Birthday poem · February 21Rain Water, the 2nd solar term: snow gives way to rain.
Birth character
紅 hóng · red
紅 combines 糸 "silk" with 工 as a sound element; it first meant pink silk, then red.
霜葉紅於二月花
“Frost-bitten leaves look redder than early spring flowers.” — Du Mu, ‘Mountain Walk’
Other dates with this poem: April 21
The poem
“As in a Dream II” 如夢令
- 昨夜雨疏風驟Last night the rain was sparse, the wind was fierce;
- 濃睡不消殘酒deep sleep did not dispel the last of the wine.
- 試問卷簾人I asked the maid rolling up the blind —
- 却道海棠依舊she said the crabapple was just the same.
- 知否Don't you know?
- 知否Don't you know?
- 應是綠肥紅瘦It must be: the green grown plump, the red grown thin.
Why this poem
Li Qingzhao on crab-apple blossom after rain: "the green grows fat, the red grows thin".
This day in the Chinese calendar
Solar term: Rain Water.