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HAUNTING HINDUKUSH (Satis Shroff, Freiburg-Kappel)

The King Who Was Expelled (Satis Shroff)

King Amanullah returned

Ecstatic,

From a tour to Europe

And the Near East.

He ordered the modernization

Of Afghanistan,

Along the lines

Of Kemal in Turkey.

His majesty said:

‘I want monogamy,

European clothing,

Abolition of women’s veils.’

The people rejoiced

In the streets of Kabul.

The Mullahs revolted.

The king was expelled.

That was 1928.

* * *

They Shot the King (Satis Shroff)

General Nadir Shah

Became the King of Afghanistan,

With a little help,

From his British friends.

He brought reforms.

They shot him in 1933.

* * *

Pakhtunistan Dreams (Satis Shroff)

Mohammed Zahir became

The next king of Afghanistan.

‘I have a dream

Of a Pakhtunistan,

A bigger country which can rule

The Pathans in Western Pakistan.

To the west of the river Indus.’

The Pakistanis weren’t amused,

And politely refused it.

* * *

THE HINDUKUSH (Satis Shroff)

It’s Volkstrauertag

Death through war,

Gewaltherrschaft,

Go through your mind.

It’s 2009,

Peace at last?

The victims of wars,

Memorials with mourning choirs,

Weeping war widows, orphans,

Wreaths and flowers for the dead.

The fire brigade stands at attention.

Uniforms,

Stiff humans

With eyes moving,

To take in the mourning.

In Freiburg-Kappel we sing

A Russian song,

To remember

The sons and husbands of Freiburg-Kappel

Who didn’t return.

Ninety years ago,

The Constitution of Weimar.

Germany’s Fundamental Laws,

Proclaimed sixty years ago.

The ugly Berlin wall

Fell twenty years ago.

The Second World War,

Began seventy years ago.

Alas, young Teutonic widows

Still cry today

In Germany,

For young husbands

Who died

And still die,

In the killing fields

Of the Hindukush,

There’s a war

In far off Afghanistan.

The grandfather died

For a totalitarian regime.

The grandson dies today

For a democratic idea.

We Germans train the police

In the Hindukush.

What happens when they run

Over to the Talibans?

Islam binds the people

In the Hindukush.

What have we to offer?

Is war capitulation,

Against the forces of evil?

People who are beaten, tortured

When their ethnicity

And genes differ,

When people with illness or disability,

Are meted injustice,

Stamped as ‘unworthy of life.’

There are those who faced

A firing squad,

When they defied

The rule of power,

Clutched to their beliefs,

Their pure conscience.

You can’t change the past.

What has happened,

Has happened.

Don’t close your eyes

To the hoary past,

Lest you be blind

To the present,

And the future.

It’s not the Third World,

Where ideologies,

Fundamentalists,

Terror

Find their breeding grounds.

Rightist ideology

Is still mushrooming,

In the streets of Berlin,

Vienna and Bern.

The ‘others’ are still

Being terrorized,

Beaten, stabbed and kicked

In broad daylight.

Freedom and forgiveness,

Within and without,

Where art thou?

He who searches

Finds hope,

Tolerance,

Empathy

And dignity,

For there are enough

Righteous, honest,

Spiritual people with integrity

Who care about others.

* * *

TWITTERS FROM THE BLACK FOREST (Satis Shroff)

The Talibans have persuaded

The Pathans, Pashtoons,

And other warring tribes,

To ignore their differences,

And unite to fight the infidels

From the West.

US citizens say:

‘America can’t afford

Obama’s Afghan war.

Hey Big Spender, Obama,

Thirty-five billion dollars

To blow up.

Don’t Americans

Need the money

Back home?

* * *

I’ll Bring You Back (Satis Shroff)

The faces of the rookie cadets

At Westpoint

Look tired.

‘30 000 only’ says Obama,

‘Till May 2010,

And I’ll bring you back.’

The question is:

In a coffin

Or as a hero?

***

Understanding Afghanistan (Satis Shroff)

What happens

When Obama, Merkel

And the Nato have left Kabul?

It wasn’t America’s war anyway.

Is it the Nato’s future war?

Bin Laden’s at large.

The enemy is invisible.

Airstrikes kill

Only women and children.

Do we really understand

Afghanistan?

Or is it only

Our thought

Of what Afghanistan

Ought to be.

* * *

Under the Shadow of the Hindukush (Satis Shroff)

John Mc Cain wishes

To break the will

Of the Talibans.

That’s how wars are won,

From the Westpoint view

If you announce

When the troops will leave,

The Talis will just wait

And drink Darjeeling tea

Under the shadow

Of the Hindukush.

* * *

No Soldiers, Please (Satis Shroff)

Germany’s Guido Westerwelle,

Praised the decision to withdraw

From the Hindukush.

‘Police officers for Afghans

Is okay,’

Says Birgit Homburger FDP,

‘But no soldiers, please.’

* * *

Party Crashing In the White House (Satis Shroff)

You mean you can

Party crash

Right up to Obama

In the White House?

Mark Sullivan and his men

Were blended

By a charming blonde

Socialite.

To me

It was like in Bonn,

Where an elderly German lady,

Dressed up like a Baroness,

Cut an excellent figure,

Till the chief of the Bonner police

Confided to me,

She was a commoner,

A pensioned lady,

Out for a tete´-a-tete´

With King Birendra

Of Nepal.

Where there’s a will

There seems to be

A way.

Ach, Helvetia you’ve Done it Again (Satis Shroff)

The Bairam celebrations

Are long over,

And Helvetia has caught

The Islamic world

By surprise.

The Swiss folk have dismissed

The minaret ‘missile’ issue.

Building churches are still forbidden

In many Muslim countries.

The Catholic Swiss have spoken

And won the day.

If more countries would listen to

And respect their own folk.

Ach, Helvetia,

You’ve done it again.

* * *

The Word of the Year (Satis Shroff)

Härtzen is the word of the year

In good olde Germany.

It means:

To be jobless,

Hanging around,

Loitering

Without much money

In your purse.

It comes from Hartz Four,

A program

For the jobless

And the poor.

But if a blonde German girl says:

‘You’re bam,’

Take it easy.

It means you’re cool.

In case you’re a banker

And someone calls you a ‘Bankster,’

It isn’t a compliment.

It implies

The speculative bank business

You’ve been doing.

A banker

Who’s a gangster.

Geburtstagskind: Satis Shroff

Männergesangsverein Freiburg-Kappel

  1. Tenor: Wolfgang Busse, Adolf Fressle, Heinz Hamburger, Rainer Keller
  2. Tenor: Walter Fuß, Richard Linder, Satis Shroff, Klaus Sütterle, Herbert Tombreul
  1. Bass: Frank Keller, Franz Lachmann, Andreas Schiessle, Franz Wißler, Ulrich Mauer
  2. Bass: Werner Heise, Wolfgang Keller, Dirk Schneider, Michael Stotz.

* * *

Charmant bleib immer,

so wie du bist,

ganz gleich, wie alles um dich ist.

Du bist ein guter Mensch,

Hast immer ein offenes Herz,

Darum lieben wir dich so.

(Kurt & Waltraut, Freiburg)

* * *

Schön, dass es dich gibt

Geburtstag

Ist wie eine kleine Pause.

Du stehst da und staunst:

Einen Tag lang hält das Leben den Atem an

Und sagt:

Schön, dass es dich gibt (zitat von: Thomas Knodel)

(Gabi K., Tuttlingen)

* * *

Anita Tombreul, Creative Center House of Art, Ziegelmattenstrasse 14, Freiburg-Kappel

Lieber Satish,

zu Deinem Wiegenfest wollen wir Dir mit einem kreativen Wochenplan und der Farbe Rot eine kleine Freude machen.

Sonntag,

gehört der Farbe weiss,

Montag,

gehört der farbe Blau,

sie führt auf den Weg der inneren Freiheit.

Dienstag,

gehört der Farbe Rot,

sie führt auf dem Weg der tatkraft.

Mittwoch,

gehört der Farbe Gelb,

sie führt auf den Weg der geistigen Klarheit.

Donnerstag,

gehört der Farbe Orange,

sie führt auf den Weg des Reichtums.

Freitag,

gehört der Farbe Grün,

sie führt auf den Weg der Freundschaft.

Samstag,

gehört der Farbe Violett,

sie führt auf den Weg der Innenschau und

Grenzüberschreitung.(Anon)

Wir wünschen Dir Gesundheit, Lebensfreude, viel Liebe und vor allem Spaß bei den nächsten Schritten auf Deinem Lebensweg in Glück.

(Anita & Herbert, Ziegelmatten, Freiburg)

LIEDERKRANZ: A Wreath of Songs (Satis Shroff, Freiburg-Kappel)

A burly, baldy waiter shuffled by with a tray full of beer bottles and wine glasses for the delight of the guests at the festival hall in Freiburg-Kappel. Elderly members of the men’s choir called Liederkranz, which in English means a ‘wreath of songs’ and their elegantly dressed spouses were also there, short grey-hair neatly cut, wearing conservative jackets, gold necklaces and smiles, instead of frowns. After all, they were out to have a pleasant time and listen to their spouses singing songs from olde Germany.

We come across many folk songs (Volkslieder) that have been handed down verbally through the generations, and whose original composers are unknown, from the 16th century onwards. Lieder have been mostly written by German poets. The folk songs have undergone a lot of adaptations with the passage of time. A hymn, for instance, is a sacral song used in the church and among the Hindus in India and Nepal the sacral songs have their origin in the vedic scriptures. In Germany we have a rich tradition of the soldier’s song (Soldatenlieder), the marching songs (Marschlieder), student songs (Studentenlieder), drinking songs (Trinklieder), love songs (Liebeslieder) and the wanderer’s song (Wanderlieder) to name a few.

In the German language the word ‘Lied’ also denotes poetry, for instance Schiller’s Lied von der Glocke (Song of the Bell) and a vocalised form for example Gustav Mahler’s Lied von der Erde (The Song of the Earth) which is based on six poems from The Chinese Flute by Hans Bethge.

A kiddy band played ‘Raindrops falling on my Head.’ Music without words. It was interesting to know that a lot of work is being done to motivate the youth in Kappel and get them busy with music and songs lest they become idle and loiter around. What is interesting is that a lot of German Moms and Dads take an active interest in the development of their children and make sure that the home-works are done and that the children have enough to do in their spare time by making them take part in music lessons, riding, soccer, fire-brigade, swimming lessons, karate and other activities. Unlike in Sweden, where the teachers take over the discipline pedagogy and parents don’t have to do or help their children with home-works, in Germany the educators expect the parents to help with the lessons. So if you have a migrant family with parents who are good in Arabic, Turkish or other language but not in German, it is pre-programmed that the child won’t make much headway at school and will end up as a hair-cutter, car-mechanic, doing the laundry of others or cleaning the floors of German hospitals. Extra tuition means investing extra money.

The children’s band played Glenn Miller’s ‘Moonlight serenade’ a wonderful song and melody for a fox-trot. Ah, what associations a melody conjours. You remember the university dances, gliding gracefully with your beautiful partner in tact with the music. When I hear Frank Sinatra’s version of ‘New York, New York’ I’m transported to an evening at the Piazza San Marco where I did a fox-trot with a charming masked lady who spoke German. You can’t help tethering a melody or song to a landscape or a person from your past, can you?

We began the evening with Manfred Bühler’s ‘Jubilate’ a great song to wake up the people, who might be already be lethargic due to a sumptuous dinner. The next song or Lied was ‘Es ist ein Ros’ entsprungen’ composed by Michael Praetorius. We’d scrapped ‘Adeste fideles’ in lieu of ‘Adiemus’ composed by Karl Jenkins and sang it for the first time. I like the crescendo in the part ‘Anamana coole rawe…’You can experience this great feeling and notice your blood pressure going up, the released hormones surging in your blood stream. Ah, music knows no bounds. The audience goes with you as you transcend to new heights in the course of the Liederabend.

Our next song was ‘La le lu’ composed by Heino Gaze, which is actually a lullaby for the young and old. It is  an evergreen in the German-speaking world of South Tyrol, Switzerland, Austria and Germany, and you hear it quite a few times. By this time we had the smiling and applauding audience on our side. After that we chose to sing a song made popular by Reinhard May ‘Über den Wolken’, which means ‘Above the Clouds.’ The song gives you the Top Gun feeling with the sound of the jet starting, accelerating and taking off. The wind is blowing from the north-east and you’re on your starting tarmac 03, the jet shoots past leaving a thundering sound in your ears, the wet asphalt vibrates, the rain is like a veil, till your jet leaves the airstrip and heads for the skies. This song is a hit among the pilots of the Lufthansa and the Luftwaffe and, of course, among aviation fans.

After Reinhard Mey’s Lied we were unanimous and sang ‘I will follow him’ composed by J.W. Stole. We sang it with gusto in a very Badische German accent. It sounded like: I ‘laff’ him. Whoopie Goldberg would have got a kick out of it with her ‘Sister Act.’

We finished off the evening with a creamy song composed by the popular Austrian Udo Jürgens ‘Aber bitte mit Sahne.’ We had the otherwise conservative Kappeler audience raving with this song. The brass orchestra of the Musikverein Freiburg-Kappel then took over under the conductor of Manfred Preiss, a stiff, balded guy with a good command of his charges and in the initial phase he marched off with a Lied composed by John Williams ‘Concert March from 1941,’ followed by Jean Sibelius’ Finlandia Op.26, No.7, then Three Celtic Dances (Reel, Air, Jig) .It was wonderful music with excellent changes in rhythm and texture. The next was slections from ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ Jerry Bock’s ‘Anateva’ followed by Sven van Calster’s ‘Via Aurelia.’ In this music you could literally see and hear the sounds of horses cantering along the Italian countryside. The last song was Willy Fransen’s ‘Adios Havana’ with catchy a composition from Cuba that ended with a hot samba rhythm.

