Birthday poem · December 3Minor Snow, the 20th solar term: the first snow.
Birth character
香 xiāng · fragrance
香 combines grain with 甘 "sweet"; it first meant the smell of grain, then fragrance.
暗香浮動月黃昏
“A hidden fragrance drifts in the moonlit dusk.” — Lin Bu, ‘Little Plum in the Mountain Garden’
Other dates with this poem: February 1
The poem
“A New Mountain Cottage Below Incense Burner Peak, Written on the East Wall” 香爐峰下新卜山居草堂初成偶題東壁
- 日高睡足猶慵起rì gāo shuì zú yóu yōng qǐThe sun is high, I have slept my fill, yet I am still too lazy to rise;
- 小閣重衾不怕寒xiǎo gé chóng qīn bù pà hánin my small loft under layered quilts, I do not fear the cold.
- 遺愛寺鐘欹枕聽yí ài sì zhōng qī zhěn tīngI listen to the bell of Yi'ai Temple, my pillow propped up;
- 香爐峯雪撥簾看xiāng lú fēng xuě bō lián kànI push aside the blind to look at the snow on Incense Burner Peak.
- 匡廬便是逃名地kuāng lú biàn shì táo míng dìMount Lu is just the place to escape from fame;
- 司馬仍爲送老官sī mǎ réng wéi sòng lǎo guāna marshal's post still serves as an office to grow old in.
- 心泰身寧是歸處xīn tài shēn níng shì guī chùWhere heart is calm and body at peace, that is where I belong —
- 故鄕何獨在長安gù xiāng hé dú zài cháng ānwhy should home be only in Chang'an?
Why this poem
Bai Juyi builds a cottage at Mount Lu: wherever body and mind are at peace is home.
This day in the Chinese calendar
Solar term: Minor Snow.