Birthday poem · January 26Major Cold, the 24th solar term: the coldest time of the year.

Birthday poem card for January 26: “Snow at Hibiscus Mountain” by Liu Changqing. Birth character 門, gate.

Birth character

門 mén · gate

門 is a picture of a two-leaf gate.

拄杖無時夜叩門
“I will tap at your gate with my staff at any hour of night.” — Lu You, ‘Visiting a Village West of the Mountains’

Other dates with this poem: November 27

The poem

“Snow at Hibiscus Mountain” 逢雪宿芙蓉山主人

  1. 日暮蒼山遠At dusk the blue mountains seem far away;
  2. 天寒白屋貧in the cold, the white-thatched hut looks poor.
  3. 柴門聞犬吠At the brushwood gate I hear a dog bark —
  4. 風雪夜歸人someone coming home through the wind and snow.

Liu Changqing 劉長卿 · Tang dynasty · c. 709–789 · five-character verse

English translation by Poetune.

Why this poem

Lodging at a mountain house on a snowy night, hearing a dog bark at the gate. A winter poem.

This day in the Chinese calendar

Solar term: Major Cold.

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