Birthday poem · May 20Grain Buds, the 8th solar term: wheat and barley begin to fill.
Birth character
門 mén · gate
門 is a picture of a two-leaf gate.
拄杖無時夜叩門
“I will tap at your gate with my staff at any hour of night.” — Lu You, ‘Visiting a Village West of the Mountains’
Other dates with this poem: July 28
The poem
“Seeking Cool on a Summer Night” 夏夜追涼
- 夜熱依然午熱同At night the heat is still the same as at noon;
- 開門小立月明中I open the door and stand a while in the moonlight.
- 竹深樹密蟲鳴處Where the bamboo is deep and the trees dense and insects sing,
- 時有微涼不是風now and then comes a faint coolness — and it isn't the wind.
Why this poem
Yang Wanli on a hot summer night, finding a little cool deep in the bamboo.
This day in the Chinese calendar
Solar term: Grain Buds.