BALTIMORE, Maryland January 6, 2016 - Arctic Air, blocked until now by goings-on in and atop the Pacific Ocean, poured south out of Canada, across the central United States and then over the coastal plain of the Atlantic Ocean, covering spoiled Easterners in a winter assault. As far south as central Maryland, residents awoke to the sight of snow falling out of ominous clouds arriving along the plain on frigid northwesterly winds. Although the snow was brief and light, it provided a visual reminder that winter is only now getting started here, where annual snow fall exceeds 20 inches during most years. The actual mercury readings in Maryland where in the mid-30's, but forecasters warned residents that those readings represented the expected high temperatures for the day. And as the cold air pours in, it should be expected to carry more snow showers.
The Accu-Weather Web Site was predicting lows Monday night to dip into the teens, with highs Tuesday only reaching the freezing mark or a degree or two above it. Tuesday night the lows were expected to be in the very low 20's, and even on Wednesday night lows were expected to remain in the 20's. The predicted temperatures would be anywhere from 5 to 9 degrees below normal temperatures for this time of year. January 3 through January 30 are the only dates during the year when low temperatures average below 30 degrees on the Farenheit Temperature Scale. Before and After those dates, even low temperatures in Baltimore average 30 degrees or higher.
The lowest average high temperatures for Baltinore and vicinity is 42 degrees Farenheit, according to Accu-Weather. That lowest average high temperature reading holds sway from January 2 to January 23, Accu-Weather says.
Accu-Weather also provides an extended forecast on their web pages. According to this forecast, temperatures will moderate beginning Tuesday night. Highs Wednesday through Friday are expected to be in the 40's, and will reach the low to mid 50's on Saturday before again heading downward. Daily high temperatures will be in the low 50's Sunday, before falling through the 40's on Monday and Tuesday. Accu-Weather says that when the mercury reading falls below 40 degrees next Tuesday evening, it will not recover to that mark until sometime on Monday, January 18, a period of nearly five full days. During this period, daytime high temperatures will range between 35 and 38 degrees and early morning lows will be between 18 degrees on Wednesday, January 13 and on Thursday, January 14, to 28 degrees on Friday, January 15.
Snow is in the Accu-Weather forecast several times in January, although no really major storms are seen during the month. The first mention of snow is for Saturday, January 16, when "rain and snow" are predicted during a day when temperatures will range between 26 degrees and 38 degrees. "a bit of ice" is in the forecast on Thursday, January 21, which is expected to be one of the warmest days of the month, with a high reading of 46 degrees and a low of 34 degrees. Two days later, on Saturday, January 23, Accuweather says "a rain or snow shower (and) colder" with a high of 37 degrees and a low of 28 degrees.
After January 23, the next time that snow graces the Accu-Weather forecast is February 2. On that day, the weather company forecast reads "windy with periods of snow." The high on February 2 is foreseen to be 35 degrees and the low as 21 degrees. The Accu-Weather forecast for the following day, incidentally, reads "cloudy and cold with flurries" with a high temperature of 33 degrees and a low temperature of 22 degrees.
At Maryland.gov, which dubs itself "The Maryland Manual On-Line," there is this statement about the weather in Maryland, which, it says, comes from the Maryland State Climatologist Office.
Temperature. Average annual temperature: 55.1 degrees Fahrenheit. High temperatures occur in July, the warmest month, averaging in the mid to upper 80s. Low temperatures in January, the coldest month, average in the low to mid 20s.
Since 1871, the mean temperature for Baltimore has been 54.6 degrees Fahrenheit, according to the Maryland State Climatologist Office. The highest recorded annual average temperature was 59.2 degrees in 1931, and the lowest was in 1904, at 52.6 degrees.
For all those interested in global climate change, please take note. The highest recorded annual average temperature is 59.2 degrees. The year of that highest recorded annual average temperature was 1931.
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A Poem by Charles Baudelaire
Charles Baudelaire lived from April 9, 1821 until August 31, 1867. He was born in Paris and he died in Paris. Although remembered primarily as a poet, he was also an essayist, art critic and, according to Wikipedia, a "pioneering translator of Edgar Allen Poe." The reason he is not better known to Americans is that he wrote only in French. Yet those who have at his poetry are always rewarded. His ideas are incomparable. His adjectives and adverbs astonishing. I had a dream that Baudelaire wrote a poem in which he dared the reader to have the courage to look upon the face of God. I wondered whether I had actually read the poem, and i looked everywhere for the poem with those words. I still haven't found it. I suppose I dreamed it, but it sure seemed like an actual Baudelaire poem...
He had a beautiful sense of man's most inner workings. And although not living in an age, such as hours, that is beholden to political correctness, he did have to deal with the Victorian Age and other such impediments to free expression. His work below wraps up many of his best traits in one short poem.
Je t'adore a l'egal de la voute nocturne...
by Charles Baudelaire (9 April 1821 - 31 August 1867)
Je t'adore a l'egal de la voute nocturne,
O vase de tristesse, o grande taciturne,
Et t'aime d'autant plus, belle, que tu me fuis,
Et que tu me parais, ornament de mes nuits,
Plus ironiquement accumuler les lieues
Qui separent mes bras des immensites bleues.
Je m'avance a l'attaque, et je grimpe aux assauts,
Comme apres un cadavre un choeur de vermisseaux,
Et je cheris, o bete implacable et cruelle!
Jusqu'a cette froideur par ou tu m'es plus belle!
