FREIBURGER ZEITGEISTLITERATURE (Satis Shroff)

Satis Shroff is a Nepalese writer who writes in English since 1972. Shroff is a lecturer of creative writing, as well as a long-standing journalist and writer who started his writing career in 1972 with The Rising Nepal, a daily from Kathmandu. He is also a lecturer at the Akademie für medizinische Berufe (Uniklinik Freiburg), VHS-Freiburg and VHS-Dreisamtal in Kirchzarten. He writes fiction and non-fiction since his days in Kathmandu as a journalist in 1972. He wrote a column Science Spot on the wildlife conservation, mountaineering, cultural themes as well as literature, development and tourism. He also wrote commentaries for the External Service of Radio Nepal, in addition to freelancing for The Christian Science Monitor and other newspapers in the USA in the early seventies. He was born in Nepal and did his schooling in a British Public School in Darjeeling. He went to Kathmandu, Nepal for further studies and did his Intermediate in Science (ISc) from Amrit Science College an...

LIFE IS A COSMIC DANCE (Satis Shroff) My soul is a passionate dancer. I hear music where ever I am, Whatever I do. I hear the lively rhythm beckoning me to dance. Sometimes it’s violins and Vienna waltz. At other times a fiery salsa. A Punjabi bhangra or a slow fox. Life is a cosmic dance. With its kampfmuster And its own choreography. We have people around us. We look at each other, Oblivious of the others. Mesmerised, Drawn together by an invisible force. The Flamenco guitarist wails, ‘Life is an apple: Pluck it, Relish it, And throw it away.’

Humans-Time-Earth-Living Environment Freiburg-Kappel (Satis Shroff) New sculptures along the theme path in Kappler Valley. This time Satis Shroff introduces you the double sculpture ‘Bios’ created by Thomas Rees, which shows the Wonder of Life, its creative dynamics and how wonderful it is to be living here. BIOS: the Wonder of Life Where does the word ‘bios’ come from, you might ask. It’s an artificial word that depicts a basic programme that is a prerequisite in a computer so that it can communicate, and so to say, come to life. Complex systems are made possible by bios. On the other hand, the olde Greek word ßioc (bios) means life. All living beings have a basic life structure, namely the DNA, which is also a form of programming. A virus can overtake a host’s DNA and change the sequence through gene action and manipulation at the genetic level, as in the case of covid-19. The Double Helix , discovered by Crick and Watson, is a spiral biological store-room with lots of inform...

Book Review By Satis Shroff: Friedrich Holderlin’s Selected Poetry translated by David Constantine REVIEW By Satis Shroff Friedrich Holderlin’s Selected Poetry translated by David Constantine. The Swabian poet Friedrich Hölderlin (1770-1843) was born in Lauffen upon the Neckar on the 20th of March 250 years ago. He was a German poet and philosopher and was influenced by Hegel and Schelling, and was also an important thinker of German idealism. The strange and beautiful language of Friedrich Holderlin’s late poemshas been recreated by David Constantine in remarkable verse translations. This is a new expanded edition of Constantine’s Hölderlin Selected Poems (1990/1996) have been widely praised, containing many new translations as well as the whole of Hölderlin’s Sophocles (2001). Here the English translator has tried to create an equivalent English for Hölderlin’s extraordinary German recreations of the classic Greek verse plays. It might be mentioned that Constantine won the Europ...

  Schwarzwaldlyrik: ODE TO THE BLACK FOREST (Satis Shroff)         ALPINE GRATITUDE (Satis Shroff)   The hamlets are scattered, Tucked away in the side valleys and spurs Of the Black Forest, Which was once dark and foreboding. A forest that once conjoured myths, legends And fairy tales.   Under the hay and homesteads, You find men and mice, Good natured maids and children, Healthy and happy cows, goats, Sheep and swines. The Schwarzwald farmers paid low taxes, For Nature punished them enough. They couldn't get rich on the craggy soil, The high elevation and the long, raw winter.   Yet the Black Forest forced the soil, To yield millet in Summer, Wheat and barley, Buried beneath a thick mantle of snow.   Ah, it's already past the month of October, The young calves are in the stalls, After a colourful, traditional walk From the higher alpine meadows. There's corn in the chamber, Feed for the animals in the barns.   Around Freiburg the apple...