It’s always pleasant to fraternise with the locals from Kappel and the surrounding areas of Littenweiler, Buchenback, Stegen and the Dreisam Valley. You get to know a lot of people gradually. The Kappeler are a friendly people o speak the Badische dialect and that’s why they call me ‘Sadisch’ which I find rather symbadisch, which means sympathetic. Kappel has pleasant Black Forest surroundings where the brass-band plays the Heimat music, and the people from the local apothecary, bakery, the green grocery, the butchery, the locals who runs the taverns and inns with names like ‘Schutze’ and ‘the Lion’ and ‘Kreuz’ all come to have a drink or a chat in the Festhalle where events are staged.

The singers of the men’s choir Männergesangverein ‘Liederkranz’ Freiburg-Kappel (MGV) were still sitting erect in their chairs with their comrades or spouses. There were candles flickering on the tables with coloured metallic balls and pine leaves heralding that it was Christmastime. There were people  drinking apple or orange juices, sekt, beer, mineral water. Some were relishing their wurst, hot dogs with buns but all eyes were fixed towards the stage. The Männergesangsverein (MGV) bade farewell to its young conductor Felix Rosskopp who has decided to live in Offenburg where he’ll be working as a music teacher, and he received a picture book about lovely Kappel, an envelope with money and a painting of Kappel. He seemed delighted, and I couldn’t help adding that it had been a pleasure to sing under his guidance He’d brought his fiancee with him, a decent brunette who also liked music and aired her views.

Welcome to the Schwarzwald, the fair town of Kappel and the Männergesangsverein (MGV).

About the Author:

Satis Shroff is a prolific writer and teaches Creative Writing at the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg. http://www.zfs.uni-freiburg.de/zfs/dozent/lehrbeauftragte4/index_html/#shroff.  He is a lecturer, poet and writer and the published author of five books: 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), and two language books on the Nepalese language for DSE (Deutsche Stiftung für Entwicklungsdienst) & Horlemannverlag. He has written three feature articles in the Munich-based Nelles Verlag’s ‘Nepal’ on the Himalayan Kingdom’s Gurkhas, sacred mountains and Nepalese symbols and on Hinduism in ‘Nepal: Myths & Realities (Book Faith India) and his poem ‘Mental Molotovs’ was published in epd-Entwicklungsdienst (Frankfurt). 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.

Satis Shroff is based in Freiburg (poems, fiction, non-fiction) and also writes on ecological, ethno-medical, culture-ethnological themes. 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 Academy for Medical Professions (University Klinikum Freiburg) and the Center for Key Qualifications (University of Freiburg, where he is a Lehrbeauftragter for Creative Writing  at the ZfS Uni Freiburg). Satis Shroff was awarded the German Academic Exchange Prize.

Copyright © 2009, Satis Shroff. You may republish this article online provided you keep the byline, the author’s note, and the active hyperlinks.


When one of us succeeds, we all succeed.

I’ve always believed that. So I offer these links for writers in that spirit. Hopefully, you’ll find something of use here (Bruce Dobler)

Creative Writing Tips SHROFF/DOBLER (Freiburg/ Iowa) SS 2010:

Satis Shroff is a prolific writer and teaches Creative Writing at the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg. http://www.zfs.uni-freiburg.de/zfs/dozent/lehrbeauftragte4/index_html/#shroff.  He is a lecturer, poet and writer and the published author of five books: 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), and two language books on the Nepalese language for DSE (Deutsche Stiftung für Entwicklungsdienst) & Horlemannverlag. He has written three feature articles in the Munich-based Nelles Verlag’s ‘Nepal’ on the Himalayan Kingdom’s Gurkhas, sacred mountains and Nepalese symbols and on Hinduism in ‘Nepal: Myths & Realities (Book Faith India) and his poem ‘Mental Molotovs’ was published in epd-Entwicklungsdienst (Frankfurt). 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.

Satis Shroff is based in Freiburg (poems, fiction, non-fiction) and also writes on ecological, ethno-medical, culture-ethnological themes. 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 Academy for Medical Professions (University Klinikum Freiburg) and the Center for Key Qualifications (University of Freiburg, where he is a Lehrbeauftragter for Creative Writing and Scientific English at the ZfS Uni Freiburg). Satis Shroff was awarded the German Academic Exchange Prize.

Satis Shroff’s URLS: www.facebook.com/satis.shroff

Flickr: Search for a person Flickr is almost certainly the best online photo management and sharing … Satis Shroff – Freiburg, Germany, Germany. 96 items | view his profile …www.flickr.com/search/people/?q=communicating&m=extras&page=11

www.worldsentinel.com/categories/world/France

www.slowtrains.com/rave_on/rave_on.html

www.star.cityes.org/…/the-official-catalogue-of-the-members-of-w.p.s.-19-july-2006-8-june-2008.html

www.brooklynartproject.ning.com/…/satis-shroff-in-lyrik

http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/67131

Im Schatten des Himalaya by Satis Shroff in Poetry

Im Schatten des Himalaya by Satis Shroff: Themen der Geschichten und Gedichten sind u.a.: Kampf um Demokratie

(My Nepal: Quo vadis?
www.lulu.com/browse/book_view.php?fCID…5

www.satisshroff.wordpress.com/ethnomedical-therapy-2008-satis-shroff/

www.searchwarp.com/Author83824.htm

www.jacketflap.com/profile.asp?member=Satis

www.bookmarket.ning.com/profile/satisshroff

www.ayjw.org/articles.php?id=911453

www.satisshroff.wordpress.com

www.americanchronicle.com/articles/51877

www.booksie.com/poetry/…/nepal-blues-(satis-shroff)

www.authorsden.com/visit/viewPoetry.asp?…

www.boloji.com/places/0039.htm

www.gurkhas.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=187

www.ayjw.org/articles.php?id=942415

www.interpoetry.com/satisshroff19.html

www.sonog.com/viewwriting.php

www.asianamericanpoetry.com/show_poem.php?…Satis_Shroff3e016vkamq

www.thepeopleslounge.ning.com/profile/SatisShroff

www.musesreview.org/html/main.php?g2

www.voicesnet.mobi/mobidisplayonedoc.asp?..

www.satisshroff-zeitgeist.blogspot.com/2008/05/blog-post.html

What Satis Shroff has said about Bruce Dobler University of Iowa): Bruce is a great writer who motivates and moves you to the core, and it is a pleasure and honour to talk with him. He has devoted his life to Creative Writing like no other author I know. He’s my teacher and I bless the day I met him. He’s the one who got me writing poems and short stories. I’d been writing articles in the foothills of the Himalayas as a student of Zoology and Botany but it was Bruce who inspired me to write and submit like no one else has done. I think it’s not enough to be a teacher or lecturer at a college or university after acquiring academic credentials and rest on one’s laurels. There are so many complacent MA and PhD holders in Literature but how many of ‘em really actually write books? Bruce Dobler does it and pushes you to your utmost. He inspires, motivates and drives you to carry on writing. Like I told you, a great guy and writer. You must meet him and talk with him. An enriching experience.

Please look up Bruce Dobler for more tips on Creative Writing themes, sites, authors, courses etc.

What  others have said about the author:

„Die Schilderungen von Satis Shroff in ‘Through Nepalese Eyes’ sind faszinierend und geben uns die Möglichkeit, unsere Welt mit neuen Augen zu sehen.“ (Alice Grünfelder von Unionsverlag / Limmat Verlag, Zürich).

Satis Shroff  writes with intelligence, wit and grace. (Bruce Dobler, Associate Professor in Creative Writing MFA, University of Iowa).

‘Satis Shroff writes political poetry, about the war in Nepal, the sad fate of the Nepalese people, the emergence of neo-fascism in Germany. His bicultural perspective makes his poems rich, full of awe and at the same time heartbreakingly sad. I writing ‘home,’ he not only returns to his country of origin time and again, he also carries the fate of his people to readers in the West, and his task of writing thus is also a very important one in political terms. His true gift is to invent Nepalese metaphors and make them accessible to the West through his poetry.’ (Sandra Sigel, Writer, Germany).

Brilliant, I enjoyed your poems thoroughly. I can hear the underlying German and Nepali thoughts within your English language. The strictness of the German form mixed with the vividness of your Nepalese mother tongue. An interesting mix. Nepal is a jewel on the Earth’s surface, her majesty and charm should be protected, and yet exposed with dignity through words. You do your country justice and I find your bicultural understanding so unique and a marvel to read.’ Reviewed by Heide Poudel in WritersDen.com 6/4/2007.

‘The manner in which Satis Shroff writes takes the reader right along with him. Extremely vivid and just enough and the irony of the music. Beautiful prosaic thought and astounding writing.
Your muscles flex, the nerves flatter, the heart gallops,
As you feel how puny you are,
Among all those incessant and powerful waves.’

“Satis Shroff’s writing is refined – pure undistilled.” (Susan Marie, www.Gather.com)

“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.

Copyright © 2009, Satis Shroff (Freiburg)/ Bruce Dobler (Iowa). You may republish this article online provided you keep the byline, the authors’ note, and the active hyperlinks.

Communication

Module: Creative Writing: Poems, Short-stories, Microstories

Lecturer: Satish Shroff, B. Sc (Zoology, Botany), Dipl. Social Sciences, Creative Writing (UK), writer, poet, journalist (The American Chronicle and its affiliated 21 newspapers, USA) and artist.

Max. students: 20

ECTS Points: 4 (100 working hours)

Ziel: The aim of this course is to develop and improve language creativity in English, learn successful writing habits, work on one’s creative impulse, learn basic writing techniques, and develop an idea factory, improve writing skills and try different genres. Whether it’s poetry, short-stories, microstories, fiction or non-fiction, you have to learn the precise use of language and that’s where Creative Writing comes in. If you’ve always wanted to write an anthology or a book, then join us in an atmosphere of mutual respect, tolerance, cooperation and fun in writing.

Creative Writing leads to the critical appreciation of literary works and through it you learn to be a critical writer and a demanding reader. It offers a challenge to the mythology of a writer as a ‘genius.’ The idea of a Creative Writing course, seminar or workshop is nothing new, for writers and poets have in the past such as Lord Byron and Mary Shelley and her husband PB Shelley and Goethe and Schiller have always worked together. It was Ezra Pound who advised TS Eliot to rewrite The Waste Land. I like George Bernard Shaw’s advice: ‘If you do not write for publication, there is little point to writing at all.’

At the end of the course you will get the opportunity to have your submissions (poems, microstories,  short-stories printed in an anthology in the internet, if and when, you give your consent (www.zfs.uni-freiburg.de/studium/creativewriting). I think it’s fun to share your creative works.

Inhalt: Every student has to write when he or she studies at the university. In this course we do the basics of writing techniques which can be used for poetry, fiction, non-fiction and short-story and microstory writing.

  • 1. Microstories
  • 2. A Cross-pollination of Forms (Imagery, Inspiration, Poetry)
  • 3. The Interview
  • 4. How to gather stories: Notebooks, Journals, Mining Memory
  • 5. Variety in Your Writing
  • 6.Fiction Techniques in Non-fiction Scientific Writing
  • 7. Dialogue and Plot
  • 8. Writing the Short Story
  • Zu erbringende Leistungen:
  • Active participation throughout the course,
  • writing classwork and homework submissions,
  • writing exercises during the extended weekend courses,
  • Hausarbeit at the end of the course (10 pages).

Bemerkungen: Law students are exempted from acquiring performance credits. Knowledge of English literature welcome but not a necessity. Students from all faculties are welcome.

Termine: Fr.  11. Juni 10     16:00 – 19:00 Uhr

Sa. 12. Juni 10     10 :00 – 17 :30 Uhr

Fr.   02 Juli 10      16 :00 – 19 :00 Uhr

Sa.  03.Juli 10      10 :00 – 17 :30 Uhr

Ort : Uni Freiburg

Belegung: ab………………über http://www.zfs.unifreiburg.de/studium/creativewriting

A. Thematische Einordnung und spezifische Inhalte der Veranstaltung

Every student has to write when he or she studies at the university. In this course we do the basics of writing techniques which can be used for poetry, microstory, short-story (fiction, non-fiction) writing.

  • 1. Microstories
  • 2. A Cross-pollination of Forms (Imagery, Inspiration, Poetry)
  • 3. The Interview
  • 4. How to gather stories: Notebooks, Journals, Mining Memory
  • 5. Variety in Your Writing
  • 6.Fiction Techniques in Non-fiction Scientific Writing
  • 7. Dialogue and Plot
  • 8. Writing the Short Story

B. Zentrale Lernziele der Veranstaltung: The central aim of this course is to learn the writing techniques mentioned in the course and as a result, the students should be able to attain a certain amount of proficiency in writing poems, lyrics and texts on their own.

Cognitive learning goals: The students learn that writing is a craft, not an art, and write by forming sentences in their minds, adjusting, writing and discovering how to turn the drab (things in life) into the jewel. The students should learn to set a goal (time management) of publishing their verses or prose either on the internet (www.Lulu.com,www.booksie.com(as PDF)  or www.zfs.uni-freiburg.de/studium/creativewriting), as a book or both. The publication helps a student to become a specialist in the field of his or her choice.

Affective learning goals: The students will learn to make the precise use of language through text-revisions, and learn to be critical about texts, learn to edit and improve not only their own texts but also those of other writers. To be emotionally attached to words and to use the appropriate words in the best way, for words conjure images, vivid pictures—whether in poetic scenes or in describing an aesthetic product.  That’s what we learn in this course, making use of our cognitive learning goals.

What do I expect from you? The desire to develop yourself and be willing to try different genres in creative writing and take your writing further. The ability to work with concentration. The ability to reflect over the themes that we’ve discussed or treated. Flexibility and a fair amount of working under duress (deadlines of budding and professional authors).

