Birthday poem · October 23Frost’s Descent, the 18th solar term: the first frosts.
Birth character
綠 lǜ · green
綠 combines 糸 "silk" with a sound element; it first meant green-dyed silk, then green.
萬條垂下綠絲絛
“A thousand branches droop like fringes made of jade.” — He Zhizhang, ‘Ode to the Willow’
The poem
“Sent to Xianyou Temple” 送王十八歸山寄題仙遊寺
- 林間暖酒燒紅葉In the woods we warmed wine by burning red leaves;
- 石上題詩掃綠苔on the rocks we wrote poems, sweeping off the green moss.
Why this poem
Bai Juyi recalls warming wine over burning red leaves in the woods. Late autumn.
This day in the Chinese calendar
Solar term: Frost’s Descent.