinden.
Ihr einzige Freude, ihre letzte Hoffnung,
Während sie den Terrassenacker auf einem schroffen Hang bestellt.
Ein Sohn, der ihr half,
Ihre Tränen zu wischen
Und den Schmerz in ihrem mütterlichen Herz zu lindern.

Eine arme Mutter, die mit den Jahreszeiten lebt,
Jahr ein und Jahr aus, hinunter in die Täler schaut
Mit Sehnsucht auf ihren Soldatensohn.

Ein Gurkha ist endlich unterwegs
Man hört es über den Bergen mit einem Geschrei.
Es ist ein Offizier von seiner Batallion.
Ein Brief mit Siegel und ein Pokergesicht
„Ihren Sohn starb im Dienst“, sagt er lakonisch
„Er kämpfte für den Frieden des Landes
Und für die Vereinigten Nationen“.

Eine Welt bricht zusammen
Und kommt zu einem Ende.
Ein Kloß im Hals der Nepali Mutter.
Nicht ein Wort kann sie herausbringen.
Weg ist ihr Sohn, ihr kostbares Juwel.
Ihr einzige Versicherung und ihr Sonnenschein.
In den unfruchtbaren, kargen Bergen,
Und mit ihm ihre Träume
Ein spartanisches Leben, das den Tod bringt.

Glossar:
Gurkha: Nepali Söldner die in der Nepali, indischen und britischen Eliteeinheiten dienen. Sie entstammen vornehmlich den Gurung und Magar, aus dem Westen Nepals sowie den Kirati-Gruppen, den Rai und den Limbu. Auch Tamang, Thakali und Chettris zählen zu ihnen.
Khukuri: Krummes vielzweck Nepali Messer, das nicht nur für rituelle Zwecke gebraucht wird, sondern auch im Nahkampf. „Ayo Gurkhali!“ lautet der furchterregende Schlachtruf der wendigen Gurkhas, die einen legendären Ruf wegen ihrer Geschicklichkeit, sich im Dschungel zu behaupten, geniessen.
Hukum: bedeutet Befehl von Oben (vom König oder der Obrigkeit)
Johnny Gurkha: Eine Bezeichnung für die Nepalis die in Englands Gurkha Einheiten (z.B. King Edward’s Own Gurkha Rifles) dienen. Sie leisten auch heute noch ihren Eid auf die britische Königin und ziehen u. a. vor dem Buckingham Palast als Ehrenwache auf. Britische Gurkhas dienten in Malaysia, Indonesien (Borneo), Hongkong, Brunei, Zypern und neuerdings auch in Kosovo.
Argentinier: 1982 waren die Gurkhas auf dem Falkland Inseln gegen Argentinier eingesetzt worden.
Shiva: Gott der Zerstörung in Hinduismus
___________________________________________________________________



About the Author:


Satis Shroff is a prolific writer and teaches Creative Writing at the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg. He is a lecturer, poet and writer and the published author of three books on www.Lulu.com: Im Schatten des Himalaya (book of poems in German), Through Nepalese Eyes (travelogue), 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, Pen Himalaya, Interpoetry. He is a member of “Writers of Peace”, poets, essayists, novelists (PEN), World Poetry Society (WPS) and The Asian Writer. He is based in Freiburg (poems, fiction, non-fiction) and also writes on ecological, ethno-medical, culture-ethnological themes and lectures at the University of Freiburg. He has studied Zoology and Botany in Nepal, Medicine and Social Sciences in Germany and Creative Writing in Freiburg and the United Kingdom. He describes himself as a mediator between western and eastern cultures and sees his future as a writer and poet. Since literature is one of the most important means of cross-cultural learning, he is dedicated to promoting and creating awareness for Creative Writing and transcultural togetherness in his writings, and in preserving an attitude of Miteinander in this world. He lectures in Basle (Switzerland) and in Germany at the Akademie für medizinische Berufe (University Klinikum Freiburg) and the Zentrum für Schlüsselqualifikationen (University of Freiburg where he is a Lehrbeauftragter for Creative Writing). Satis Shroff was awarded the German Academic Exchange Prize.

