Birthday poem · October 29Frost’s Descent, the 18th solar term: the first frosts.
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: August 30
The poem
“Autumn View in Chang'an” 長安秋望
- 樓倚霜樹外The tower leans beyond the frost-touched trees;
- 鏡天無一毫the mirror of the sky has not a single speck.
- 南山與秋色The Southern Mountains and the autumn colours
- 氣勢兩相高rise up together, each as lofty as the other.
Why this poem
Du Mu on Chang'an's clear autumn sky and the Zhongnan mountains.
This day in the Chinese calendar
Solar term: Frost’s Descent.