Birthday poem · September 1End of Heat, the 14th solar term: the summer heat eases.

Birthday poem card for September 1: “Sitting Alone Facing Jingting Mountain” by Li Bai. Birth character 鳥, bird.

Birth character

鳥 niǎo · bird

鳥 is a picture of a bird.

處處聞啼鳥
“Not to awake till birds are crying.” — Meng Haoran, ‘Spring Dawn’

Other dates with this poem: November 4

The poem

“Sitting Alone Facing Jingting Mountain” 獨坐敬亭山

  1. 衆鳥高飛盡zhòng niǎo gāo fēi jìnAll birds have flown away, so high;
  2. 孤雲獨去閒gū yún dú qù xiánA lonely cloud drifts on, so free.
  3. 相看兩不厭xiāng kàn liǎng bù yànWe are not tired, the Peak and I,
  4. 只有敬亭山zhǐ yǒu jìng tíng shānNor I of him, nor he of me.

Li Bai 李白 · Tang dynasty · 701–762 · five-character verse

English translation by Poetune.

Read “Sitting Alone Facing Jingting Mountain” in full, with notes →

Why this poem

Li Bai alone on Jingting Mountain: the birds and cloud are gone, only the mountain and he remain.

This day in the Chinese calendar

Solar term: End of Heat.

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