Birthday poem · June 17Grain in Ear, the 9th solar term: wheat harvest and rice planting.
Birth character
香 xiāng · fragrance
香 combines grain with 甘 "sweet"; it first meant the smell of grain, then fragrance.
暗香浮動月黃昏
“A hidden fragrance drifts in the moonlit dusk.” — Lin Bu, ‘Little Plum in the Mountain Garden’
The poem
“Su Mu Zhe” 蘇幕遮
- 燎沉香Burning agarwood incense
- 消溽暑to dispel the muggy heat.
- 鳥雀呼晴Birds call for clear skies,
- 侵曉窺檐語peeping at dawn, chattering under the eaves.
- 葉上初陽乾宿雨On the leaves the first sun dries last night's rain;
- 水面清圓on the water, clear and round,
- 一一風荷舉one by one, the lotus leaves lift in the wind.
Why this poem
Zhou Bangyan on a summer morning: lotus leaves standing up in the wind after rain.
This day in the Chinese calendar
Solar term: Grain in Ear.