Birthday poem · September 10White Dew, the 15th solar term: nights cool and dew forms on the grass.
Birth character
鏡 jìng · mirror
鏡 combines 金 "metal" with 竟 as a sound element; old mirrors were polished bronze.
潭面無風鏡未磨
“The windless water is a mirror not yet polished.” — Liu Yuxi, ‘Gazing at Dongting’
Other dates with this poem: June 12
The poem
“Song of the Bright Moon” 古朗月行
- 小時不識月When I was small I didn't know the moon;
- 呼作白玉盤I called it a white jade plate.
- 又疑瑤臺鏡Or I thought it was a mirror from the Jade Terrace,
- 飛在青雲端flying at the edge of the blue clouds.
Why this poem
Li Bai remembers calling the moon a white jade plate as a child.
This day in the Chinese calendar
Solar term: White Dew.