Birthday poem · July 20Minor Heat, the 11th solar term: the heat begins.
Birth character
望 wàng · gaze, hope
望 means to look into the distance, and also to hope.
舉頭望明月
“Looking up, I find the moon bright” — Li Bai, ‘Quiet Night Thoughts’
Other dates with this poem: May 15
The poem
“Drunk at Lake View Tower” 六月二十七日望湖樓醉書
- 黑雲翻墨未遮山Black clouds spill like ink but have not hidden the hills;
- 白雨跳珠亂入船white rain leaps like pearls, bouncing into the boat.
- 卷地風來忽吹散A wind sweeps over the land and scatters it all —
- 望湖樓下水如天below Lake View Tower, the water is like the sky.
Why this poem
A sudden summer shower over the lake that comes and goes in minutes.
This day in the Chinese calendar
Solar term: Minor Heat.