華府介櫻花

 Dear 羅 先生，

As always, thank you very much.

I have been trying to write a few 3-line-poems relevant to the cherry blossom in Washington, DC for weeks. For some reasons, I just can't get good or right words to finish without actually seeing cherry flowers in full bloom. Due to unusual

cold weather, i.e, low temperature and cloudy days this Spring, cherry blossom has officially delayed twice to peak from

April 6 to 10, 2013. Anyway, let's express my feelings in Hagga 3 lines below.

華府介櫻花

今年開著實在慢

慢開至少一禮拜 (In 2011, the full bloom was in late March.)

賞看櫻花景

萬千遊客出入城

盡多失望頭犁犁

櫻花有歷史

「樹禮」講起老頭擺 (The Gift of Trees from Japan to America in 1912)

東京相送櫻花樹 (The efforts of giving and receiving were done by the First Lady, Helen Taft; Eliza Scidmore, travel writer; David Fairchild of the Department of Agriculture; Jokichi Takamine, renowned Japanese chemist in New York and Mayor Yukio Ozaki of Tokyo during that period.)

櫻樹介姻緣

白宮夫人係媒人

牽成美、日百年情

華府櫻花節

年年慶祝三禮拜 (from late March to Mid April)

感念東京該份情

櫻花牽國情

東京華府結有緣

美日關係毋識斷

打幫櫻花緣

美日繼續顧臺灣

幫忙開出國家運

I will send you some pictures of cherry blossom taken in 2011 for your reference in a separate e-mail.

Please be picky on my 「客家三行詩」.

Best regards,

Zon Gui Ion