C. Aufgaben und Leistungen, die die Studierenden erbringen

  • Students are allowed to bring in work in progress
  • Students should make a presentation
  • Project (book, anthology or Hausarbeit (academic dissertation, short-story, a collection of poems or microstories or both)
  • Arbeitsaufwand for students  ca. 100 hours.
  • Method and Competence: The lectures will be combined and activated with methods that have the aim to get more out of a theme through brainstorming, group-puzzle and the use of writing templates (eg. software) and take your writing forward.
  • We’ll be using different learn methods and social forms like writing on your own, sharing your work with a group and presenting it in a peer-plenum to acquire useful feedback.
  • We’ll be experimenting with stream of consciousness and the interior monologue to enhance your powers of observation and description by starting a Creative Writing diary till the end of the course and beyond. Oscar Wilde said: ‘I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train.’
  • We’ll find appropriate triggers to gain access to our memories.
  • We’ll be using the autogenic exercise to go back to your past as though you’re as a child on film.
  • You will learn how to make your characters lead their inner lives.
  • You will learn to train your writer’s ear to transform actual speech into carefully crafted dialogue.
  • You’ll learn to flesh out your story by creating a portfolio for each character. You will understand how much there is to know about a character that you’ve created.
  • Social Competence: This course will enable and encourage you to learn in a team
  • Develop the ability  to communicate with others and your readers
  • Show willingness to co-operate with others by reading and commenting on texts of other writers.
  • The will to solve a conflict when it appears in the writing class.
  • The ability to get into the thoughts of the other writers and examine their viewpoint by exchanging texts.
  • The desire to come to an agreement, compromise and look for a mutual solution.

D. Basisliteratur

Allen, R.: Literatur in 5 Minuten. Ein Schnellkurs. Zweitausendeins Frankfurt. 2002.

Bernays. A., Painter, P. : What if? Harper Collins Publishers. New York. 1990.

Millner, C.: Write From the Start. Simon and Schuster. 1992

Stein, S.: Write pro fiction. Das Erfolgsprogramm für Schriftsteller. Zweitausendeins Frankfurt. 2002.

Truss, Lynne.: Eats, Shoots & Leaves. Gotham Books. 2004

www.dobler’s dozen

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Please look below for more interesting information on writers’ resources, prizes, sites, authors etc.

Look up Bruce Dobler for more tips on Creative Writing themes

* * *

PRIZES:

Major new international literary prize announced: English PEN is delighted to learn of the launch of a major new international literary prize - the Man Booker International Prize.  Awarded once every two years to a living author who has published fiction either originally in English or whose work is generally available in translation in the English language, the prize will highlight one writer’s continued creativity, development and overall contribution to fiction on the world stage. It is good news for the Writers in Translation programme – as well as the reading public – that literature in English translation will be eligible for consideration in what promises to be a very high-profile prize.

PRIZES/Wettbewerb/Competitions:

Literaturförderung Baden-Württ: akademie@solitude.s.schuttle.de

info@schriftsteller-in-bawue.de

·                                             2007 Fish International Poetry Prize – A Fish poetry writing contest – [ Diese Seite übersetzen ]

“Is there no room for poetry in such a thing as this?” And of course, there had to be. So last year we introduced the Fish International Poetry Prize, www.fishpublishing.com/2007-fish-international-poetry-prize.php – 17k – Im Cache -
The winner of the inaugural Fish International Poetry Prize is Richard Rudd with The Siren Lovers. Richard is from Totnes, Devon in England.
www.fishpublishing.com/2006-fish-international-poetry-prize.php – 25k – Im CacheÄhnliche Seiten
[ Weitere Ergebnisse von www.fishpublishing.com ]
The web site of the Plough Poetry Prize, an annual open poetry competition, and the Plough Arts Centre’s Open Mike and Poetry Nights.
www.theploughprize.co.uk/ – 13k – Im CacheÄhnliche Seiten

·                                             lyrikline [Links]

Magazine for international poetry in english translations. The most important Poetry Prize in the English speaking part of Canada.
www.lyrikline.org/index.php?id=70&L=1 – 39k – Im CacheÄhnliche Seiten

·                                             Nimrod International Literary Journal : Awards

- [ Diese Seite übersetzen ]

The editors of Nimrod International Journal are delighted to announce the winners, Nimrod/Hardman Awards: The Pablo Neruda Prize in Poetry
www.utulsa.edu/nimrod/awards.html – 36k – Im CacheÄhnliche Seiten

·                                             openPR.de – Pressemitteilung – extremnews.com – Oswald LeWinter …

Pressemitteilung von extremnews com Oswald LeWinter erhält den Khalil Gibran International Poetry Prize Die in 1979 vom ehemaligen libanesischen
www.openpr.de/news/131829/Oswald-LeWinter-erhaelt-den-Khalil-Gibran-International-Poetry-Prize.html – 64k – Im CacheÄhnliche Seiten

·                                             Strokestown International Poetry Festival

- [ Diese Seite übersetzen ]

His first visit to Strokestown was as one of the judges of the Strokestown International Poetry Prize in 2003. He liked it so much he keeps coming back.
www.strokestownpoetry.org/ – 26k – Im CacheÄhnliche Seiten

·                                             The Griffin Trust For Excellence In Poetry: Winners Press Release

- [ Diese Seite übersetzen ]

Judge Karen Solie announced the International winner and John Burnside announced the Canadian winner of the 2007 Griffin Poetry Prize.
www.griffinpoetryprize.com/awards_winners.php – 19k – Im CacheÄhnliche Seiten

·                                             The Griffin Trust For Excellence In Poetry: Shortlist 2005 …

- [ Diese Seite übersetzen ]

GRIFFIN POETRY PRIZE 2005. International Winner. Click here to purchase Selected Poems: 1963-2003, by Charles Simic. Book: Selected Poems: 1963-2003
www.griffinpoetryprize.com/shortlist_2005.php?t=7 – 21k – Im CacheÄhnliche Seiten

·                                             The Arvon Foundation – Creative writing courses, taught by …

- [ Diese Seite übersetzen ]

The winners of this year’s Arvon International Poetry Competition have been announced. The winning poets are: Farrer & Co First Prize £5000
www.arvonfoundation.org/pages/content/index.asp?PageID=22 – 26k – Im CacheÄhnliche Seiten

COURSES:

Arvon Foundation: Residential courses taught by professional authors like Philip Pullman, Ali Smith and Andrew Motion at centres in Devon, Yorkshire, Shropshire and Inverness-shire. The courses are open to all and grants are available for people in financial need.

Satis Shroff is a prolific writer and teaches Creative Writing at the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg (Germany). http://www.zfs.uni-freiburg.de/zfs/dozent/lehrbeauftragte4/index_html/#shroff.

British Council: Literature & Creative Writing :The British Council’s online guide to creative courses and summer schools in the UK.

Script Factory: Workshops and course information for people who want to be professional scripwriters.

trAce: Original new media writing, creative online courses, articles and a broad range of resources from Nottingham Trent University. Courses

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Please read my articles: www.facebook.com/satis.shroff

“Please read my articles: http://www.americanchronicle.com/authors/view/168 “.

www.worldsentinel.com/categories/world/France

www.slowtrains.com/rave_on/rave_on.html

www.star.cityes.org/…/the-official-catalogue-of-the-members-of-w.p.s.-19-july-2006-8-june-2008.html

www.brooklynartproject.ning.com/…/satis-shroff-in-lyrik

www. publishedauthors.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?user

Please read my articles  www.americanchronicle.com/articles/67131

Im Schatten des Himalaya by Satis Shroff in Poetry:

Im Schatten des Himalaya by Satis Shroff: Themen der Geschichten und Gedichten sind ua: Kampf um Demokratie (My Nepal: Quo vadis?
www.lulu.com/browse/book_view.php?fCID…5

www.satisshroff.wordpress.com/ethnomedical-therapy-2008-satis-shroff/

www.searchwarp.com/Author83824.htm

www.jacketflap.com/profile.asp?member=Satis

www.bookmarket.ning.com/profile/satisshroff

www.ayjw.org/articles.php?id=911453

www.satisshroff.wordpress.com

www.americanchronicle.com/articles/51877

www.booksie.com/poetry/…/nepal-blues-(satis-shroff)

www.authorsden.com/visit/viewPoetry.asp?…

www.boloji.com/places/0039.htm

www.gurkhas.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=187

www.ayjw.org/articles.php?id=942415

www.interpoetry.com/satisshroff19.html

www.sonog.com/viewwriting.php

www.asianamericanpoetry.com/show_poem.php?…Satis_Shroff3e016vkamq

www.thepeopleslounge.ning.com/profile/SatisShroff

www.musesreview.org/html/main.php?g2

www.voicesnet.mobi/mobidisplayonedoc.asp?..

www.satisshroff-zeitgeist.blogspot.com/2008/05/blog-post.html

Satis Shroff with Swiss geologist Toni Hagen at a Freiburger pub … – [ Diese Seite übersetzen ]Satis Shroff with Swiss geologist Toni Hagen at a Freiburger pub.
www.flickr.com/photos/28329074@N02/2645811732/

www.english.pitt.edu/people/faculty/dobler/publications.html – 10k – CachedSimilar pages

Please look up Bruce Dobler for more tips on Creative Writing themes, sites, authors, courses etc.

On the road with Rip Van Winkle

By Bruce Dobler. It sounded too good to be true — I was going on the road with Dow Bruce Dobler teaches writing at the University of Pittsburgh.
www.post-gazette.com/books/reviews/20031228doblerp4.asp – 17k – CachedSimilar pages

Bruce Dobler – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In 1969-1970, Dobler was the first “writer-in-residence” at Philips Exeter Academy. Later he taught English Literature and Writing at Windham College,
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Dobler – 15k – CachedSimilar pages

Explore the Works of Bruce Dobler

Explore the Works of Bruce Dobler. Explore the Works of Bruce Dobler. Self: Bruce Dobler. Stone Reader (2002). 1. Where’s My Stuff?
www.amazon.com/gp/imdb/actor/nm1328644 – 32k – CachedSimilar pages

0316189154: Icepick: A novel about life and death in a maximum …

Bruce Dobler. Bookseller: Spotlight Books/Virginia Social Ventures Dobler, Bruce. Bookseller: D and C Books (formerly D and D Books )
www.abebooks.com/sm-search-0316189154-icepick-a-novel-about-life-and-death-in-a–is!0316189154.html – 79k – CachedSimilar pages

BFI | Film & TV Database | DOBLER, Bruce

DOBLER, Bruce · Filmography · Related events. Database Links DOBLER, Bruce. Date of birth: Unknown. Activities. Cast (1). Biography Author
ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/individual/1120246 – 10k – CachedSimilar pages

WRITERS LINKS

Where are the best all-around WRITERS’ websites?

Writer’s Digest

http://www.writersdigest.com/

Preditors and Editors

http://www.anotherealm.com/prededitors/

Writers Resources (from dictionary.com)

http://www.dictionary.com/Dir/Arts/Writers_Resources/

The Write News

http://writenews.com/

Writing World.com

http://www.writing-world.com/

Writing.com

http://www.writing.com/

The Writer’s Almanac (Garrison Keillor)

http://almanac.mpr.org/

Burry Man Writers Center

http://www.burryman.com/

The Book Browser: A Guide for Avid Readers

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/subjects/subjects.asp?
sourceid=40234846&userid=Mo5ovfh9kI&cds2Pid=1655

Broadway Songs und Deutsche Lieder aus dem Dreisamtal (Satis Shroff, MGV Freiburg-Kappel)

Ich hätte nie gedacht, dass ich alte Deutsche Lieder und Broadway-Songs mit den einheimischen Deutschen des Männergesangsverein (Männerchor) in Freiburg-Kappel singen würde.

In den vergangenen Jahren wurde ich öfters von Alois aus Zähringen gefragt, ob ich nicht auch singen möchte. Aber ich hatte gezögert, weil ich zu beschäftigt mit meinen Vorträgen und Kinder gewesen war. Inzwischen ist der alte Alois an einer Herz-Attacke gestorben und ich vermisse sein freundliches Gesicht, wie er mich jedes Mal, wenn ich ihn in Zähringen traf mit einem Lächeln begrüßte.

Hier in Kappel singe ich nun als zweiter Tenor und es ist wirklich spannend. 20 Euro für die Mitgliedschaft und weitere 100 Euro für den blauen Rock, und Sie sind Teil des Chores, bereit für das Singen bei eigenen Konzerten und als Gastchor bei Festen in den verschiedenen Teilen des Dreisamtals. Ich konnte es nicht glauben. Tatsächlich probten wir deutsche und englische Lieder in Hochdorf mit den Damen dort und sangen mit den anderen Chören aus dem Dreisamtal in Buchenbach mit 600 deutschen Zuhörern und Applaudierern.

Das Dreisamtal besteht aus Kirchzarten, Oberried, Buchenbach und Stegen. Man hat einen herrlichen Ausblick auf das Dreisamtal, wenn man aus Buchenbach in Richtung Höllental über Himmelreich geht. Die angrenzenden Täler sind sehr romantisch mit grünen Wiesen, rauschenden Bächen und malerischen Schwarzwald Bauernhöfen, eine Mühle, die noch in Betrieb ist und die Ruinen der Burg Wiesneck. Da ist dann noch der Hansmeyerhof, ein Bauernhof Museum in der Nähe von Wagensteig. Unweit entfernt liegt Stegen, auf der sonnigen Seite des Dreisamtal. Das Schloss von Weiler wurde im Jahre 1663 erbaut und ist einen Besuch wert, ebenso wie die Schlangen-Kapelle in Wittental.  Die barocken Kirche von Eschbach ist einer der schönsten in der Freiburger Gegend. Es gibt viele Schwarzwälder Bauernhöfe, die darauf warten von Ihnen entdeckt zu werden. Vom Lindenberg haben Sie einen ausgezeichneten Blick auf das Dreisamtal.

Die Chor-Mitglieder trugen ihre traditionellen Kostüme. Was für ein wunderbares Gefühl. Man spührte wie das Adrenalin in den Blutkreislauf strömte als mit den Anderen gesungen wurde. “Ein Chor ist nichts für Individualisten. Man muss einen harmonischen Klang haben “, das war immer die Mahnung des jungen Dirigenten Felix Rosskopf, wenn wir probten.

Es war das erste Mal seit dem Zweiten Weltkrieg, dass alle Dreisamtal Chöre kamen und zusammen sangen. Während des Krieges waren die Deutschen angehalten, Kriegs- und Vaterlandslieder zu singen. Buchenbach scheint ein Problem zu haben, das mittlerweile in den meisten Männer-gesangsvereinen in Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz deutlich wird. Die ältere Generation bricht wegen des Alters und aus Mangel an Mobilität weg und die jüngere “Love-Parade” Generation kümmert sich nicht um die Pflege der alten Tradition des Vaterland.

