Birthday poem · April 21Grain Rain, the 6th solar term: more rain, good for the young crops.
Birth character
海 hǎi · sea
海 combines 水 "water" with 每 as a sound element; it means sea.
黃河入海流
“The Yellow River seawards flows.” — Wang Zhihuan, ‘Climbing Stork Tower’
Other dates with this poem: February 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: Grain Rain.