Birthday poem · July 19Minor Heat, the 11th solar term: the heat begins.
Birth character
遠 yuǎn · far
遠 combines a "walking" element with 袁 as a sound element; it means far.
遠上寒山石徑斜
“I go up a slanting stony path to the cold hill” — Du Mu, ‘Mountain Walk’
Other dates with this poem: May 14
The poem
“Cicada” 蝉
- 垂緌飲清露Its tassels hanging, it drinks the clear dew;
- 流響出疏桐its flowing song comes from the sparse paulownia.
- 居高聲自遠High up, its voice carries far on its own —
- 非是藉秋風it doesn't need to borrow the autumn wind.
Why this poem
Yu Shinan on the cicada: its voice carries because it sits high, not because of the wind.
This day in the Chinese calendar
Solar term: Minor Heat.