Muß I Dichters Lande gehen
(Goethe)
The naked white birch trees
Stand close to each other,
Waiting for the music
Of the Dreisam Valley wind
To begin.
A gust comes,
Followed by another,
Making the trees sway,
Like a wise white woman's long tresses,
The thin, supple twigs
That almost reach half the size of the trees,
Have a faster rhythm of their own.
The hurricane-like wind
Gathers its energy for the finale.
Ah, the upper branches
With capillary-like twigs,
As they anastomose,
Developing into a canopy,
Become intensive
In their movements to and fro.
In the background you see
The blue Black Forest hills,
With homesteads like dots
On the snow-covered hillsides,
That are lit now.
The bluish-grey clouds which were on the move,
Have taken a Prussian blue hue.
A weak yellowish light,
Manages to break through,
Above the snowy-clad peaks.
A semblance of a sunset
In the Schwarzwald.
Author Bio:
Satis Shroff is a German writer & poet of Nepalese descent, based in Freiburg (poems, fiction, non-fiction) and has studied Zoology and Botany in Nepal, Medicine and Social Sciences in Germany and Creative Writing in Freiburg and the United Kingdom. The German media describes him as a ‘Mittler zwischen Kulturen,’ that is, a mediator between western and eastern cultures. 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 (togetherness) in this world. He lectures in Basle (Switzerland) and in Freiburg (Germany).