Birthday poem · February 15Start of Spring, the 1st solar term: spring begins in the traditional calendar.
Birth character
明 míng · bright
明 puts 日 "sun" beside 月 "moon"; it means bright.
明月松間照
“Bright moon shines through the pines” — Wang Wei, ‘Autumn Evening in the Mountains’
The poem
“Farewell in the Mountains” 山中送別
- 山中相送罷In the mountains, I have seen you off;
- 日暮掩柴扉at sunset I close my brushwood gate.
- 春草明年綠Next year the spring grass will be green again —
- 王孫歸不歸will you, my friend, come back or not?
Why this poem
Wang Wei sees a friend off and asks if he will return when the grass is green.
This day in the Chinese calendar
Solar term: Start of Spring.