Birthday poem · November 16Start of Winter, the 19th solar term: winter begins.

Birthday poem card for November 16: “Viewing the Vast Sea” by Cao Cao. Birth character 星, star.

Birth character

星 xīng · star

星 means a star in the night sky.

坐看牽牛織女星
“She sits and gazes at the Cowherd and the Weaver stars.” — Du Mu, ‘Autumn Evening’

Other dates with this poem: July 15

The poem

“Viewing the Vast Sea” 觀滄海

  1. 日月之行The courses of the sun and moon
  2. 若出其中seem to rise from within it;
  3. 星漢燦爛the brilliant Milky Way
  4. 若出其裏seems to emerge from inside it.

Cao Cao 曹操 · Three Kingdoms (Wei) dynasty · 155–220 · four-character verse · excerpt

English translation by Poetune.

Why this poem

Cao Cao looks at the sea; the sun, moon and stars seem to rise from it.

This day in the Chinese calendar

Solar term: Start of Winter.

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