Birthday poem · August 20Start of Autumn, the 13th solar term: autumn begins in the traditional calendar.
Birth character
碧 bì · jade-green
碧 first meant a fine blue-green stone; it came to mean blue-green.
孤帆遠影碧空盡
“His lessening sail is lost in the boundless blue sky” — Li Bai, ‘Farewell to Meng Haoran at Yellow Crane Tower’
Other dates with this poem: December 19
The poem
“Gazing at Tianmen Mountain” 望天門山
- 天門中斷楚江開Tianmen splits in two where the Chu River breaks through;
- 碧水東流至此回the blue water flows east and swirls back here.
- 兩岸青山相對出Green hills on either bank rise up to face each other;
- 孤帆一片日邊來one lone sail comes from the edge of the sun.
Why this poem
Li Bai sails past Tianmen Mountain: the river and the green cliffs on both banks.
This day in the Chinese calendar
Solar term: Start of Autumn.