Birthday poem · June 1Grain Buds, the 8th solar term: wheat and barley begin to fill.

Birthday poem card for June 1: “River Village” by Du Fu. Birth character 水, water.

Birth character

水 shuǐ · water

水 is a picture of flowing water.

爲有源頭活水來
“Because fresh water flows in from the source unseen.” — Zhu Xi, ‘Thoughts on Reading’

Other dates with this poem: August 13

The poem

“River Village” 江村

  1. 清江一曲抱村流A bend of the clear river hugs the village as it flows;
  2. 長夏江村事事幽in the long summer, everything in the river village is quiet.
  3. 自去自來堂上燕The swallows on the beams come and go as they please;
  4. 相親相近水中鷗the gulls on the water stay close and friendly.

Du Fu 杜甫 · Tang dynasty · 712–770 · seven-character verse · excerpt

English translation by Poetune.

Why this poem

Du Fu on a river village in summer: swallows come and go, gulls stay close.

This day in the Chinese calendar

Solar term: Grain Buds.

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