It is always an open question as to how well a poem translates into another language. This is especially true when the original poem has rhyming words. The "Penguin Book of French Verse," at least the one in my library, was copyrighted in 1969. On pages 403-404 it provides original French version of the poem and this English translation:
I adore you as much as the vault of night...
by Charles Baudelaire
I adore you as much as the vault of night, O vessel of sorrow,
O tall, silent woman, and I love you the more, my beauty, the more
you flee me, and seem, O ornament of my nights, to pile up ironic-
ally the leagues that separate my arms from the blue spaces.
I advance to the attack and I climb to the assault like a band of
worms on a corpse, and I hold dear, O mercilessly cruel beast!, even
that coldness through which you appear more beautiful to me!
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A reading from the Old Testament Book of Song of Solomon. No less of a biblical scholar than Origen wrote extensively on the Song of Solomon, or, as it is also known, the "Song of Songs." Clearly, if one read the book without knowing it was the Bible, one would probably conclude that it was a beautiful romantic love poem written in antiquity. That conclusion would not be wrong; the only question is whether that is all that it is. Origen and others have concluded that it is much more.
Compared to other Biblical works, the Song of Solomon is quite short. It is comprised of just 8 chapters. In my RSV Bible, the Book of Genesis is 41 pages long. The book of Psalms is 74 pages in length. The Song of Solomon is all of 5 pages in length. Moreover, it is not written by Solomon, the former King of Israel. Scholars do not know who wrote it, although there is no shortage of opinions. Origen, who was born in Alexandria in either 184 or 185 A.D., lived until either 253 or 254 A.D. Not all of his many writings are extant; i.e., known now to us in their original form. This is true even of his most important writings, and it is true of the commentaries and writings on the Song of Songs. The book that I have which concentrates on these writings and commentaries relies on the translation of Origen's writings on the Song of Solomon by Rufinus. But the editor of the work concedes that Rufinus was not a strict translator and may have inserted his own opinions and passed them off as those of Origen. Some of Origen's works on the subject are extant, and it is these writings that are, naturally, the most reliable.
From Song of Solomon, Chapter 1, Verse 1: The Song of Songs, which is Solomon's. Verse 2: O that you (or he) would kiss me with the kisses of your (or his) mouth! For your love is better than wine, Verse 3: your annointing oils are fragrant, your name is oil poured out; therefore the maidens love you. Verse 4: Draw me after you, let us make haste. The king has brought me into his chambers. We will exult and rejoice in you; we will extol your love more than wine; rightly do they love you.
Verse 5: I am very dark, but comely, O daughters of Jerusalem, like the tents of Kedar, like the curtains of Solomon. Verse 6: Do not gaze at me because I am swarthy, because the sun has scorched me. My mother's sons were angry with me, they made me keeper of the vineyards; but, my own vineyard I have not kept! Verse 7: Tell me, you whom my soul loves, where you pasture your flock, where you make it lie down at noon; for why should I be like one who wanders (or is veiled) besides the flocks of your companions?
Verse 8: If you do not know, O fairest among women, follow in the tracks of the flocks, and pasture you kids beside the shepherds' tents.
Verse 9: I compare you, my love, to a mare of Pharaoh's chariots. Verse 10: Your cheeks are comely with ornaments, your neck with strings of jewels. Verse 11: We will make you ornaments of gold studded with silver.
Verse 12: While the king was on his couch, my nard gave forth its fragrance. Verse 13: My beloved is to me a bag of myrrh, that lies between my breasts. Verse 14: My beloved is to me a cluster of henna blossoms in the vineyards of Enge'di.
Verse 15: Behold, you are beautiful, my love; behold, you are beautiful; your eyes are doves. Verse 16: Behold, you are beautiful, my beloved, truly beautiful. Verse 17: Our couch is green; the beams of our house are cedar, our rafters* are pine.
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*The RSV notes, in a footnote to the word "rafters" that "the meaning of the Hebrew word is uncertain."
Chapter 2, Verse 1: I am a rose** of Sharon, a lily of the valleys. Verse 2: As a lily among brambles, so is my love among maidens.
Verse 3: As an apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among young men. With great delight I sat in his shadow, and his fruit was sweet to my taste. Verse 4: He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love. Verse 5: Sustain me with raisins, refresh me with apples; for i am sick with love. Verse 6: O that his left hand were under my head, and that his right hand embraced me! Verse 7: I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles of the hinds of the field, that you stir not up nor awaken love until it please.
Verse 8: The voice of my beloved! behold, he comes, leaping upon the mountains, bounding over the hills. Verse 9: My beloved is like a gazelle, or a young stag. Behold, there he stands behind our wall, gazing in at the windows, looking through the lattice. Verse 10: My beloved speaks and says to me: "Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away; Verse 11: for lo, the winter is past, the ram is over and gone. Verse 12: The flowers appear on the earth, the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard ih our land. Verse 13: The fig tree puts forth its figs, and the vines are in blossom; they give forth fragrance. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.
Verse 14: O my love, in the clefts of the rock, in the covert of the cliff, let me see your face, let me hear your voice, for your voice is sweet, and your face is comely. Verse 15: Catch us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vineyards, for our vineyards are in blossom."
Verse 16: My beloved is mine and I am his, he pastures his flock among the lilies. Verse 17: Until the day breathes and the shadows flee, turn, my beloved, be like a gazelle, or a young stag upon rugged mountains.
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**the Hebrew word used in the verse also translates to "crocus,"
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