Birthday poem · March 16Awakening of Insects, the 3rd solar term: the first thunder; insects stir.
Birth character
綠 lǜ · green
綠 combines 糸 "silk" with a sound element; it first meant green-dyed silk, then green.
萬條垂下綠絲絛
“A thousand branches droop like fringes made of jade.” — He Zhizhang, ‘Ode to the Willow’
The poem
“At Xu's Inn in Xinshi” 宿新市徐公店
- 籬落疏疏一徑深A sparse hedge, a single path running deep;
- 樹頭新綠未成陰the new green on the trees hasn't yet made shade.
- 兒童急走追黃蝶The children run and chase a yellow butterfly —
- 飛入菜花無處尋it flies into the rapeseed flowers and can't be found.
Why this poem
Yang Wanli on children chasing a yellow butterfly into rapeseed flowers.
This day in the Chinese calendar
Solar term: Awakening of Insects.