入伏

                     王科军

泠风一啸头伏进，夏日三秋吐艳香。

午汗沾蒸清早晚，温差挂果灌甜浆。

            Dog Days

There are forty hot summer days from now on. In English these days are called dog days.

I don’t know why, but after I surf the internet, I can tell you  in my slightl edition:

Sanfu, also called China’s “ dog days of summer” ,refers to three 10-day periods that are predicted to have the hottest days of the year. It is between early July and early September when the hot sultry weather of summer usually occurs in the northern hemisphere. 

The “Dog Days,” we always thought, were those summer days so devastatingly hot that even dogs would lie around on the asphalt, panting.

In fact the ancient Greeks thought of theconstellation Canis Major as a dog chasing Lepus, the hare. The star Sirius is the dog’s nose: the Greeks called it the “dog star.”

To the Greeks and Romans, the “dog days” occurred around the day when Sirius appeared to rise just before the sun, in late July. They referred to these days as the hottest time of the year, a period that could bring fever, or even catastrophe.

Although July and August are generally known as the hottest months of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, the hottest period can vary from year to year. And depending on your latitude, the astronomical dog days can come at different times.

     Until now you learn the reason we call futian as a dog day. I wish you would not be as hot as a dog groveling on the bed panting.