Birthday poem · May 17Start of Summer, the 7th solar term: summer begins.

Birthday poem card for May 17: “Clearing at Dusk” by Li Shangyin. Birth character 晴, clear sky.

Birth character

晴 qíng · clear sky

晴 combines 日 "sun" with 青 as a sound element; it means the sky clearing after rain.

晴空一鶴排雲上
“On a fine day a crane cleaves the clouds and soars high” — Liu Yuxi, ‘Autumn Song’

Other dates with this poem: July 25

The poem

“Clearing at Dusk” 晚晴

  1. 天意憐幽草Heaven takes pity on the hidden grass;
  2. 人間重晚晴the world holds dear the clear sky at evening.

Li Shangyin 李商隱 · Tang dynasty · c. 813–858 · five-character verse · excerpt

English translation by Poetune.

Why this poem

"Heaven pities the hidden grass; people prize clear evenings": a summer evening clearing after rain.

This day in the Chinese calendar

Solar term: Start of Summer.

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