July 23, 2009 | 7:07 AM Comments  0 comments

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Adieu Mr. Jackson (Satis Shroff, Freiburg)

We Love You, Mr. Jackson (Satis Shroff)

Your longing for your mythical island:
Neverland,
Got the better of you.
We still hear your high pitched voice
Haunting us in our dreams.
We love you.

Michael Joseph Jackson,
Born in Gary, Indiana
On August 29, 1958
Is at peace with the world,
Despite the persisting tumult
Here on earth.
We love you.

So long Mr. Jackson
Wherever you are.
The moment your soul
Left your body
And headed for the cosmos
At the speed of light,
Your earthly uncertainties,
Eccentric lifestyle,
Bizarre disintegration,
Angst,
Dollar debts, law suits,
The 100,000 dollar bill
For prescription drugs
From a Beverly Hill apothecary,
Suddenly became a thing of the past.

What remains are the shock, sadness,
Memories of your handsome face,
Ruined by plastic surgery.
What we cherish in our memories
Are your moonwalk,
Catchy rhythms,
Beat and split-second timing
As you danced, sang and thrilled us.
Your exquisite voice and haunting lyrics:
I’ll Be There,
Billie Jean,
Black or White,
Bad, Thriller,
Dangerous, History,
Heal the World.

If Elvis was the first white
Who could sing and swivel
His hips like a black,
You showed the world:
It didn’t matter
If you’re Black or White.
You were the global artist
Par excellence,
With a great soul.
We love you for it.

We looked forward to
This is It in London,
But it was not to be.
Your global fans
Are moon-walking
To your infectious rhythm
In Paris, London, Germany,
A jailhouse ‘Thriller’ dance
In a prison in Cebu.
Madame Tussaud has brought out
A Jacko in wax
At the Brandenburger gate in Berlin,
With a condolence book.
We miss you.


July 1, 2009 | 6:07 AM Comments  0 comments

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Adieu Michael Jackson
Related to country: United States

Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

We Love You, Mr. Jackson (Satis Shroff)

Your longing for your mythical island:
Neverland,
Got the better of you.
We still hear your high pitched voice
Haunting us in our dreams.
We love you.

Michael Joseph Jackson,
Born in Gary, Indiana
On August 29, 1958
Is at peace with the world,
Despite the persisting tumult
Here on earth.
We love you.

So long Mr. Jackson
Wherever you are.
The moment your soul
Left your body
And headed for the cosmos
At the speed of light,
Your earthly uncertainties,
Eccentric lifestyle,
Bizarre disintegration,
Angst,
Dollar debts, law suits,
The 100,000 dollar bill
For prescription drugs
From a Beverly Hill apothecary,
Suddenly became a thing of the past.

What remains are the shock, sadness,
Memories of your handsome face,
Ruined by plastic surgery.
What we cherish in our memories
Are your moonwalk,
Catchy rhythms,
Beat and split-second timing
As you danced, sang and thrilled us.
Your exquisite voice and haunting lyrics:
I’ll Be There,
Billie Jean,
Black or White,
Bad, Thriller,
Dangerous, History,
Heal the World.

If Elvis was the first white
Who could sing and swivel
His hips like a black,
You showed the world:
It didn’t matter
If you’re Black or White.
You were the global artist
Par excellence,
With a great soul.
We love you for it.

We looked forward to
This is It in London,
But it was not to be.
Your global fans
Are moon-walking
To your infectious rhythm
In Paris, London, Germany,
A jailhouse ‘Thriller’ dance
In a prison in Cebu.
Madame Tussaud has brought out
A Jacko in wax
At the Brandenburger gate in Berlin,
With a condolence book.
We miss you.


July 1, 2009 | 6:03 AM Comments  2 comments

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Satis Shroff: Lecturer, Author, Poet, Singer(MGV-Kappel) Germany's Profile

Satis Shroff: Lecturer, Author, Poet, Singer(MGV-Kappel) Germany's Friends


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