Autumn Poem

秋天里	In Autumn
树叶变成火红 轻轻地飘下来 风带来湿叶芬 单人步声孤独	Leaves turn fiery red Float gently to the ground The breeze carries the smell of wet leaves One man's foot steps are lonely

I was inspired by a walk through the forest, which is now in its autumn gown of yellow and red. The Chinese language seems so appropriate to capture the quiet melancholy and serenity of natural beauty. I wish I could do better. I certainly can't write like a Goethe in German and my Chinese is still very limited.

Saving Up Daylight

It's that time of the year again. The one weekend in late October when clocks are turned back and we magically gain one hour of sleep. Then one weekend in late March clocks are advanced and we loose said hour of sleep again. It has confused many an Asian friend. Only the English name for this practice holds any clue as to its purpose: daylight saving time. We are saving daylight. For what I don't know. It was supposed to conserve energy and make us more efficient.
Then again, a TV channel questioned some people in my home town about the effects of the time change. Would the sun rise earlier or would we go to bed later? Most weren't even sure if the clocks were set forward or back - let alone any other effects. And those were people that, like me, have lived with this for all their lives some 20, 30 years. And what's the point? Timetables of overnight travel have to be adapted and computer software has to be made aware of the change. Night trains stand idling in stations for one hour to keep their schedule. God knows how they manage catch up one hour in spring. The change messes with our biological clock, as well. It causes confusion and, according to newer studies, more mistakes and accidents during the time immediately after the change.
And do we really conserve power? Since because of our little carnival trick the sun rises one hour "earlier" in the morning I don't have to turn on the light when I get up and brush my teeth. But because of the same trick it also sets one hour earlier at night so I'll have to turn on the light for dinner instead.
Actually, a reasonable person might ask: if we let the day start earlier in winter why not just keep it that way throughout the year? I guess that should be reduced to a theorem like: For every illogical action there is another equally nonsensical counter-action.
Maybe we should follow through and live according to daylight like in the old times: rise and go to bed with the sun. It would make working days conveniently short in winter. And since we want to switch to renewable energies soon and our office computers will be powered by the solar cells on the roof they will switch off anyway when the sun goes down. Then we could all sit around the fire and swap stories.
Of course, that's not going to happen. But then why hold on to nonsense like daylight saving time? Why not retire it and file it under "stupid ideas that don't work" - and save the world some confusion.