Ufer der Verlorenen

A long time ago, when one could still get 870 lire for a dollar, Joseph Brodsky came to Venice for the first time. He was thirty-two years old and had only known the city from a tattered book by Henri de Regnier and a few treasured postcards that a childhood friend had once given him for his birthday. But since that time, it was clear to the poet from Petersburg: "If I ever get to leave Russia, I would immediately travel to Venice." Since he was stripped of his citizenship by his fellow countrymen, he now travels every year from New York to Venice in the winter, when the air is clear and the colors have that transparency we know from Canaletto's paintings. He expresses his love for Venice, the "City of the Eye," which stands on no solid foundation, in this book.