Birthday poem · March 17Awakening of Insects, the 3rd solar term: the first thunder; insects stir.

Birthday poem card for March 17: “After the Rain” by Wang Jia. Birth character 春, spring.

Birth character

春 chūn · spring

春 shows plants sprouting under the sun; it means spring.

春眠不覺曉
“This spring morning in bed I'm lying” — Meng Haoran, ‘Spring Dawn’

The poem

“After the Rain” 雨晴

  1. 雨前初見花間蕊Before the rain I saw the first buds among the flowers;
  2. 雨後兼無葉裏花after the rain, not even a flower among the leaves.
  3. 蛺蝶飛來過牆去Butterflies fly over and cross the wall —
  4. 却疑春色在鄰家I suspect the spring is now at the neighbour's.

Wang Jia 王駕 · Tang dynasty · 851–? · seven-character verse

English translation by Poetune.

Why this poem

Wang Jia: after rain the flowers are gone and butterflies cross the wall, as if spring moved next door.

This day in the Chinese calendar

Solar term: Awakening of Insects.

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