Birthday poem · January 13Minor Cold, the 23rd solar term: the weather turns colder.

Birthday poem card for January 13: “Seeing Off Censor Chai” by Wang Changling. Birth character 明, bright.

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’

Other dates with this poem: September 4

The poem

“Seeing Off Censor Chai” 送柴侍御

  1. 沅水通波接武岡The Yuan River's waves flow on to Wugang;
  2. 送君不覺有離傷seeing you off, I feel no pain of parting.
  3. 青山一道同雲雨One line of blue hills shares the same cloud and rain;
  4. 明月何曾是兩鄕when was the bright moon ever two places apart?

Wang Changling 王昌齡 · Tang dynasty · c. 698–757 · seven-character verse

English translation by Poetune.

Why this poem

Wang Changling sees a friend off: both places share one moon.

This day in the Chinese calendar

Solar term: Minor Cold.

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