A little seasonal poetry for the wistful leaf-gazers in all of us. 

<h3>Big, scary nature words</h3>
If you're just getting started reading Chinese, don't expect to be able to breeze through this post without checking the dictionary. I say it all the time on this blog, but I'll say it again: even in the simplest posts (the ones that are fun to read, anyway) end up having a word or two from the upper levels of the HSK (the official Chinese proficiency test in the PRC). So, do forgive the three or four words of advanced naturalist vocab, like 芽 [pinyin]ya2[/pinyin] (sprout), 瓣 [pinyin]ban42[/pinyin] (petal), and 土壤 [pinyin]tu3 rang3[/pinyin] - soil. Even an intermediate reader might need to look up those characters. Still, the majority of the characters here are basic enough, so I recommend you approach this post like a little puzzle - see how much you can get without the dictionary, and then go back and look up the complex characters. 

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春天的树上，长出嫩嫩的芽瓣。
夏天的树上，挂满肥肥的叶片。
秋天的树上，树叶涂满鲜红和金黄。
冬天的树下，树叶落地化成土壤。
落叶是大自然的邮票，
把一年四季寄给你，
寄给我，
寄给大家。　

See the <a href="http://www.360doc.com/content/12/0624/17/1764012_220163890.shtml" target="_blank">source</a>.

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Upon the spring trees, tender sprouts and petals shoot forth. 
Upon the summer trees, fat leaves hang full. 
Upon the autumn trees, leaves are painted bright red and gold. 
Beneath the winter trees, the fallen leaves become soil. 
Fallen leaves are nature's postage stamps,
Sending the four seasons of the year to me,
Sending them to you,
Sending them to everyone. 

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