Things in bloom

The dramatic change of the seasons here in Beijing seems to call for some Housman. This is an especially appropriate selection for me at this moment, since I have just returned from a weekend away in the countryside, staying with my friend DD in her "hovel" in Huairou County. We opened the front gate upon arrival and were greeted by the gorgeous spectacle of the pear tree in her courtyard in full flower and thrumming with bees.

I have taken the liberty of altering the figures to fit my own condition; AEH, of course, imagined writing this as a young man of twenty.

"Loveliest of trees, the cherry now..."
(A Shropshire Lad, No. 2)

Loveliest of trees, the cherry now
Is hung with bloom along the bough,
And stands about the woodland ride
Wearing white for Eastertide.

Now, of my threescore years and ten,
Forty will not come again,
And take from seventy springs two score,
It only leaves me thirty more.

And since to look at things in bloom
Thirty springs are little room,
About the woodlands I will go
To see the cherry hung with snow.

A.E. Housman (1859-1936)