Strange Southern California Weather

Weather nowadays had been strange for California during this time around. It had been raining more often. One day, it was hot and sunny and the next day drenched in storms. Then in one day, the rain came a few times and suddenly the rest of the day was blasted in hot sun.

Poem #1

This neighbor’s purple tree by the roadside was the inspiration for the first poem. 

From away, the flowers were not that eye catching except for the color.  On a closer inspection, the beauty is obscured by the distance. 

1 後庭借蔭紫花樹 Borrowed shade under a backyard tree of purple blossoms,
2 蓬生逍遙莫遠處 Under its canopy, unfettered freedom born not from a place of faraway.
3 風過無心歌舞逢 An unintentional rendezvous with song and dance, the wind passes by,
4 教出一曲竹葉雨 Teaching the bamboo leaves to rustle out a melody of rain.

1 In my backyard, I have a jacaranda and a purple blossom Empress Tree. So, no poetic licence here…

2 Happiness can be found anywhere when there is satisfaction and one need no rainbow to cross into Oz.

4 Perhaps it was the sight of falling blossoms that made the rustling leaves sound like falling rain.

Tuesday, March 28, 2023

Poem #2

The rains came in the middle of the night again and the next morning, it was still drizzling.  While waiting for it to stop, the idea of having a contrasting scene with some connection to the previous poem,

1 後庭今日何蔭借 No longer would the backyard shade of today be lent,
2 橫風無情雨滴斜 Fury of heartless winds and raindrops fall askew.
3 花落紫血霑地流 Blossoms fall with purple blood, tainting the flows on the ground,
4 草亂群堆似墓野 And grasses bunching in chaotic heaps, looking more like feral mounds.

1 借 can mean “to lend” and “to borrow”. It all depends on the context.

2 橫 means horizontal or unfettered restraint. A crab is considered a tyrant as it is the only creature to move in a linear horizontal direction. A sidewinder moves at an angle.

3 Purple blooms flowing slowly on the water like purple blood.

Wednesday, March 29, 2023

Poem #3

Finally, the drizzle had stopped and I went for my daily jog. The skies were still gloomy and depressing when suddenly, during my second round, the dark clouds were replaced with white fluffy clouds and blue skies. Then sun came blasting away as if the rain of a few moments ago had never existed.

1 雨後風清草碧綠 After the rains, a breath of fresh breeze and grasses in green,
2 掃盡人徑花初露 Sweeping unceasingly at life’s path of budding blooms.
3 危葉尖滴能幾何 How long can droplets dangle so dangerously from the tips of leaves?
4 喜鵲重歸見春報 And joyous magpies returning to announce spring’s reporting.

4 報 is used as a verb and not as a noun - "... spring reporting [for duty, etc.] Magpies are the first sign of spring which supposedly had started in Southern California but because of the more than usual rains at this time, it didn’t look quite like the season.

Wednesday, March 29, 2023