Spring, le Printemps, der Frühling

Here in Saskatchewan most of us are impatiently awaiting spring. We’ve had a relatively decent winter but a huge late snowfall in early March extended winter. Though we’ve had some recent very nice days, cooler days and even snow are predicted.

Mark Twain (Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn) said, “In the spring I have counted one hundred and thirty-six different kinds of weather inside of twenty-four hours.”

Being a writer also, I’m always fascinated by words and names. The word spring apparently comes from Old English sprinc or spryng, meaning a beginning, and springing forth.

Victor Hugo (Les Miserables, The Hunchback of Notre Dame) wrote, “Winter is on my head, but eternal spring is in my heart; I breathe at this hour the fragrance of the lilacs, the violets, and the roses, as at twenty years ago.”

The French le printemps originates from the Latin primum tempus, later Old French printans from prime tans, meaning first time.

I love Rainer Maria Rilke’s (Letters to a Young Poet, The Book of Images) take on the season: “It is spring again. The earth is like a child that knows poems by heart.”

In German, der Frühling comes from the German word for early – Früh.

L.M. Montgomery (the Anne books) wrote, “Everything is new in the spring. Springs themselves are always so new, too. No spring is ever just like any other spring. It always has something of its own to be its own peculiar sweetness.”

I’ll end with a quote from singer songwriter Connie Kaldor: “Spring in the prairies comes like a surprise. One minute there’s snow on the ground, the next there’s sun in your eyes.”

Note that this photo is not the current view outside my window. The snow is actually gone.

Spring will come.