Birthday poem · February 12Start of Spring, the 1st solar term: spring begins in the traditional calendar.
Birth character
山 shān · mountain
山 is a picture of three peaks; it means mountain.
只緣身在此山中
“For we are lost in the heart of the very place.” — Su Shi, ‘Written on the Wall at West Forest Temple’
The poem
“Birdsong in the Ravine” 鳥鳴澗
- 人閑桂花落At ease, I watch the osmanthus flowers fall;
- 夜靜春山空the night is still, the spring mountain empty.
- 月出驚山鳥The rising moon startles the mountain birds,
- 時鳴春澗中who call now and then in the spring ravine.
Why this poem
Wang Wei on a quiet spring night in the hills; the rising moon startles the birds.
This day in the Chinese calendar
Solar term: Start of Spring.