Birthday poem · May 3Grain Rain, the 6th solar term: more rain, good for the young crops.
Birth character
和 hé · harmony
和 first meant voices answering each other; it came to mean harmony.
湖光秋月兩相和
“The lake's sheen and the autumn moon blend as one” — Liu Yuxi, ‘Gazing at Dongting’
The poem
“Bu Suan Zi: Farewell” 卜算子
- 水是眼波橫The water is the sideways glance of her eyes;
- 山是眉峰聚the hills are her gathered brows.
- 欲問行人去那邊You ask where the traveller is going —
- 眉眼盈盈處to where those eyes and brows are brimming.
- 若到江南趕上春If you reach the south in time to catch the spring,
- 千萬和春住by all means stay there with the spring.
Why this poem
Wang Guan sees a friend off to the south, comparing hills and rivers to eyes and brows.
This day in the Chinese calendar
Solar term: Grain Rain.