Die Sänger von Buchenbach sangen: Sing mit mir, Oh Shenandoah, Mit Musik geht alles besser.  Die Sängerinnen und Sänger von St. Peter aus den hohen Schwarzwald sangen: Freude am Leben, welches mehr gesprochen als gesungen war. O du schöner Rosengarten, das war eine Liebeserklärung und ein anderes lyrisches Lied, welches Rot sind die Rosen hiess. Liebe ist immer ein beliebtes Thema.

Die Sängerinnen und Sänger aus Ebnet traten als gemischter Chor auf. “weil viele Männer verstorben sind oder den Verein verlassen haben.”, so Klaus.

Die Ebneter Sänger sangen: Capri Fisher, Ich brech die Herzen der stolzesten Frauen, ein lady-killer song in deutscher Sprache und ein Walzer für dich und mich.

Der Männerchor aus Kirchzarten sang: Die Sonne erwacht, ein traditionelles deutsches Lied, Hymne, O Iris komponiert von Wolfgang Mozart.

Ich sah eine Menge von Sängern, die eine fliehende Stirn, leuchtend unter den Lichtern der Bühne, hatten. Die meisten von ihnen trugen eine Brille und alle waren für diesen Anlass gekleidet. Die Damen tragen lange, fließende Abendkleider oder kamen in den traditionellen Dirndeln des Schwarzwaldes, und die Männer in Trachten oder tadellosen Anzügen.

Kirchzarten liegt auf dem Weg zum Hirschsprung, Hinterzarten und Titisee, einem Gletschersee.  In Kirchzarten können Nordic Walking machen, Golf spielen, entspannen im Kneipp-Zentrum mit Wassertherapie und man kann Französisch Boule spielen wie Peter Mayle (A Year in Provence).

Die Sängerinnen und Sänger aus Zarten sangen: Heimat, deine Sterne, Strangers in the Night, Are You Lonesome Tonight (deutsche Version).

Wir, von Kappel, sangen: “Ein Freund, ein guter Freund und La Le Lu ein Wiegenlied für Jung und Alt aus einem alten deutschen Film mit Heinz Rühmann in der Hauptrolle.

Die Sänger aus Oberried sangen am besten. Oberried ist für die höchsten Gipfel des Schwarzwaldes bekannt: Feldberg und Schauinsland. Es gibt ein Heimatmuseum genannt Schniederlihof, einen Steinbruch auf einem Hügel, das in ein Museum umgewandelt wurde, und natürlich die Unterhaltungpark Steinwasen. Die Vegetation in diesem Teil ist sub-alpine. Im Sommer kann man jede Menge Bergsteigen, Spaziergänge genießen und Picknicks auf den saftigen grünen Wiesen. Im Winter ist Oberriede ein Skiparadies. Hier ist ebenso Deutschlands erster Bergnatur Friedhof.

Zu einer anderen Gelegenheit wurden wir von den Hochdorfern als Gastsänger eingeladen.  Das Thema war Filmmusik und wir sangen Lieder aus: Adiemus, Jungle Book, den Blauen Engel, Truxa, Gasparone, Lena’s song, Gabriella’s Song, Fünf Millionen suchen einen Erben, Frauen sind keine Engel (Frauen sind keine Engel), True Love, mein Heart Will auf (Titanic) Go, Nur nicht aus Liebe weinen, In mir klingt ein Lied, Für ein Nachtvoller Seligkeit (Kora Terry), Moon River (aus Breakfast at Tiffany’s), Midnight Blues und Conquest of Paradise.  Ein großer Bildschirm in der Nähe der Bühne wurde benutzt, um Szenen aus den Filmen zu zeigen. Auch wir Sänger wurden digital aufgenommen. Das deutsche Publikum zeigte sich sehr empfänglich und Felix Rosskopf gab sein Bestes. Der Applaus in der Hochdorfer Halle war donnernden. Die Standing Ovations am Ende haben uns sehr gefreut. Das war ein tolles Gefühl, als wir alle Die Eroberung des Paradieses mit Begeisterung sangen. Der Text ist eigentlich albern und künstlich, aber die Wirkung auf das Publikum ist großartig. Man konnte fühlen, wie der Funke vom Dirigenten über die Sänger zum Publikum übersprang. Das Singen dieser Lieder war eine fantastisches Wellness-Erlebnis und extrem in seiner therapeutischen Wirkung. Das tut im Herzen gut. Nachdem das Singen beendet ist, ist es üblich zusammen zu sitzen und etwas deutsches Bier oder Wein vor Ort zu Trinken. Man spricht über das Konzert, reißt Witze oder diskutiert über private Angelegenheiten , wenn man Lust hat.

Wenn man sich so einem Verein verpflichtet hat, lernt man alles über sein Dorf und dessen Leute kennen.

Man sagt, wenn drei Deutsche zusammen kommen gründen sie einen Verein. Und so war es, als vor 75 Jahren ein Gesangverein versuchte die alten Lieder zu retten. In Buchenbach gründeten sie den Verein Edelweiss und ein Motto ist: “Wir amüsieren uns zu Tode.”  Ein Gesangverein ist ein Ort, wo man unterhalten wird, in dem Sie über Ihre Probleme mit Ihrem Gesang Kameraden sprechen und sich gegenseitig helfen. So war es seit Generationen, und diese Tradition wurde fortgesetzt.  Zum Beispiel, wenn mein Freund Klaus Sütterle einen Teil seines alten Haus renovieren will, fragt er nur jemand aus dem Verein in einem der sozialen Trinkgelage nach Hilfe und schon ist bereits alles im Gange, ganz ohne Bürokratie. Es ist eine Politik des Gebens und Nehmens, wie in den alten Tagen.

Viele suchen nach einem Grund im Leben. Durch die Texte der Lieder und der Prozess des zusammen Singens im Chor hilft in der Gemeinde und dieses Handeln wiederum führt zu Begegnungen und Austausch von Ideen und Spaß am Leben.

Die Texte tragen dazu bei, die Werte, die in dieser technischen Welt verloren gehen zu erhalten, wenn Arbeit entfällt, Plätze wegrationalisiert werden und die Angst vor dem Verlust des Arbeitsplatzes steigt. Das hängt über dem Kopf wie das Schwert des Damokles. In einem Gesangverein ist es üblich seine Sorgen und sein Glück zu teilen, mit einander zu reden und sich einzuladen.  Es gibt sicherlich eine Menge Vorzüge und Vorteile Mitglied in einem Verein oder Club zu sein.

Ich persönlich denke, es gibt nichts Besseres für die Seele, als laut zu singen, ein Gedicht laut zu rezitieren, weil wir alle mit einer Stimme ausgestattet sind, mit der wir eine Melodie erzeugen können.  Wenn du mit anderen zusammen singst beginnst du zu realisieren, wie gut man singt, so verbessern Sie dann Ihre Stimme, Atmung und sozialen Fähigkeiten.  In einem Chor können Sie Alltagsstress loswerden, kreativ sein und sich einen positiven Stress machen, anstatt einer negativen Stressbelastung zu erliegen.

Man hat immer ein Gefühl der Hochstimmung, wenn der letzte Akkord erklingt. Ah, das Singen bereitet soviel Freude.  Statt deprimierender, frustrierender Gedanken, haben Sie positive Bilder und Gefühle, und entwickeln die Kraft in Ihrer Stimme mit Elan und wachsen mit dem Lied. Sie machen Musik mit Ihren Stimmen. Man sieht nur lächelnde Gesichter und so lächelt man zurück. Dieses Gefühl ist ansteckend. Man knüpft Kontakte zu Anderen vor und hinter der Bühne. Wenn Sie allein und traurig sind, singen und jubeln Sie sich froh.  Ihr Gesang erheitert auch andere und Sie sind sozial integriert, bevor Sie es realisieren. Plötzlich singen Sie bei Konzerten alte, deutsche und neue, englische Lieder die bei Jung und Alt bekannt sind.

Singen hilft Hemmungen und soziale Barrieren abzubauen und führt zu einer Gemeinsamkeit unter den Menschen. Es gibt ein Miteinander, statt Vorurteile und Egoismus. Sie tun etwas für die Anderen und erwarten deshalb nicht, dass jemand etwas für sie tut. Sie teilen ihre Freude. Durch die Lieder bringen wir unsere Gefühle des Glücks und der Freude, der Trauer und des Leids zum Ausdruck. Wir erfreuen uns und finden Trost in den Texten der Lieder und lassen uns mitreissen von der überragenden Wirkung sakraler Musik. Durch das Singen werden Hormone wie Endorphine und Epinephrine (Adrenalin)  freigesetzt. Das ist gut für den Kreislauf und fördert die Gesundheit.

Unter den Sängern haben wir Sprichwort.

Wo man singt da lass Dich nieder, böse Menschen kennen keine Lieder.

Das ist genau das was ich gemacht habe. Ein wunderbarer Ort auf dieser Erde, dieser Schwarzwald.

Herzlich Willkommen im Schwarzwald! Welcome to the Black Forest!

(The original article in English was published in The American Chronicle, a syndicate of 21 newspapers in the USA. Translation by my friend: Klaus Sütterle, Männergesangsverein Freiburg-Kappel). If you want to read more articles & poems by the author please yahoo or google for: satis shroff).

About the Author: 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 Academy for Medical Professions (University Klinikum Freiburg) and the Center for Key Qualifications, where he is a Lehrbeauftragter for Creative Writing at the ZfS Uni Freiburg). Satis Shroff was awarded the German Academic Exchange Prize.

Zeitgeistlyrik: Literature Nobel Prize Herta Müller 2009:

UPROOTED & BANISHED

(Satis Shroff)

A Banat Swabian poetess

Was born in 1953

In a hamlet called Nitzkydorf,

Which lies in Romania.

She came to Berlin in 1987.

Wrote verses to mete out justice

To the fate of German Romanians,

Who were departed to work camps.

The other way round.

Jews died in concentration camps,

80,000 ethnic Germans from Romania,

Uprooted and banished,

Suffered hunger and death

In the Ukranian camps.

Survival strategies and dreams

At the end of the Second World War.

If Bertold Brecht’s Furcht und Elend

Im Dritten Reich

Told us about the Nazi terror,

Hertha’s verses and prose reveal

The sadness and angst of her lost people.

In a small hamlet in Banat,

Small Herta tells us

In her hard, Banat-German accent,

How hostile her home environment was.

She speaks of her doubts and fears,

For it is plain to see:

She’s made of another genetic material

That made her vulnerable to her environs,

Like underdogs everywhere in this world.

How unbearable for Romanians,

The Banat-Germans had their own

Culture, tradition

And way of life.

But pray, don’t ethnic Germans say

The same things about migrants

Eking out a living here?

Hertha speaks a poetic language

Of a gone but not lost past,

Of the misery, angst and terror

Felt by her people.

Her books emphasise

The cruel, inhuman face of communism,

Under Nicolae Ceausescu.

A chronist walking

Along the thin line,

Between poetry and terror,

Where every line is a cry

Against injustice

With pregnant titles:

The Fox Was even Then a Hunter (1992),

Herztier (1994),

In the Hair-knots Lives a Lady,

The King (Ceausescu) Bows and Kills (2000)

The Pale Gentleman and the Mocca Cups (2005).

Herta said:

‘My innermost desire is to write

I can live with it.’

Her literary style is precise,

Laconic and matter-of-fact.

Despite her publications,

Ms. Müller was a nobody.

Without her notes on Oskar Pastiors

She couldn’t have penned ‘Atemschaukel.’

It became more than a swing of breath.

She was shadowed, interrogated and persecuted.

Günter Grass said:

‘I’m very satisfied with the Literature Prize

For Herta from Stockholm.’

Karasek quipped:

‘My mantra is always for Philip Roth,’

And sounded like: ‘My Heart Belongs to Daddy.’

Germany’s literary pope

Marcel Reich-Ranicki:

‘I plead for Roth and wish to say

No more.’

Literary critics form the USA commented:

‘We suggest Philip Roth, Thomas Pynchon,

Joyce Carol Oates

Or Bob Dylan.’

The Swedish Academy gave the prize

For the fourteenth time

To Germany.

Poor Romania.

* * *

(Sketch © 2007 Satis Shroff, Freiburg)

THE AGONY OF WAR (Satis Shroff)

Once upon a time there was a seventeen year old boy

Who lived in the Polish city of Danzig.

He was ordered to join the Waffen-SS,

Hitler’s elite division.

Oh, what an honour for a seventeen year old,

Almost a privilege to join the Waffen-SS.

The boy said, “Wir wurden von früh bis spät

Geschliffen und sollten

Zur Sau gemacht werden.”

A Russian grenade shrapnel brought his role

In the war to an abrupt end.

That was on April 20, 1945.

In the same evening,

He was brought to Meissen,

Where he came to know about his Vaterland’s defeat.

The war was lost long ago.

He realised how an ordinary soldier

Became helpless after being used as a tool in the war,

Following orders that didn’t demand heroism

In the brutal reality of war.

It was a streak of luck,

And his inability to ride a bicycle,

That saved his skin

At the Russian-held village of Niederlausitz.

His comrades rode the bicycle,

And he was obliged to give them fire-support

With a maschine-gun.

His seven comrades and the officer

Were slain by the Russians.

The only survivor was a boy

Of seventeen.

He abandoned his light maschine-gun,

And left the house of the bicycle-seller,

Through the backyard garden

With its creaky gate.

What were the chances in the days of the Third Reich

For a 17 year old boy named Günter Grass

To understand the world?

The BBC was a feindliche radio,

And Goebbels’ propaganda maschinery

Was in full swing.

There was no time to reflect in those days.

Fürcht und Elend im Dritten Reich,

Wrote Bertold Brecht later.

Why did he wait till he was almost eighty?

Why did he torment his soul all these years?

Why didn’t he tell the bitter truth,

About his tragi-comical role in the war

With the Waffen-SS?

He was a Hitlerjunge,

A young Nazi.

Faithful till the end.

A boy who was seduced by the Waffen-SS.

His excuse:

„Ich habe mich verführen lassen.“

The reality of the war brought

Endless death and suffering.

He felt the fear in his bones,

His eyes were opened at last.

Günter Grass is a figure,

You think you know well.

Yet he’s aloof

And you hardly know him,

This literary titan.

