Birthday poem · January 16Minor Cold, the 23rd solar term: the weather turns colder.
Birth character
江 jiāng · river
江 combines 水 "water" with 工 as a sound element; it once meant the Yangtze.
唯見長江天際流
“Where I see but the endless River rolling by.” — Li Bai, ‘Farewell to Meng Haoran at Yellow Crane Tower’
The poem
“For Fan Ye” 贈范曄
- 折花逢驛使Picking flowers, I met the courier
- 寄與隴頭人and sent them to you at Longtou.
- 江南無所有In the south I have nothing much —
- 聊贈一枝春so I give you a branch of spring.
Why this poem
Lu Kai sends a friend a plum branch: "a sprig of spring".
This day in the Chinese calendar
Solar term: Minor Cold.