Birthday poem · August 23End of Heat, the 14th solar term: the summer heat eases.

Birthday poem card for August 23: “Quiet Night Thoughts” by Li Bai. Birth character 望, gaze, hope.
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Birth character

望 wàng · gaze, hope

望 means to look into the distance, and also to hope.

舉頭望明月
“Looking up, I find the moon bright” — Li Bai, ‘Quiet Night Thoughts’

Other dates with this poem: October 22

The poem

“Quiet Night Thoughts” 靜夜思

  1. 床前明月光chuáng qián míng yuè guāngBefore my bed a pool of light—
  2. 疑是地上霜yí shì dì shàng shuāngIs it hoarfrost upon the ground?
  3. 舉頭望明月jǔ tóu wàng míng yuèLooking up, I find the moon bright;
  4. 低頭思故鄕dī tóu sī gù xiāngBowing, in homesickness I'm drowned.

Li Bai 李白 · Tang dynasty · 701–762 · five-character verse

English translation by Poetune.

Read “Quiet Night Thoughts” in full, with notes →

Why this poem

Li Bai's "Quiet Night Thoughts": moonlight like frost, and homesickness.

This day in the Chinese calendar

Solar term: End of Heat.

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