He breathes literature

And political engagement.

In his new book:

Beim Häuten der Zwiebeln

He confides he has lived from page to page,

And from book to book.

Is he a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde?

Doctor Faustus and Mephistopheles,

In the same breast?

Grass belongs to us,

For he has spent the time with us.

It was his personal weakness

Not to tell earlier.

He’s a playwright, director and actor

Of his own creativeness,

And tells his own tale.

His characters Oskar and Mahlke weren’t holy Joes.

It was his way of indirectly showing

What went inside him.

Ach, his true confession took time.

It was like peeling an onion with tears,

One layer after the other.

Better late than never.

* * *

On Her Majesty’s Lyrical Service:

Poet Laureate (Satis Shrof)

Wanted:

A person who writes in lyrical form,

Composes verses for occasions,

Good stanzas in favour of kings and queens,

Princes and Princesses,

For the price of 5000 Sterling pounds

And, of course, 650 bottles

Of Sherry,

To inspire the poet.

And the title of Poet Laureate.

A court poet is a smith of verses,

Not a bass-guitarist

Of the royal band

Based in Buckingham.

Beginners need not apply.

Candidates should be

A professor of English Literature.

The last Poet Laureate penned

Verses in praise of Edward

And his beautiful Sophie,

A hundred years of the Queen Mother

And the latter’s sad demise.

The Queen’s diamond wedding anniversary,

A rap-rhyme for rosy-cheeked Prince William,

When he turned twenty-one.

Yeah! ‘Better stand back

Here’s a age attack.’

He even congratulated Charles and Camilla

On their belated marriage.

The Prince was overwhelmed

When he heard Motion’s

‘Spring Wedding.’

But all verses weren’t,

As we say in Germany:

Friede, Freude, Eierkuchen.

Motion’s ‘Cost of Life’ on Paddington,

Causa belli’ emphasised

Elections, money, empire,

Oil and Dad.

Themes and lyrics that bother us,

Day in and day out.

The rulers and battles won are expected

To be praised to Heaven,

Like Master Henry,

Ben Jonson et al have done

In 1668 John Dryden was sacked

Not for his bad verses,

But for changing his confession.

Sir Walter Raleigh and William Morris

Didn’t relinquish their freedom

And said politely: No thank you, Ma’am.

And with it a keg of wine

From the Canary Isles,

That could have been theirs.

Free literary productivity and court-poetry

Are strange bedfellows indeed.

In these times of gender-studies,l

Women’s quotes and emancipation,

It wouldn’t be far-fetched

If Carol Ann Duffy,

A Scottish poetess,

Became the next Poetess Laureate.

What a lass!

She’s openly gay,

Didn’t you say?

Has fire anyway.

What a thankless job:

A royal lyrical whisperer,

Striving for public relations

In poetry prize panels,

In the name of poetry.

A thankless job:

Take it

Or leave it.

* * *

GORDON STILL WALKING 2009 (Satis Shroff, Freiburg)

‘I will not walk away,’

Said PM Gordon Brown.

His ministers had walked out on him.

Disgusted with his inner circle

Of soccer-fans

And other fads.

Manchester is United,

Labour isn’t.

Was he walking by a rule?

Mr. Brown ruled with two circles:

His soccer-crazy inner circle

With Ed Balls,

An outer one with grey mice.

He was walking down a lonely road,

It seemed.

When he walked in,

He walked into Blairites.

Gordon was walking into his political savings.

Could he steer Britain’s economy

Out of the big recession?

He walked his legs off,

Pleading to Labourites to stay.

It wasn’t a walk over

For Brown’s pride,

When ministers refuse to walk

Together with him,

After the debacle at the Euro polls.

He racked his brains,

Came up with a belated inquiry

Into the Iraq war,

To save his skin.

In a last bid he reshuffled

His cabinet cards:

Darling, Miliband and Balls

Held their jobs.

Gordon promoted:

Johnson, Jowell, Mandelson,

Cooper, Burham, Ham.

Eh, was it worth to promote Ainsworth?

A soap-opera supper,

Where guests prefer

To sit and walk out at will.

Gordon is certainly walking on air.

It’s become more a walk

On a razor’s edge.

If this silly Labour circus goes on

In Downing No. 10,

He is most likely to walk

On all fours.

The battle is lost,

Er steht auf verlorene Posten.

The rats have sprung overboard.

Councils like Lancashire, Derbyshire,

Stafford, Nottinghamshire

Have become Tory counties.

Labour lost 250,

Conservatives gained 217 seats.

Captain Brown remains adamant,

And runs his ship.

I’m afraid it’s not Trafalgar.

Perhaps Cap’n Bleigh?

He clutches his crutches

And mutters:

‘I will not walk away.’

Brown has a strategy:

He hopes to limp towards autumn,

Defying the wind against him.

Can he bend it like Beckham?

Captain Brown, still at the helm,

Insists: ‘I will not waver,

Or walk away.’

Britain doesn’t know:

Whether to be awed

Or amused.

And thereby hangs

A tale.

Drinking Darjeeling Tea in England 2008 (Satis Shroff, Freiburg)

Beware the Ides of March

Manchester will be a milestone

In Gordon Brown’s polit-life.

Your economic ‘competence’

Has become an Achilles heel,

Your weak point.

The people’s party of New Labour

Wants to get rid of you.

These are the rumours

Heard in the trendy streets of London.

Twelve months ago Gordon Brown

Was the Messiah of Brit politics,

After Blair’s disastrous role in the Labour.

Alas, the new Messiah

Lost his face,

Within a short time.

His weakness: decision making.

England is nervous, fidgety,

For Labour fears a possible loss,

Of its 353 Under House seats.

Above the English cabinet

Looms a Damocles sword.

Will Labour watch,

Drink Darjeeling,

Till a debacle develops?

Labour is in a dilemma.

Hush, help is near.

David Miliband is going vitriolic.

A silly season indeed,

Drinking Darjeeling tea in England.

About the Author:

Satis Shroff is based in Freiburg (poems, fiction, non-fiction) and also writes on ecological, ethno-medical, culture-ethnological themes. 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 Academy for Medical Professions (University Klinikum Freiburg) and the Center for Key Qualifications (University of Freiburg, where he is a Lehrbeauftragter for Creative Writing at the ZfS Uni Freiburg). Satis Shroff was awarded the German Academic Exchange Prize.

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.

Copyright © 2009, Satis Shroff. You may republish this article online provided you keep the byline, the author’s note, and the active hyperlinks.

HAUNTING HINDUKUSH (Satis Shroff, Freiburg-Kappel)

The King Who Was Expelled (Satis Shroff)

King Amanullah returned

Ecstatic,

From a tour to Europe

And the Near East.

He ordered the modernization

Of Afghanistan,

Along the lines

Of Kemal in Turkey.

His majesty said:

‘I want monogamy,

European clothing,

Abolition of women’s veils.’

The people rejoiced

In the streets of Kabul.

The Mullahs revolted.

The king was expelled.

That was 1928.

* * *

They Shot the King (Satis Shroff)

General Nadir Shah

Became the King of Afghanistan,

With a little help,

From his British friends.

He brought reforms.

They shot him in 1933.

* * *

Pakhtunistan Dreams (Satis Shroff)

Mohammed Zahir became

The next king of Afghanistan.

‘I have a dream

Of a Pakhtunistan,

A bigger country which can rule

The Pathans in Western Pakistan.

To the west of the river Indus.’

The Pakistanis weren’t amused,

And politely refused it.

* * *

THE HINDUKUSH (Satis Shroff)

It’s Volkstrauertag

Death through war,

Gewaltherrschaft,

Go through your mind.

It’s 2009,

Peace at last?

The victims of wars,

Memorials with mourning choirs,

Weeping war widows, orphans,

Wreaths and flowers for the dead.

The fire brigade stands at attention.

Uniforms,

Stiff humans

With eyes moving,

To take in the mourning.

In Freiburg-Kappel we sing

A Russian song,

To remember

The sons and husbands of Freiburg-Kappel

Who didn’t return.

Ninety years ago,

The Constitution of Weimar.

Germany’s Fundamental Laws,

Proclaimed sixty years ago.

The ugly Berlin wall

Fell twenty years ago.

The Second World War,

Began seventy years ago.

Alas, young Teutonic widows

Still cry today

In Germany,

For young husbands

Who died

And still die,

In the killing fields

Of the Hindukush,

There’s a war

In far off Afghanistan.

The grandfather died

For a totalitarian regime.

The grandson dies today

For a democratic idea.

We Germans train the police

In the Hindukush.

What happens when they run

Over to the Talibans?

Islam binds the people

In the Hindukush.

What have we to offer?

Is war capitulation,

Against the forces of evil?

People who are beaten, tortured

When their ethnicity

And genes differ,

When people with illness or disability,

Are meted injustice,

Stamped as ‘unworthy of life.’

There are those who faced

A firing squad,

When they defied

The rule of power,

Clutched to their beliefs,

Their pure conscience.

You can’t change the past.

What has happened,

Has happened.

Don’t close your eyes

To the hoary past,

Lest you be blind

To the present,

And the future.

It’s not the Third World,

Where ideologies,

Fundamentalists,

Terror

Find their breeding grounds.

Rightist ideology

Is still mushrooming,

In the streets of Berlin,

Vienna and Bern.

The ‘others’ are still

Being terrorized,

Beaten, stabbed and kicked

In broad daylight.

Freedom and forgiveness,

Within and without,

Where art thou?

He who searches

Finds hope,

Tolerance,

Empathy

And dignity,

For there are enough

Righteous, honest,

Spiritual people with integrity

Who care about others.

* * *

TWITTERS FROM THE BLACK FOREST (Satis Shroff)

The Talibans have persuaded

The Pathans, Pashtoons,

And other warring tribes,

To ignore their differences,

And unite to fight the infidels

From the West.

US citizens say:

‘America can’t afford

Obama’s Afghan war.

Hey Big Spender, Obama,

Thirty-five billion dollars

To blow up.

Don’t Americans

Need the money

Back home?

* * *

I’ll Bring You Back (Satis Shroff)

The faces of the rookie cadets

At Westpoint

Look tired.

‘30 000 only’ says Obama,

‘Till May 2010,

And I’ll bring you back.’

The question is:

In a coffin

Or as a hero?

***

Understanding Afghanistan (Satis Shroff)

What happens

When Obama, Merkel

And the Nato have left Kabul?

It wasn’t America’s war anyway.

Is it the Nato’s future war?

Bin Laden’s at large.

The enemy is invisible.

Airstrikes kill

Only women and children.

Do we really understand

Afghanistan?

Or is it only

Our thought

Of what Afghanistan

Ought to be.

* * *

Under the Shadow of the Hindukush (Satis Shroff)

John Mc Cain wishes

To break the will

Of the Talibans.

That’s how wars are won,

From the Westpoint view

If you announce

When the troops will leave,

The Talis will just wait

And drink Darjeeling tea

Under the shadow

Of the Hindukush.

* * *

No Soldiers, Please (Satis Shroff)

Germany’s Guido Westerwelle,

Praised the decision to withdraw

From the Hindukush.

‘Police officers for Afghans

Is okay,’

Says Birgit Homburger FDP,

‘But no soldiers, please.’

* * *

Party Crashing In the White House (Satis Shroff)

You mean you can

Party crash

Right up to Obama

In the White House?

Mark Sullivan and his men

Were blended

By a charming blonde

Socialite.

To me

It was like in Bonn,

Where an elderly German lady,

Dressed up like a Baroness,

Cut an excellent figure,

Till the chief of the Bonner police

Confided to me,

She was a commoner,

A pensioned lady,

Out for a tete´-a-tete´

With King Birendra

Of Nepal.

Where there’s a will

There seems to be

A way.

Ach, Helvetia you’ve Done it Again (Satis Shroff)

The Bairam celebrations

Are long over,

And Helvetia has caught

The Islamic world

By surprise.

The Swiss folk have dismissed

The minaret ‘missile’ issue.

Building churches are still forbidden

In many Muslim countries.

The Catholic Swiss have spoken

And won the day.

If more countries would listen to

And respect their own folk.

Ach, Helvetia,

You’ve done it again.

* * *

The Word of the Year (Satis Shroff)

Härtzen is the word of the year

In good olde Germany.

It means:

To be jobless,

Hanging around,

Loitering

Without much money

In your purse.

It comes from Hartz Four,

A program

For the jobless

And the poor.

But if a blonde German girl says:

‘You’re bam,’

Take it easy.

It means you’re cool.

In case you’re a banker

And someone calls you a ‘Bankster,’

It isn’t a compliment.

It implies

The speculative bank business

You’ve been doing.

A banker

Who’s a gangster.

Windsors in wax (c)satisshroff

Commentary: FALKLANDS AND THE GURKHA ISSUE (Satis Shroff)

Twenty seven years ago, the British and the Argentineans fought over the Falkland Islands and turned, the otherwise peaceful and serene South Atlantic into an inferno. The Malvinas were claimed by the Argentineans and the British. Nurse Nicci Pugh was a witness to the hostilities from a safe distance on board the hospital ship HMS Uganda. The conflict began on April 2,1982 after Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands. Britain’s PM Margaret Thatcher sent a task force which resulted in the death of 1,000 people, after which the Falklands (Malvinas) were liberated on June 14, 1982.

Much like Florence Nightingale, who left England on October 21,1854, and started caring for the wounded soldiers at Scutari, Turkey, on November 5,1854, and took a large group of women as nurses (38 women, including 18 Anglican and Roman Catholic sisters), Nicci Pugh was one of 40 nursing officers on board the hospital ship Uganda. Ms. Pugh’s job was x-ray units to provide modern hospital care facilities for the injured British Tommies, civilians and also possible Argentinean soldiers wounded in the conflict. In the ship were operating theatres, 120 beds, burn-units, labs, x-ray units, a blood bank, in addition to a helipad. The Uganda was anchored a mile south-west of San Carlos Water, where there was heavy fighting. With the knowledge that hospital ships had been sunk in previous wars through shelling or torpedoes, the ladies had to go through the angst of being bombed by the Argentinean aircraft which frequently made sorties over the Royal Navy armada.

