Chinese Lunar New Year, 17 February 2026
(Year of the Horse*)
*If one attributes the Five Elements to a birth year
or the Zodiac it self, it would then have a name preceded
with any of the five elements: Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal,
or Water.
Accordingly, the year 2026 belongs to the element Fire.
Therefore, the Year of the Horse could also be called
the Year of the Fire Horse.
An interpretive visualization of the popular Chinese pop tune [不了情].
By request, this YouTube is now captioned in traditional Chinese.
My first and only Chinese YouTube:
Last night's rain shower accentuated this cold, brisk morning. Lingering rain clouds still hovered mischievously on the horizon as I headed north on State Route 99. It would have been the usual Thursday morning commute, except for a rare sighting of a Sandhill Crane. It grazed nonchalantly about a rill at the Delicato Vineyard.
The hustled highway of life passes by too quickly. To have seen the Grus canadensis outside of the conservatory was a special treat. Indeed, the bucolic impressions such as that penned by Po Chu-i (白居易) days are rare in this technologic and impersonal age.
The Cranes
by Po Chu-i
The western wind has blown but a few days;
Yet the first leaf already flies from the bough.
On the drying paths I walk in my thin shoes;
In the first cold I have donned my quilted coat.
Through shallow ditches the floods are clearing away;
Through sparse bamboos trickles a slanting light.
In the early dusk, down an alley of green moss,
The garden-boy is leading the cranes home.
I needed some distraction from the doomed PC which I wrote about on an earlier post. So I went surfing on the Net and mentally worked out what steps to take to fix the hub unit and not do violence to the network.
I came upon a love letter of sorts posted on a blog. It read like an impish practical joke. Then it might not. It captured my attention because the blogger really struggled to write this open-letter in English. He acknowledged his English skills were limited. In any case, in tandem below is his original text and my edits.
*****
August 20
Dear wxxx litte sister:
From see you one eye, I love you.
Your eyes close, I die; your eyes open, I come back to live.
Your eyes close and open again and again,I die again and
again.
Maybe you do not remember me, no matter.
When you carefully look at me, you will one see clock.
I think l should introduce myself to you.
I call Lx big great. Toyear 25
My home have four mouth people-papa, mama, I and DD.
I am a good man, in a big company work.
I do early every day, so that I can have strong body to
protect you.
Please come to eat and sleep with me, or I will cut my hair to
be a monk, and find a place where many monks live in to over my life;
Like Your people
*****
I translated your love letter into a more readable and fluent English. I took the liberty of filling in some gaps of your thoughts. Best wishes to you and Miss Wxxx (or Wxxx in Mandarin). The translation is as follows:
Dearest Miss Wxxx:
From the first moment I set eye on you, I am in love.
The magic of your black lashes overpowers me. They flutter swiftly as butterflies and rein in my soul. My life and breath rise and fall to their rhythm.
I am but a face in the masses. Yet, whether we are in a garden or on a crowed avenue, you are the apple of my eye; I want to shield you as my own. If only you see me truly as I am, you would love me as well.
My name is David Lx. I am a healthy 25 year-old male with no vices. I am the older of two brothers. Including our parents, there are four of us in the family. Currently, I hold a very good and secured position with a large corporation.
What I lack is someone to be my wife, friend, and life companion. That someone is you, Miss Wxxx.
You are the apex of my dream and my sweet and precious torment. Only you can unlock my dream. Would you consent to wed me and be my wife? If you should decline, this dream of my will shatter. This life will plunge into the foam of abandonment and water of despair.
The only recourse for suffering this cruelty is for my retreating to a distant and remote buddhist temple. There will I shed my hair and join the brotherhood of monks. The world will hear of David Lx no more.
The One Who Loves and Admires You Always
*****
The weather this spring is uncharacteristic. Warm one day, cold and rainy the next. The temperture was about 42°F/6°C when I went to bed.
I slept through the rain last night. This morning the buffeted iris plants and the tulips flagged, and rose petals wasfted down in heaps on the green lawn. Buoyed by the respite from the night's rain, birds chirped and tweeted.
Looking out the bedroom window on this new morn, I undulated briefly in the reverie of a Meng Haoran's [夜來風雨聲,花落知多少] moment.
Edvard Grieg composed two elegiac melodies which, in my opinion, go hand-and-glove with a classic melancholic Chinese "Spring" poem.
The Grieg composition is the "Two Elegiac Melodies, Op. 34: The Wounded Heart, and Last Spring."
My crude translation of the Tang Dynasty poet, Li Bai's (李白) 春思. is as follows:
Thoughts of Spring (Li Bai)
(Where you are) in the northern plains, the lush verdant grass flourishes.
The mulberry boughs are laden with the fruit (at home).
My beloved husband, when the homeward thought beckons you,
It is also time for this languished heart to die
Oh, gentle spring breeze, you and I are strangers.
What cause have you to intrude through these gossamer curtains (while I am in repose)?
Original text:
春思(李白)
燕草如碧絲
秦桑低綠枝
當君懷歸日
是妾斷腸時
春風不相識
何事入羅幃
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