Ufer der Verlorenen

A long time ago, when 870 lire were still being bought for the dollar, Joseph Brodsky came to Venice for the first time. He was thirty-two years old and only knew the city from a tattered book by Henri de Regnier and from a few precious postcards that a childhood friend had given him for his birthday. But from that time on, the poet from Petersburg had one thing in mind: "If I should ever be allowed to leave Russia, I would go straight to Venice." Since his compatriots expatriated him, he now travels every year from New York to Venice, in winter, when the air is clear and the colors are as transparent as in Canaletto's paintings. In this book he expresses his love for Venice, the "city of the eye", which has no firm foundation.