The British staff on board the Uganda have gone on record as having treated 700 patients. Among the patients were also injured Argentinean soldiers. It might be mentioned that the ship HMS Sir Galahad was shit by enemy fire, whereby 120 patients were treated in the burns unit on board the Uganda. Some 500 surgical operations were performed. Most of the injuries were caused by gunshot, shrapnel and mortar. Amputations were also carried out due to the anti-personnel mines deployed and hidden by the Argentinean soldiers. Even the injured Argentinean soldiers were treated with the same respect and dignity.

After the war, Ms. Pugh returned to her old job in Cornwall as an OP theatre nurse, but wasn’t able to talk about her experiences for years. That was her coping method. Life had to go on. But unlike the Lady with the Lamp, Nicci Pugh didn’t have to face medical ire, and works as a voluntary carer to help injured servicemen to re-visit the Malvinas to pay their respects to their own fallen comrades, and visit the killing fields of the Falklands. But for the Gurkhas who have fought for Britain since the times of Queen Victoria till Queen Elizabeth II since 200 years, there’s no noteworthy memorial in Britain. Are the Gurkhas merely guest-workers or ‘cannon fodder’ only? Britain laments that there’s no memorial for the courageous Lancaster Bomber Command which lost 55,573 out of 125,000 pilots during their deadly missions to bombard German towns and industrial complexes, collateral damage notwithstanding. But no one speaks of the courage and sacrifice of the sturdy, dedicated, loyal Gurkhas from Nepal, who laid their lives for the Glory of Great Britain, and are still doing the same for the United Kingdom. After World War I and World War II, the Gurkhas were ignominiously booked a passage to Nepal via India. Even today, instead of integration, education and service in the UK for the extraordinary service to Britain and the Queen of England since generations. They are not even tolerated when their service, i.e. unfair contract, with the Arbeitsvermittlungsagency MoD is over. The MoD is treating the Gurkhas similarly as the German government did with the so-called ‘guest workers’ from Turkey, Italy, Spain and Portugal during the fifties, only to realise that they hadn’t invited guest workers but human beings, who had families, dreams, hopes of a better quality of life, the same education as their own children. Under Angela Merkel there’s a new integration model for migrants which is showing a positive trend and in accordance with the European Union’s ideas of a better world. The Gurkhas must be given the same status as their British counterparts and comrade-in-arms, the same buying power and dignity in the United Kingdom, and the UK government would do well to put an end to the discrimination that has been meted out to the Gurkhas and their families. They must be accepted and welcomed as old and new migrants, and the UK’s loyal, historical allies, instead of being discriminated on flimsy grounds. If the Gurkhas have to go to the European court it is indeed a shame for Brown’s government, which has been trying to save precious sterling pounds on the integration of the Gurkhas and has been diverting the common man’s money for other purposes.

* * *

An e-mail from Argentina

Hello Satis,

Thanks for your message. Nice to meet you. Well you’re from Freiburg,
I have a mp3 file of an audience recording from a Roxette concert
that took place in Freiburg. Very funny…

Regarding the Falkland war, we all Argentineans feel some kind of
impotence, Imagine if one day some people broke into your house and
take you away from your own house. We cannot do anything and I don’t
think Argentina will get back the islands. UK is a very strong country.
Well, that’s the position of Argentina. UK claims that they were always of
their own. I don’t really care who’s the owner. The main point is that
the war was pointless and it was not about the islands. There were
many purposes besides these events, the war was just a disguise.

In 1982, the government in Argentina was in charge of the military, people
didn’t have the right to express what they felt, everything was banned.
People was really tired. so the military government
NEEDED something to give an incentive to the Argentineans. Something that
proves they had the power. They made us believe that we could get back the
islands that once were occupied by the British. That was the main purpose of the war.

UK hadn’t any interest on these islands, but it was like a war trophy for
them. Obviously, it was like a fight between 2 kids, a 5 years old boy
against a 15 years old boy. As we usually say “the bad events show the
best and the worst from people”. And the war was not an exception.

The TV always reported that we were about to win the war, they
were always lying in order to calm down us. The media was controlled,
including the radio, some songs were prohibited or edited.
A certain censorship. During the war, the songs sung in English were not
allowed to be played. And the soldiers were 18 years old teenagers,
who were recruited by the law, they didn’t know what war was really all about,
they didn’t have the right to decide what to do with their lives. It was an
order and they must obey “the call of the country,” so they were sent to the war.

In 1982 I was just a 7 years old boy, I didn’t know what was happening
to my country. In all schools, there was a campaign called “A chocolate
for the soldiers”. We had to write a letter to the soldiers and we
had to give them away a chocolate, that’s because of the low temperature.
There were another campaigns in order to collect warm clothes and food
because the army only gave them the basic elements. And even worse
they were treated badly. Most of our hopes never arrived and those chocolates
never were sent, in fact some people stole and re-sell them later.
That’s why I wrote that “Some events show the worst and the best from people”.
Of course there were very nice people who helped a lot. We usually are very
kind.

The UK military also took advantage of these events. Furthermore, a retired
Chilean military recently admitted that the Chilean military helped the UK army
telling them the position of the Argentinean ships and soldiers and the
strategies they had. Everybody wanted a piece of this cake.

Besides this, the General Galtieri, the most hated person in Argentina,
was drinkin’ whisky while 600 young Argentineans kids were dying.
Very sad to be true.

To sum up, there were many events and I could write pages and pages
about this. The war was pointless, I think nobody won this war,
it was a big lost for 2 countries and a benefit for a few people.

Arnaldo Mariano S., Jul 6, 2007, 10:21am EDT

http://www.zfs.uni-freiburg.de/zfs/dozent/lehrbeauftragte4/index_html/#shroff

E-mail from Satis Shroff:

Dear Arnaldo,

I can now understand your feelings about the Falkland War. I found your metaphor of the 5 year old boy fighting against the 15 year old a very appropriate comparison. Your story really moved me, even though I come originally from Nepal, the land of the Gurkhas.

Thank you very much for sharing a part of your autobiography. You really ought to write “pages and pages about this war” as you said, and let us read them at www.Gather.com.

I think it’s very interesting reading. For me it was a fantastic experience to hear how the people suffered and what they thought about in those days in Argentina. This helps us to understand each other.

Even a Gurkha or Nepalese and an Argentinean can be friends. I reach out my hand to you, dear Gather friend. If more Argentineans went to Nepal on their holidays to see how the Gurkhas live and what everyday problems, dreams, hopes they have, then they would be certainly friends and understand each other. Duty, obedience and discipline take on a bitter taste after the war. Many GIs visited the former battlefields (Germany, Viet Nam, Cambodia, Japan, Burma) and met their former foes, which is a good thing, for men are not murderers when they are forced to do their duty as soldiers.

In Nepal there’s no compulsory military service. The Gurkhas are professional soldiers because they never had someone to motivate them and pay their school, college and university bills. If someone is ill, one goes to the local shaman (dhamey-jhakri) for he can be paid with some eggs and a chicken. Money is scarce in the hills of Nepal. That’s why the Nepalese youth from the hills join the Gurkhas. Many are school drop-outs but many can’t afford to go to school. They have to do child-work in their parents’ farms in the terraced, craggy hills of this beautiful Himalayan country.

That’s life, Arnaldo. Let us nevertheless try to make this world a better place to live in, despite our cultural differences.
Sincerely,
Satis

Satis Shroff, Jul 6, 2007, 11:13am EDT

News: Brown’s government: arrogant & indifferent to the Gurkhas

Former Gurkha soldiers from Nepal have won the right to sue the British Government in the High Court for alleged racial discrimination. The Gurkhas allege that they have been discriminated against in at least 20 different ways while serving with the British army and subsequently during retirement.

Lawyers for the troops filed a claim for damages at the High Court in May in an action that could cost the Ministry of Defence £2bn. Their case is to be argued by Prime Minister Tony Blair’s wife, Cherie Booth, a prominent barrister.

Nepalese soldiers have fought alongside British soldiers since 1815, and have served in recent years in the Falklands, the Gulf War, Kosovo, Bosnia, Sierra Leone and Afghanistan.

Equal pay demand: The soldiers argue that since a 1947 Tripartite Agreement between India, Nepal and the UK, the Gurkhas have been linked to the Indian Army’s pay scale instead of the British army’s.

They say this has resulted in a disparity between British pensions and those paid to the Gurkhas, Phil Shiner, a solicitor with the Public Interest Lawyers group which is acting for the Gurkhas, said they were hoping for a decision from the High Court before Christmas.

“So far, this government has acted with arrogance and indifference,” he was quoted by the Associated Press news agency as saying.

“I hope even at this late stage that sense will prevail.”

In declaring the case admissible on Tuesday, the High Court gave the Defence Ministry until 9 September to put forward its arguments in the case.

British defence: A Defence Ministry spokeswoman told Reuters that the military would “robustly defend our position in court”.

“The Gurkhas are treated well and will continue to be. We value their services and treat them in a good manner,” she said.

But the Gurkhas’ lawyers say they have 20 test cases, claiming that 30,000 Nepalese retired from the service with inadequate or no pension, and that widows had not been properly compensated for their loss. Aside from financial complaints, they say they have been subjected to different rules on family leave, food, dress codes and religious practices.

It is not the first time that Ms Booth, who specialises in human rights abuses, has tackled her husband’s government in court. In May 2000, she argued on behalf of trade unions that the government needed to offer more leave benefits to parents of young children.

That case is before the European Court.

Commentary:

Gurkhas, Welcome to the UK 200 Years Later (Satis Shroff)

Recently, I was surprised to receive an e-mail from 10 Downing Street. It was Gordon Brown. Tears ran down my cheeks as I read the happy news that he’d capitulated in the olde bureaucratic fight against the Gurkhas. It had been MoD against the Gurkhas. I remember having signed petitions addressed to the PM in the internet, having moblised the Gurkhas in Darjeeling Forum’s ‘Gupsap’ under Swaroop Chamling, the Gurkhas.com and its excellent team’s discussions and petition, on Gather.com and The American Chronicle and its syndicate of 21 newspapers in the USA, wordpress.com and other websites like Google’s Blogspot.com. We kept the Gurkha themes circulating in the media: in Nepal, UK, Hong Kong and around the world. And it worked. Gurkha veterans can now stay on in Great Britain, get benefits from the NHS and a solid pension so that they can live decently like everyone in the UK.

In this connection, the actress Joanna Lumley has played a pivotal role and has helped put the Gurkhas where they really belong: in the hub of the UK, not as underdogs of the British society but as proud winners in the UK’s prosperity and progress as a nation, for the Gurkhas have fought for the Royals and the MoD for 200 years. Alone in the World War I and II more than 50,000 Gurkhas fell under the Union Jack.

The most wonderful news was that Joanna Lumley managed to get even Gordon Brown’s very own people from the Labour Party to vote for the Gurkhas. The best part of it was the way she managed to get the State Secretary to concede to her arguments right in front of live cameras. He had to comply, there was no other way around.

Citizens of the UK, we, the well-wishers and friends of the brave and loyal Gurkhas, thank you and Ms. Joanna Lumley and even members of the Labour party who have risen to the occasion and shown civil courage, sense of justice for the cause of the Gurkhas. We’d also like to thank the sturdy Gurkhas for their unprecedented and excellent service to the UK. History has been written as far as the Gurkhas are concerned and it has caused ripples in the hearts of the Gurkhas and their dependants living under the shadow of the Himalayas. Great Britain, we are proud of you. You’ve shown that you can, if you really want to, bring about a change.

My lacrymal glands are still gushing as I write this for the Mother of the Gurkha soldier in Nepal, who lost her precious son, the sons and daughters who lost their Gurkha fathers in the killing fields, the Gurkha veterans in the UK, the Gurkhas currently doing service with the Brigade of the Gurkhas, and the thousands of Gurkhas who died in the past.

Gurkhas, welcome to the United Kingdom. It took 200 long years but we’ve arrived. Ayo Gurkhali, indeed. Gordon Brown is not amused but the rest of the UK is. This time, thanks to Bonnie Prince Charles and other Royals too. I often wonder why Prince Charles didn’t take the initiative earlier. He talks with his plants, he talks about the environment, he paints aquarelles of mountains and castles but he was loath to talk about the Gurkhas. Thanks to Ms. Lumley, he changed his mind. The Gurkhas and the Nepalese love him for it. Better late than never.

It was a courageous Gurkha who saved the life of Mr. Lumley’s father, and she showed her admiration and thankfulness for the Gurkhas by fighting for their rights in the United Kingdom. The Gurkhas have won new friends. The Nepalese government could reciprocate with the award of, at least, a Nepal Tara or Gurkha Dakshin Bahu First Class to Ms. Joanna Lumley, a lady with civil courage. Britain needs women like Ms. Lumley.

________

Zeitgeistlyrik:

The Gurkhas Win, Labour Capitulates (Satis Shroff)

Ayo Gurkhali!

The Gurkhas are upon you!

This was the battle-cry

That filled the British heart

With pride and admiration,

And put the foe in fear.

Now the Gurkhas are not upon you.

They are with you,

Among you,

In London,

Guarding the Queen at the Palace,

Doing security checks

For VIPs

And for Claudia Schiffer,

The Sultan of Brunei.

Johnny Gurkhas

Or as the Brits prefer:

Johnny Gurks.

Sir Ralph Turner,

An adjutant of the Gurkhas

In World War I said:

Uncomplaining you endure

Hunger, thirst and wounds;

And at the last,

Your unwavering lines

Disappear into smoke

And wrath of battle.’

Another General Sir Francis Tuker

Spoke of the Gurkhas:

Selfless devotion to the British cause,

Which can be hardly matched

By any race to another

In the whole history of the world..

Why they should have

Thus treated us,

Is something of a mystery.’

9000 Gurkhas died

For the Glory of England,

23,655 were severely wounded

Or injured.

Military glory for the Gurkhas:

2734 decorations,

Mentions in despatches,

Gallantry certificates.

Nepal’s mothers paid dearly

For England’s glory.

And what do I hear?

The vast silence of the Gurkhas.

England had failed miserably

To match the Gurkha’s loyalty

And affection

For the British.

Faith binds humans

The Brits have shown

They have faith

In the bravery and loyalty,

Honesty, sturdiness, steadfastness

Of the Gurkhas.

