This is the fourth time I am in Hong Kong international airport this month. The first two times visiting Hong Kong, the other two transfers through.

From international arrival at the lower level, one has to go through a security check before being let back to the departure gates in the middle level. Above that, is another floor, carved into amorphous shape, floating in air. Cafes, bars and restaurants are scattered around, so are ample comfortable sittings. A decent place to hang out given the fact that this is an airport.

I am returning from San Francisco back to Shanghai,  after a week long conference. This particular transfer is two hours and half long, at eight at night Hong Kong time,  two in the morning San Francisco time, I was sitting behind a 13 hour intercontinental flight after a weeks of average three hour sleep per night.

Right now, I am probably at the epicenter of half in and half out, transferring from west to east, from day to night, and from a professional pursuit to a family life. The signs around me are in both English and Chinese (this is Hong Kong, everything is bilingual), my thoughts are mixed at work and at home, and my minds are tangled by… the world.

I sat down and took notes of a poem I saw in the San Francisco airport - the SF airport, not surprisingly, is artful and has quite a few large-scale painting here and there.

Rowing in Eden – Ah, the sea! Might I but moor – tonight – in thee!

去者日以疏， 来者日以亲。

The painting was in blue. A big hand is putting down paper boats on a large body of blue, each boat has a poem written on it, in a different language. There are maybe ten boats there. I can only recognize the two poems in Chinese and English, neither of which I totally understand.  I feel a bit sad reading the Chinese one, and maybe a stream of romance reading the English one. They don’t sound stupid, so I wrote them down.