Birthday poem · February 11Start of Spring, the 1st solar term: spring begins in the traditional calendar.
Birth character
酒 jiǔ · wine
酒 puts 水 "water" beside 酉, a wine jar; it means wine.
勸君更盡一杯酒
“I urge you to drink another cup of wine again” — Wang Wei, ‘Farewell to Yuan Er on His Mission to Anxi’
The poem
“Song of Youth” 少年行
- 五陵年少金市東Young men of Wuling, east of the Golden Market,
- 銀鞍白馬度春風silver saddles on white horses, riding through the spring wind.
- 落花踏盡遊何處Having trampled all the fallen petals, where do they go?
- 笑入胡姬酒肆中Laughing, into the tavern of a foreign beauty.
Why this poem
Li Bai on rich young men riding out in spring.
This day in the Chinese calendar
Solar term: Start of Spring.