Birthday poem · June 3Grain Buds, the 8th solar term: wheat and barley begin to fill.
Birth character
新 xīn · new
新 first meant cutting wood with an axe; it was borrowed to mean new.
客舍青青柳色新
“The willows by the tavern look so fresh and green.” — Wang Wei, ‘Farewell to Yuan Er on His Mission to Anxi’
Other dates with this poem: October 4
The poem
“A Little Girl” 幼女詞
- 幼女纔六歲The little girl is just six years old,
- 未知巧與拙she doesn't yet know clever from clumsy.
- 向夜在堂前At nightfall, before the hall,
- 學人拜新月she copies grown-ups, bowing to the new moon.
Why this poem
Shi Jianwu on a six-year-old girl copying adults bowing to the new moon.
This day in the Chinese calendar
Solar term: Grain Buds.