Birthday poem · June 26Summer Solstice, the 10th solar term: the longest day of the year.
Birth character
日 rì · sun
日 is a picture of the sun; it means sun or day.
白日依山盡
“The sun beyond the mountains glows” — Wang Zhihuan, ‘Climbing Stork Tower’
The poem
“As in a Dream” 如夢令
- 常記溪亭日暮I often recall that evening at the creekside pavilion,
- 沉醉不知歸路so drunk we couldn't find the way home.
- 興盡晚回舟Our pleasure spent, we turned the boat back late
- 誤入藕花深處and strayed deep into the lotus flowers.
- 爭渡Row hard!
- 爭渡Row hard!
- 驚起一灘鷗鷺We startled up a whole shoal of gulls and egrets.
Why this poem
Li Qingzhao remembers boating as a girl and drifting deep into the lotus.
This day in the Chinese calendar
Solar term: Summer Solstice.