Zeitgeistlyrik: How Could I Exist? (Satis Shroff)

How could the poet exist without having experienced a lot of things in life? How could one ignore the zeitgeistproblems that demand attention everyday? How could we live without classical books..

HOW COULD I EXIST? (Satis Shroff)

 

How could I further exist

Without the Basmati rice from the Ganges delta,

The garam masala from Punjab,

The olive oil from Liguria,

The Mountain cheese from Austria,

The Bauernbrot from the Schwarzwald

And the limoncello from Sirmione?

 

How could I live any more

Without the novels of Dickens, Hardy, Goethe,

The poems of Schiller, Poe, Rilke,

Wordsworth, Yeats, Burns and Keats,

Sonnets of Shakespeare?

 

How could I live

Without having seen the majestic Himalayas, Alps and Dolomites,

Felt the biting winds of the North Sea in winter,

The solace of the Atlantic Ocean in summer,

Or without having experienced the wrath of the Monsoon rain,

Or the reassuring warmth of the sun,

Which creates great wines in Ihringen and Freiburg?

 

How could I exist without having experienced the angst of imminent war

Against the teeming Chinese army in Sikkim,

The war against West and East Pakistan

And the birth of Bangladesh,

The British Gurkhas in the Falklands,

The victims of Sebrenica,

And Russians in Crimea.

 

How could I exist

Without having drunk beer with Nepalese, German and Czech students in Prague,

Eaten Schollen with Italian friends in Chioggia,

Pasta in Giacomo's Spaghetteria near Brescia,

Crimean sekt in Freiburg with Alemannic women,

Salad with Aceto balsamico from Modena.

 

How could I exist

Without seeing the poppies gow in Flanders,

The green grass in the Normandy,

French children with wide eyes in La Rochelle as a trawler chugs to the harbour.

There are no quarrels between the former foes.

 

How could I exist in Europe

Without witnessing the sea dead of Lampedusa?

Men and women huddled, tossed and turned in rickety African fisherboats,

Gone to rough sea with hope of a better life in the fortress that is Europe.

This is the sad tenor of humanity,

Where no bed awaits the travel-sore, weak and poor in the northern hemisphere.

This is the turbid ebb and flow

Of haves and have-nots.