Another foot or two of Snow tonight...

That's what they're saying, anyways. We have now officially exceeded maximum snow totals for ANY MONTH in any year in recorded meteorological history. Thankfully there is nothing to cancel, as most of the seminarians are off for a long weekend. The few noble souls that are here are, typically, more than generous in helping the aging faculty move their cars and shovel them out.

So, here's one of my old favorites, a poem from the turn of the last century by Miguel de Unamuno, entitled "The Snowfall is So Silent."

The snowfall is so silent,
so slow, bit by bit, 

with delicacy it settles down on the earth 

and covers over the fields. 

The silent snow comes down white and weightless; 

snowfall makes no noise, 

falls as forgetting falls, 

 flake after flake. 

It covers the fields gently 

while frost attacks them 

with its sudden flashes of white; 

covers everything with its pure and silent covering; 

not one thing on the ground anywhere escapes it. 

And wherever it falls it stays, 

content and gay, 

for snow does not slip off as rain does, 

but it stays and sinks in. 

The flakes are skyflowers, 

pale lilies from the clouds, 

that wither on earth. 

They come down blossoming 

but then so quickly they are gone; 

they bloom only on the peak, 

above the mountains, 

and make the earth feel heavier when they die inside. 

Snow, delicate snow, 

that falls with such lightness on the head, 

on the feelings, 

come and cover over the sadness that lies always in my reason.