Birthday poem · April 19Grain Rain, the 6th solar term: more rain, good for the young crops.
Birth character
江 jiāng · river
江 combines 水 "water" with 工 as a sound element; it once meant the Yangtze.
唯見長江天際流
“Where I see but the endless River rolling by.” — Li Bai, ‘Farewell to Meng Haoran at Yellow Crane Tower’
The poem
“Thoughts on Reading II” 觀書有感 其二
- 昨夜江邊春水生Last night by the river the spring water rose;
- 艨艟巨艦一毛輕the huge warship is now light as a feather.
- 向來枉費推移力All that effort spent trying to push it before —
- 此日中流自在行today it moves freely in midstream.
Why this poem
Zhu Xi: spring floods float a huge ship, like understanding that comes suddenly.
This day in the Chinese calendar
Solar term: Grain Rain.