Birthday poem · October 22Cold Dew, the 17th solar term: temperatures drop and the dew turns cold.

Birthday poem card for October 22: “Quiet Night Thoughts” by Li Bai. Birth character 月, moon.

Birth character

月 yuè · moon

月 is a picture of a crescent moon.

舉頭望明月
“Looking up, I find the moon bright” — Li Bai, ‘Quiet Night Thoughts’

Other dates with this poem: August 23

The poem

“Quiet Night Thoughts” 靜夜思

  1. 床前明月光chuáng qián míng yuè guāngBefore my bed a pool of light—
  2. 疑是地上霜yí shì dì shàng shuāngIs it hoarfrost upon the ground?
  3. 舉頭望明月jǔ tóu wàng míng yuèLooking up, I find the moon bright;
  4. 低頭思故鄕dī tóu sī gù xiāngBowing, in homesickness I'm drowned.

Li Bai 李白 · Tang dynasty · 701–762 · five-character verse

English translation by Poetune.

Read “Quiet Night Thoughts” in full, with notes →

Why this poem

Li Bai's "Quiet Night Thoughts": moonlight like frost, and homesickness.

This day in the Chinese calendar

Solar term: Cold Dew.

Make a card for someone

Add a name and a short message to this card

Your text is turned into an image on this screen only. Nothing is sent anywhere.