First Rain
| It finally rained, for the first time this year. How excellent! |
Many are cold, but few are frozen
Heading into my second winter and dreading it. Summer was great, though much too short.
Still miss Indonesia.
Other blogs I like from Mongolia:
Skyetalks Blog - http://skyetalk.wordpress.com/
Peace Corps Mongolia - http://peacecorpsmongolia.wordpress.com/
Land of Blue Skies - http://blueskyland.wordpress.com/
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spring
The Sound of an Icy Mountain Stream in Mongolia
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I'm outside in the mountains right now. A frozen stream is melting, and a
little flow of water is cutting a narrow channel through the ice.
I love the sound of the flowing water. It's Spring now, for real.
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The Bullock Stirs, the Stag Farts
Ancient songs celebrate the end of winter with incredible joy. You can hear it in the 13th century English song Sumer is a Cumin In, which rejoices in the return of life to the countryside. Spring is also a subject of joy in the Carmina Burana, a set of poems from the middle ages made famous by Carl Orff's masterpiece in the 1930s. Here's an excerpt from Ecce Gratum in both the original Latin with an English translation:
Yes, summer is coming. The seed grows, the meadow blooms. The bullock stirs, the stag farts. Sadness is now at an end: here in Mongolia, I feel the joy of my ancestors at the end of Winter.
Ecce gratum Behold, the pleasant
et optatum and longed-for
Ver reducit gaudia, spring brings back joyfulness,
purpuratum violet flowers
floret pratum, fill the meadows,
Sol serenat omnia. the sun brightens everything,
Iamiam cedant tristia! sadness is now at an end!
Estas redit, Summer returns,
nunc recedit now withdraw
Hyemis sevitia. the rigours of winter. Ah!Iam liquescit Now melts
et decrescit and disappears
grando, nix et cetera; ice, snow and the rest,
bruma fugit, winter flees,
et iam sugit and now spring sucks at summer's breast:
Ver Estatis ubera; a wretched soul is he
illi mens est misera, who does not live
qui nec vivit, or lust
nec lascivit under summer's rule. Ah!
sub Estatis dextera.
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