Mild and strong winds

Pear Flower Song --by Yao Ying

Pear flower, obscured moon, willow young and green.
Everything competes in beauty, casting off old forms.
So new! So fresh! So colorful!
Returning home, on your clothing remains a fragrance.

Harmonizing with Yao Ying's Pear Flower Song

Pretty tree, oncoming wind, the grass is colored green.
Spring light, bright and beautiful, reveals a lovely form.
Skin like snow, shadow like a plum flower.
Cold scent floats around, there's a lingering fragrance.  


Eastern Sea Wind

Largess in Measure, autumn evening, loud climate,
Mountain winds whistling tight, moon still round and high.
Range of peaks, the shadows seem like they're moving.
Grass and woods, once voiceless, now rage and shout.   

The mountain that Eastern Sea University was situated on was known for is strong winds that often gusted all night long. The name of the mountain was Big Degree.--a phrase meaning tolerant and forgiving (vs. Small Air--what we would consider high strung or finicky)

Holding on and holding out

Night-Blooming Cereus'* Song

Delicate native, characterized by subtle fragrance,
Can't compete with the thousand brightly-colored beautifully-appareled,
Most loves the faint breeze and shining moon of evening,
Queen of the Night shadow - dreary fog - hold regret at length.   

*One of the qualities of this flower is that it only blooms at night for one night a year and is wilted by dawn. 

By the Miaoli mountains

Several standing straw huts form a village
Many levels of tiered farms raise children and grandchildren
Outside the households, winds are strong, government rule is distant
Though cooking steam fills the home, yet won't open the door.  

The Hakka people are known for being conservative and hard-working.

Two willows, two ponds

To the tune of The Butterfly Loves Flowers
In the Spring Shade of the Willow

Pond side green willow in a cage fog made 
Little garden spring shade
Misting rains dampen the covered arcade
Spring flowers drip with wetness by low fence laid
All day, sing and recite lines long and short
Pour out sorrows for hours -- the flowers consort
Curtain shade evening time
Now light the incense burner
Deep into the night, the sound of the rain and wind settles down
Bird songs coo people to sleep


Oriole Song Pond

In the woods, the water is high at this small pond
Geese and ducks bring goslings and ducklings to hunt for food, busy
Across the shore, the clothes-washers have left*
Willow strands sway in the cool midday breeze 

*Song dynasty poet wrote a similar line