Endlich ist es soweit! Das Jahr der Ratte neigt sich nun definitiv seinem Ende zu und ein neues Jahr beginnt - der Ochse kommt. 

Da dem Ochsen nachgesagt wird, er sei ruhig und beständig, hoffen wir, dass sich die Wogen dieses Jahr wieder etwas glätten!
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Auf jeden Fall wünsche ich Euch das Allerbeste für das neue Jahr, und vorallem natürlich gute Gesundheit!

Since last week we are in the solar term of Lichun, the beginning of spring! And I’m sooo ready for spring  - as all of us I guess!
Lichun is the first solar term of the year, so it marks the beginning of a new year. Chinese New Year is now only a few days ahead of us! ​

Although it is snowing outside, I feel like sharing a Chinese Spring poem from the Tang Dynasty...

Moonlit night

When moonbeams light more than half my house
And the Big Dipper and Southern Star criss-cross
On such a night I sense and smell a warm spring
In a cricket’s sound passing by my green window screen

月 夜

更 深 月 色 半 人 家
北 斗 闌 干 南 斗 斜
今 夜 偏 知 春 氣 暖
蟲 聲 新 透 綠 窗 沙


Liu Fangping 劉 方 平

Liu (c.742 in Luoyang – c.779) began an official career quite early, but he resigned from office in his thirties to live a hermit’s life. The poem Moonlit night expresses his oneness with nature. 蟲 聲, literally bug sound, but cricket works since the criss-crossing stars imitate the sound of the cricket’s song.


Alternate translation:

Moonlit Night

As moon colors half my house
And the North Star rises and the South Star sets
I can feel in the warm air the first moment of spring
In an insect singing at my green-silk screen


(Translations: https://100tangpoems.wordpress.com)