Birthday poem · May 5Start of Summer, the 7th solar term: summer begins.
Birth character
明 míng · bright
明 puts 日 "sun" beside 月 "moon"; it means bright.
明月松間照
“Bright moon shines through the pines” — Wang Wei, ‘Autumn Evening in the Mountains’
The poem
“Silk-Washing Stream: Dragon Boat Festival” 浣溪沙
- 輕汗微微透碧紈A light sweat seeps through her blue silk;
- 明朝端午浴芳蘭tomorrow is Duanwu, a bath in fragrant orchids.
- 流香漲膩滿晴川Fragrant water fills the sunny river;
- 彩線輕纏紅玉臂coloured threads wound lightly on her red-jade arm,
- 小符斜掛綠雲鬟a little charm hung aslant in her cloud of hair —
- 佳人相見一千年may we meet like this for a thousand years.
Why this poem
Su Shi on the eve of the Dragon Boat Festival: orchid baths and coloured threads.
This day in the Chinese calendar
Solar term: Start of Summer.