Did the souls of the perished Gurkhas

Have faith in the British?

Souls of Gurkhas long dead and forgotten,

Lingered long seeking justice

At the hands of Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth II,

Warlords, or was it warladies,

They died for.

How has the loyalty and special relations

Been rewarded in England

Since the Treaty of Segauli

On March 4, 1816 ?

A treaty that gave the British

The right to recruit Nepalese.

When it came to her own kind,

Her Majesty the Queen

Was generous.

She lavishly bestowed lands,

Lordships and knighthoods

To those who served the crown well,

Added more feathers to England’s fame.

A Bombay-born Salman Rushdie

Got a knighthood from the Queen,

For his Satanic and other verses.

So did Brits who played classic and pop.

When it came to the non-British,

Alas, Her majesty feigned myopia.

She saw not the 200 years

Of blood-sacrifice

On the part of the Gurkhas:

In the trenches of Europe,

The jungles of Borneo,

In far away the Falklands,

Crisis-ridden Croatia

And war-torn Iraq.

Blood, sweat and tears,

Eking out a meagre existence

In the craggy hills of Nepal

And Darjeeling.

The price of glory was high

Fighting in the killing-fields

Of Delhi, the Black Mountains,

Khyber Pass, Gilgit, Ali Masjid.

Warring against Wazirs, Masuds,

Yusafzais and Orakzais

In the North-West Frontier.

And against the Abors,

Nagas and Lushais

In the North-East Frontier.

Neuve Chapelle in France,

A hill named Q in Gallipoli.

Suez and Mesopotamia.

In the Second Word War

Battling for Britain

In North Africa, South-East Asia,

Italy and the Retreat from Burma.

The Queen graciously passed the ball

And proclaimed from Buckingham Palace:

The Gurkha issue

Is a matter for the ruling government.’

Thus prime ministers came and went,

Akin to the fickle English weather.

The resolute Queen remained,

Like Chomolungma,

The Goddess Mother of the Earth,

Above the clouds in her pristine glory,

But the Gurkha issue prevailed.

Draw up a date

To give the Gurkhas their due,’

Was the order from 10 Downing Street.

OMG,

We can’t pay for the 200 years.

We’ll be ruined as a ruling party,

When we do that,’

Said the Labour under Gordon Brown.

A sentence like a guillotine.

Was the injustice done to the Gurkhas

Of service to the British public?

It was like adding insult

To injury.

Thus Tory and Labour governments came and went,

The Gurkha injustice remained.

All Englishmen cannot be gentlemen,

Especially politicians.

England got everything

Out of the Gurkha.

Squeezed him like a lemon,

Discarded and banned

From entering London

And its frontiers,

When he developed ageing problems.

Go home with your pension

But don’t come back.

We hire young Gurkhas

Our NHS doesn’t support pensioned invalids.’

Johnny Gurkha wonders aloud:

Why they should have thus

Treated us,

Is a mystery.’

Till lady Joanna Lumley, Prince Charles

And even Brown’s own Labour members,

Took the matter in their hands

And gave the Gurkha veterans the right

To stay on in the UK.

.

Meanwhile, life in the terraced hills of Nepal,

Where fathers toil on the stubborn soil,

And children work in the steep fields

A broken, wrinkled old mother waits,

For a meagre pension

From Her Majesty’s Government,

Beyond the craggy Himalayas

Across the Kala Pani,

The Black Waters.

Faith builds a bridge

Between Johnny Gurkhas

And British Tommies,

Comrades-at-arms,

Between Nepal and Britain.

The smart, sturdy Gurkha makes

A cheerful countenance,

And sings:

Resam piriri,’

An old trail song

Heard in the Himalayas.

————————–

Lyrik: A GURKHA MOTHER (Satis Shroff)

(Death of a Precious Jewel)

The gurkha with a khukri

But no enemy

Works for the Queen of England

And yet gets shot at,

In missions he doesn’t comprehend.

Order is hukum,

Hukum is life

Johnny Gurkha still dies

Under foreign skies.

He never asks why

Politics isn’t his style

He has fought against all and sundry:

Turks, Tibetans, Italians and Indians

Germans, Japanese, Chinese

Argentineans and Vietnamese.

Indonesians and Iraqis.

Loyal to the utmost

Never fearing a loss,

The loss of a mother’s son

From the mountains of Nepal.

Her grandpa died in Burma

For the glory of the British.

Her husband in Mesopotemia

She knows not against whom

No one did tell her.

Her brother fell in France,

Against the Teutonic hordes.

She prays to Shiva of the Snows for peace

And her son’s safety.

Her joy and her hope

Farming on a terraced slope.

A son who helped wipe her tears,

Ease the pain in her mother’s heart.

A frugal mother who lives by the seasons,

Peers down to the valleys

Year in and year out

In expectation of her soldier son.

A smart Gurkha is underway

Heard from across the hill with a shout

‘It’s an officer from his brigade.

A letter with a seal and a poker-face

“Your son died on duty,” he says,

“Keeping peace for the Queen of England

And the United Kingdom.”

A world crumbles down

The Nepalese mother cannot utter a word

Gone is her son,

Her precious jewel.

Her only insurance and sunshine

In the craggy hills of Nepal.

And with him her dreams

A spartan life that kills.

Glossary:

gurkha: soldier from Nepal

khukri: curved knife used in hand-to-hand combat

hukum: Befehl/command/order

shiva: a god in Hinduism

About the Author:

http://www.zfs.uni-freiburg.de/zfs/dozent/lehrbeauftragte4/index_html/#shroff

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: 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.

Satis Shroff is based in Freiburg (poems, fiction, non-fiction) and also writes on ecological, ethno-medical, culture-ethnological themes. 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.

Lyrik A Gurkha MotherI

Art & poem (c) satisshroff 2009

Their regimental motto is: ‘It is better to die than to live a coward.’ On Tuesday, the legendary courage and bravery of Britain’s Gurkha soldiers was rewarded with a landmark legal ruling that allows the former fighters to settle in Britain.

‘The long military service of these men, their wounds sustained in battle, their conspicuous acts of bravery, their acts of gallantry and their commitment and loyalty to the Crown all point to an unquestionable historic ‘moral debt of honour’ and gratitude,’ the High Court ruling said.

It overturned a government decision taken in 2004 which said that Gurkhas who retired before July, 1997, were not automatically entitled to British settlement rights as their base was then in Hong Kong, and only moved to Britain after the handover of Hong Kong to China.

‘Today we have seen a tremendous and historic victory for the gallant Gurkha veterans of Nepal. This is a victory that restores honour and dignity to deserving soldiers who faithfully served in Her Majesty’s armed forces,’ the group’s lawyer said Tuesday.

‘It is a victory for common sense; a victory for fairness; and a victory for the British sense of what is ‘right’.’

The retired Gurkhas who brought the test case represented approximately 2,000 others who were refused entry to Britain because the government said they had failed to demonstrate ’strong ties’ to Britain.

‘Today is a wonderful, terrific victory day for the Gurkhas from Nepal who asked for nothing more from this country than the unfettered right to live amongst the British people – a people they have protected and loved throughout years of long and loyal service,’ said their solicitor.

There were emotional scenes outside the court in London as the heavily bemedalled Gurkha veterans, some in wheelchairs, emerged from the building to celebrate their victory to the cheers of supporters and the skirl of pipe music.

The Gurkhas, who take their name from the hill town of Gorkha, the birthplace of the Nepalese kingdom, have fought on behalf of Britain since the end of the two-year Gurkha War in 1816.

Since then, almost 50,000 Gurkhas have died in action and 150,000 have been seriously injured in conflicts, ranging from World War I to Afghanistan today.

Gurkha troops served as mercenaries under contract to the East India Company in the Pindaree War of 1817, in Bharatpur in 1826 and the First and Second Anglo-Sikh Wars in 1846 and 1848.

They fought on the side of the British during the Indian Rebellion of 1857, and became a formal part of the British-Indian Army on its formation the following year.

Four of the 10 Gurkha regiments entered the British Army after India was granted independence in 1947, becoming a fully-integrated regiment.

About 100,000 Gurkhas fought for Britain in World War I. During World War II, Japanese soldiers described them as their most dreaded foes. Gurkhas still carry the kukri knife, a traditional part of their armour.

But in recent years, disputes over repatriation rights and pensions have marred the special relationship.

‘At last we can begin to put this great wrong right,’ said British TV film and stage actress Joanna Lumley, who has campaigned on behalf of the Ghurka soldiers.

Lyrik: A GURKHA MOTHER (Satis Shroff)

(Death of a Precious Jewel)

The gurkha with a khukri

But no enemy

Works for the United Nations

And yet gets shot at

In missions he doesn’t comprehend.

Order is hukum,

Hukum is life

Johnny Gurkha still dies

Under foreign skies.

He never asks why

Politics isn’t his style

He’s fought against all and sundry:

Turks, Tibetans, Italians and Indians

Germans, Japanese, Chinese

Argentineans and Vietnamese.

Indonesians and Iraqis.

Loyalty to the utmost

Never fearing a loss.

The loss of a mother’s son

From the mountains of Nepal.

Her grandpa died in Burma

For the glory of the British.

Her husband in Mesopotemia

She knows not against whom

No one did tell her.

Her brother fell in France,

Against the Teutonic hordes.

She prays to Shiva of the Snows for peace

And her son’s safety.

Her joy and her hope

Farming on a terraced slope.

A son who helped wipe her tears

And ease the pain in her mother’s heart.

A frugal mother who lives by the seasons

And peers down to the valleys

Year in and year out

In expectation of her soldier son.

A smart Gurkha is underway

Heard from across the hill with a shout

‘It’s an officer from his brigade.

A letter with a seal and a poker-face

“Your son died on duty,” he says,

“Keeping peace for the Queen of England

And the United Kingdom.”

A world crumbles down

The Nepalese mother cannot utter a word

Gone is her son,

Her precious jewel.

Her only insurance and sunshine

In the craggy hills of Nepal.

And with him her dreams

A spartan life that kills.

Glossary:

gurkha: soldier from Nepal

khukri: curved knife used in hand-to-hand combat

hukum: Befehl/command/order

shiva: a god in Hinduism

******

Der Verlust des Sohnes einer Mutter (Satis Shroff)

Der Gurkha

Mit einem gefährlichen Khukuri

Aber kein Feind in Sicht,

Arbeitet für die Königin von England,

Und wird erschossen

Für Einsätze,

Die er nicht begreift.

Befehl ist Hukum,

Hukum ist sein Leben

Johnny Gurkha 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.

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 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 Brigade.

Ein Brief mit Siegel und ein Pokergesicht

Ihren Sohn starb im Dienst,“

sagt er lakonisch:

Er kämpfte für die Königin von England

Und für den Vereinigten Königreich.“

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.

* * *

German Academic Prize Winner Satis Shroff teaches Creative Writing at the elite Albert Ludwigs University Freiburg. The author and lecturer lives in Freiburg and writes about themes like longing, love, the agony of war, the discrimination against Gurkhas, togetherness, dignity of humans, tolerance and one-world in his poems, articles and books.

Satis Shroff,

Dozent, Dichter, Writer, Journalist

.

Studium/Ausbildung/Studies

  • B.Sc. in Zoology, Botany, Geology

  • Medicine at the University of Freiburg

  • Dipl. Social Science (FH),

  • Creative Writing (UK)

Writing Experience, Publications

    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: 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.

    Satis Shroff is based in Freiburg (poems, fiction, non-fiction) and also writes on ecological, ethno-medical, culture-ethnological themes. 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.

    * * *

    What others have said about the author:

    Die Schilderungen von Satis Shroff in ‘Through Nepalese Eyes’ sind faszinierend und geben uns die Möglichkeit, unsere Welt mit neuen Augen zu sehen.“ (Alice Grünfelder von Unionsverlag / Limmat Verlag, Zürich).

    Satis Shroff writes with intelligence, wit and grace. (Bruce Dobler, Associate Professor in Creative Writing MFA, University of Iowa).

    Satis Shroff writes political poetry, about the war in Nepal, the sad fate of the Nepalese people, the emergence of neo-fascism in Germany. His bicultural perspective makes his poems rich, full of awe and at the same time heartbreakingly sad. I writing ‘home,’ he not only returns to his country of origin time and again, he also carries the fate of his people to readers in the West, and his task of writing thus is also a very important one in political terms. His true gift is to invent Nepalese metaphors and make them accessible to the West through his poetry.’ (Sandra Sigel, Writer, Germany).

    Due to his very pleasant personality and in-depth experience in both South Asian, as well as Western workstyles and living, Satis Shroff brings with him a cultural sensitivity that is refined. His writings have always reflected the positive attributes of optimism, tolerance, and a need to explain and to describe without looking down on either his subject or his reader. (Kanak Mani Dixit, Himal Southasia, Kathmandu)

    • 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).

    Veranstaltungen im Sommer Semester 2009

    Kontakt (E-Mail, websites)

    A  Nepal flag & Goethe poem (c) satisshroff

    Walking Along Goethe’s Path in Ilmenau (Satis Shroff)

    Subtitle: Fragments of a Big Confession

    It was on the evening of September 6,1780. Johann Wolfgang Goethe was writing one of his beautiful lyrical works with a pencil on the inner wall of the hunting-hut on the Kickelhahn. This particular verse was published in an anthology 35 years later.

    A day before his last birthday, he went to the small hut, which was nailed together with planks, to recall the lines that he’d written in his younger days. That was in August, 27, 1831.

    Today, you certainly will not find the inscription written with his hand, because the original hut was devoured by flames in the year 1870. But forty years later, the hut was rebuilt on the old foundation. In the year 1999, which was celebrated as the Goethe Year, the members of an international conference of Goethe-translators met at Goethe’s favourite hut to recite his verse in their respective languages. The translations were financially supported by the Stiftung Weimarer Classic and the Goethe Society. I’ve translated Goethe’s poem into Nepali, a language which is derived from Sanskrit and uses the Devnagari script.

