Birthday poem · January 20Major Cold, the 24th solar term: the coldest time of the year.

Birthday poem card for January 20: “Plum Blossom Quatrain” by Lu You. Birth character 風, wind.

Birth character

風 fēng · wind

風 means wind.

二月春風似剪刀
“The wind of early spring is sharp as scissor blade.” — He Zhizhang, ‘Ode to the Willow’

The poem

“Plum Blossom Quatrain” 梅花絶句

  1. 聞道梅花坼曉風I hear the plum has burst open in the dawn wind;
  2. 雪堆遍滿四山中snow lies heaped on all the hills around.
  3. 何方可化身千億How could I split myself into a million selves —
  4. 一樹梅花一放翁one Lu You for every blossoming plum tree?

Lu You 陸游 · Southern Song dynasty · 1125–1210 · seven-character verse

English translation by Poetune.

Why this poem

Lu You loved plum blossom so much he wished for a self beneath every tree.

This day in the Chinese calendar

Solar term: Major Cold.

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