    The small, lovely town of Ilmenau lies on the north side of the Thuringer forest and is known for its mountain excavations, glass and porcelain industry, and is also known as Goethetown. Apropos porcelain, Meissen is the greatest place for those who want to gather exquisite works of earthenware art in porcelain, you know. He visited Ilmenau twenty-eight times. The town of Ilmenau has laid a path with the letter ‘g,’ which Goethe used to use when he signed his initial. Just a small ‘g’ for a literary giant.

    We start the Goethe walk tour along the market in Ilmenau. To the left you see the imposing thre storied house. Goethe used to reside in the corner room on the first floor. He used to live and write there whenever he came to Ilmenau. Today it’s a part of the museum, which bears testimony to Goethe’s literary works and information about Ilmenau. The beautiful museum rooms, which have furniture from Goethe’s times, are used today for literary and musical events. If you’ve read Goethe’s ‘Wilhelm Meister’ then you’ve read about his description of the inns ‘Zum Adler’ and ‘To the Sun.’ Alas, these two houses were in a desolated, dilapidated state and had to be demolished in 1992.

    A new one has been built with a similar façade. Let’s saunter from the marketplace through the Obertor Street to the graveyard. Near the entrance is the grave of Corona Schröters, who was a beautiful singer and actress in the court of Weimar. Corona was the first actress who played the role of Goethe’s heroine ‘Iphigenie.’

    From the graveyard you can take a short-cut to the upper exit, where you come across many memorial-stones for the prominent people of Ilmenau. You cross the B4 and climb up the Sturmheide to the middle and upper Berggraben. This is a path with different elevations along the mountain massif, which were previously hill-trenches in which water used to flow from the mountains, and was channelised to Sturmheide and Roda.

    You reach Manebacher Valley after a comfortable walk through a thick forest and watch the splendid valley below. After sometime, you reach Schwalbenstein, a high rock with porphyry, where you can rest in the adjacent hut called ‘Schutzhutte.’ It was in the Schwalbenstein that Goethe wrote the 4th Act of his famous ‘Iphigenie auf Taurus’ on March 19,1779 and in the following years Torquato Tasso. On a rock you can read the beginning of this 4th Act, and you are reminded of the beauty of the German language and the rhythmical power of Goethe’s prose, which has a magical effect on you and moves you to the core.

    You move on to the next inn in the forest called ‘Schöffenhaus’ and descend towards Manebach, past Emmastein and the house of the Cantor, in whose garden Goethe used to do his sketches and other drawings. You cross the railway tracks and the street and climb the small bridle path across the hilly meadow, and reach Helenenruhe. A resting place for a certain Helen. You look from there in the distance towards the forested hills behind Schwalbenstein and trek over to Big Hermann Stone. The route is rather steep and most demanding. When you reach the big rock on which once perched a castle in the Middle Ages, you are rewarded by the sight of a cave. Goethe wrote about this cave: ‘It’s my favourite place, where I want to live and work.’ Perhaps it might inspire you too.

    This was where Goethe worked and did his drawings. He even brought his lady von Stein when she visited him in Ilmenau. Frau von Stein was a serene, tempered lady-in-waiting who influenced Goethe, and under her friendship Goethe developed into a mature and balanced man.

    After the last steep ascent you reach the 861m Klickelhahn. You can see the magnificent Thuringer Forest from here. We know through Goethe’s letter to Ms. von Stein that he fled from the town to Thuringen’s cool forested area whenever he could and wrote to her in Weimar about the beauty of the forest of Thuringen. When words couldn’t describe the opulent beauty of a place, he sent her his excellent drawings, for a picture tells more than a thousand words: he drew the cave of Hermannstein, the misty valleys of Ilmenau, Manebach and Stützerbach. As though the drawings weren’t enough, he wrote further: ‘…there are drawings and descriptions everywhere.’ Perhaps he too found ‘sermons in stones and good in everything,’ like William Shakespeare did in the forest in his ‘As You Like It.’

    Goethe was moved by the picturesque idyll of it penned his poems thus:

    Über allen Gipfeln ist Ruh,

    in allen Wipfeln

    spurst du kaum einen Hauch;

    die Vögelein schweigen im Walde.

    Warte nur, balde ruhest du auch.

    Goethe was influenced by Herder’s appreciation of Shakespeare’s genius, and thereafter he’s known to have written a pseudo-Shakespearean tragedy called ‘Geschichte Gottfrieds von Berlichingen, which was ill received by Herder. The school-kids have to learn this on their way to acquiring the high-school certificate.

    The hunter’s hut, where Goethe wrote his night-song on September 6, 1780 doesn’t exist anymore, but you can see a remake of the same. And like they say on all guided tours: ‘On a bright day you can see even the distant Harz.’ You descend to the hunter’s hut at Gabelbach (fork-stream). That small house you see was constructed at the order of the Duke Carl August in 1983 when he expected prominent hunting guests. In the house itself you hear lectures about Goethe’s scientific studies in the forest of Thuringen. If you’re tired you can walk to the Shepard’s meadow (Hirtenwiese). From there you can take different routes.But since we ‘re walking along Goethe’s path, we cross the street, and descend to the pretty Schorte Valley.

    In Frankfurt Goethe became the leader of a group of intellectuals, which formed the inner circle of the Sturm and Drang. He wrote stormy poetry in free rhythm such as the Wanderers Sturmlied (storm-song), Prometheus, An Schwager Kronos and drafted the scenes of a Faust play, namely Urfaust.

    Goethe lived to be 82 and it was in this time that the French Bastille was stormed. Read also A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. Goethe was 39 then, and told his companions at Valmy: ‘This is the beginning of a new epoche of world history and you can say, you experienced it.’ In his youth he’d been fiery, energetic and impatient and later he became an oracular figure of Olympian stature. Germany’s man of letters liked acting, drawing, even directing theatres, and is universally regarded as a writer of the first rank. About his own work, Goethe said: ‘All my works are fragments of a big confession.’

    His diversity in creative writing was astonishing and he had a wide range of forms: lyric, epic, ballad poetry, drama, novels, short-stories, autobiographical works. The fragments are the essence of his literary genius.

    Black Forest Mural on wall (c) satisshroff 2009Lyrik:

    Aurora borealis (Satis Shroff)

    The sky was bathed

    In fantastic hues:

    Yellow, orange, scarlet

    Mauve and cobalt blue.

    Buto dancing,

    In this surreal light,

    On the stage,

    Was magnificent.

    Your heart pounds higher,

    Your feet become light,

    Your body sways

    To the rhythm

    And Nordic lights

    Of the Aurora borealis.

    Akin to the creation

    Of the planet we live in.

    And here was I,

    Anzu Furukawa.

    Once a small ballet dancer,

    Now a full grown woman:

    A choreographer, performer,

    Ballet and modern dancer, studio pianist.

    ‘The Pina Bausch of Tokyo’

    Wrote a German critic

    In Der Tagesspiegel.

    Success was my name,

    In Japan, Germany, Italy,

    Finnland and Ghana:

    Anzu’s Animal Atlas,

    Cells of Apple,

    Faust II,

    Rent-a-body,

    The Detective of China,

    A Diamond as big as the Ritz.

    I was a professor

    Of performing arts in Germany.

    But Buto became my passion.

    Buto was born amid upheavals in Japan,

    When students took to the streets,

    With performance acts and agit props.

    Buto, this new violent dance of anarchy,

    Cut off from the traditions

    Of Japanese dance.

    Ach,

    The Kuopio Music et Dance festival

    Praised my L’Arrache-coer,’

    The Heart Snatcher.

    A touching praise

    To human imagination,

    And the human ability

    To feel even the most surprising emotions

    I lived my life with dignity,

    But the doctors said

    I was very, very sick.

    I had terminal tongue cancer.

    I’d been sleeping over thirty hours,

    And stopped breathing

    In peace,

    With my two lovely children

    Holding my hands.

    I’d danced at the Freiburg New Dance Festival

    Only twenty days ago.

    I saw the curtain falling,

    As we took our bows.

    I bow to you my audience,

    I hear your applause.

    The sound of your applause

    Accompanies me

    Where ever my soul goes.

    I’m still a little girl

    In an oversized dress.

    I ran through you all

    In such a hurry.

    * * *

    The Colour of Your Eyes (Satis Shroff)

    Blue is the colour of the mountain,

    Blue is the colour of t sky,

    Blue is the colour of our planet,

    And blue is the colour of your eyes.

    Blue,

    You have so many names:

    Blau, bleu, caerulus,

    Neelo, niebes, mavi,

    Sininen, sienie,

    azzuro

    azul

    a-oj.

    Blue is the colour

    Of your balanced character:

    Unshakeable and constant,

    Peace-loving and distanced,

    Where there’s conflict,

    You shy away.

    Blue is the colour

    Of your responsibility,

    Your astonishment

    And helpfulness,

    Towards your fellow beings.

    Blue is the colour of flexibility,

    Tender feelings and faithfulness.

    Perhaps that’s why

    I love you.

    Blue is not alone light,

    It carries a bit of darkness

    With it.

    The colour of your eyes

    Have an unspoken effect on me.

    I feel an ambivalence

    When you look at me.

    Ultramarine blue is deep,

    The endlessness of the mind.

    Your cool blue eyes are distant,

    Like an open ocean.

    Stimulus and silence,

    Annäherung,

    Vermeidung.

    Sometimes,

    I understand you,

    At other times,

    I don’t.

    Am I day dreaming?

    Glossary:

    Blau: German

    Bleu: French

    Caerulus:Latin

    Neelo: Nepali

    Niebes:Polish

    Mavi: Turkish

    Sininen: Finnish

    sienie:Russian

    azzuro: Italian

    azul: Spanish,Portugese

    a-oj: Japanese

    Annäherung: to draw close to

    Vermeidung: shun, avoid

    * * *

    © 2009 satisshroff

    Winter Blues (Satis Shroff)

    Winter blues,

    Go away!

    Season of short daylight,

    Coughs and rheuma,

    Wet, cold days.

    Misty towns,

    Snowbound Schwarzwald,

    Season depression,

    Winter blues.

    This cold seasonal change

    Influences your hormones.

    The lack of sunlight,

    Its warm and reassuring rays,

    Reduces the endorphine

    In your blood vessels.

    Serotonin, which regulates

    Our happy mental state,

    Is sparingly there,

    When we need it.

    Daylight is the best cure,

    For light seasonal depression.

    You go for a walk,

    Even when the weather

    Is misty and wet.

    You keep a balanced diet:

    Fruits and vegetables,

    To create good feelings,

    And to avert colds.

    But for those have

    Endogenic depression?

    Low appetite,

    Weight loss,

    Sleepless nights,

    Increased melatonin,

    Caused by a lack

    Of sunshine,

    Makes you tired:

    Your activities are at a low.

    If walks in the misty countryside

    Or city parks don’t help,

    You have antidepressiva

    As a last resort.

    Ach, winter blues

    * * *

    Cosmic Soul (Satis Shroff)

    E=mc2

    Your body is a mass,

    When you decease,

    It becomes a mess.

    Putrification.

    Your soul,

    Which never had a beginning

    And never has an end

    Lives on as energy,

    Travels with the speed of light,

    To be one with the cosmos,

    Leaving behind families,

    Friends and relatives.

    People and emotional experiences

    Of this small transitory world.

    Was it an illusion,

    This worldly maya,

    With its ethereal charms?

    Did you live

    Or were you already dead?

    Unanswered questions of humanity,

    As the soul leaves your body

    And heads for the vast,

    Unfathomable cosmos,

    Like a blitz.

    To transform into energy.

    What came first?

    The light?

    The energy?

    Or the mass?

    *****

    LIKE PROMETHEUS AND ICARUS (Satis Shroff)

    Up and up we flew exultantly

    Towards the Himalayas.

    Kathmandu, Bhadgaon and Lalitpur

    With their palaces, pagodas, shrines,

    Brick houses and hotels ,

    Lush green fields in the outskirts

    Of the valley,

    Were becoming smaller and greener.

    For a moment in my mind

    I was the dragon that rides over the clouds.

    I was Prometheus,

    The saviour of mankind,

    Who gave mortals fire.

    I was Icarus,

    Flying away from Crete.

    As I peered at the majestic silvery Himalayas,

    I felt my insignificance in the vastness

    That unfurled below me.

    How many climbers from the West and East,

    How many Sherpas and other ethnic porters

    Still lie in the crevasses

    Of Himalayan glaciers?

    The earth is below us,

    And receives us.

    I have a feeling of smallness,

    Humility,

    As I alight from the jet.

    I’ve seen and felt

    The spell of the mighty Himalayas,

    And what’s beyond the clouds

    In the sky.

    A strong, deep, religious experience,

    For I had trespassed

    The Abode of Snows,

    Himalaya.

    The Home of the Gods.

    *****

    MUSIC AND MUSE (Satis Shroff)

    Pillows of silk, sheets of white satin

    A world of lights and colours,

    Of precious spices, exotic fruits

    And music.

    A world of joy and merrymaking

    Behind the Rana palace curtains

    In Kathmandu.

    I’ve learned the mystery of love

    And buried my face in her lap.

    Penned poems in the white heat

    Of passionate moments,

    Till she cried in ecstasy:

    ‘How wonderful.’

    Glossary:

    Ranas: The Ranas were former rulers of Nepal who usurped the throne of the Shahs. Nepal is a republic since 2008 headed by a Maoist Führer named Prachanda

    ————————————————-

    WITHOUT WORDS (Satis Shroff)

    We speak with each other

    A wonderful feeling overcomes me

    And I’m touched to the roots.

    As though it’s a doubling

    Of my existence.

    It becomes a passion

    To speak with each other.

    Our lives are filled with togetherness:

    With ourselves and our children.

    I discover myself in you

    And you in me.

    Where one is at home

    In the company of the other

    And vice versa.

    Where you can be

    The way you are,

    Where I can be

    The way I am.

    Our tolerance for each other is crucial.

    There are moments when one forgets time.

    We speak to each other without words.

    It’s not sung,

    Not instrumental chords.

    Just our hearts

    Understanding each other.

    In tact with each other.

    Our eyes speak volumes

    And a nod is enough.

    ©satisshroff 2009

    About the Author:

    Satis Shroff is a lecturer, poet, artist 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.

    Satis Shroff 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.

    http://www.zfs.uni-freiburg.de/zfs/dozent/lehrbeauftragte4/index_html/#shroff

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