Birthday poem · July 30Major Heat, the 12th solar term: the hottest time of the year.

Birthday poem card for July 30: “The Pond Behind Qi'an” by Du Mu. Birth character 錦, brocade.

Birth character

錦 jǐn · brocade

錦 combines 帛 "silk" with 金 as a sound element; it means brocade.

花重錦官城
“The town's heavy with blooms.” — Du Fu, ‘Happy Rain on a Spring Night’

Other dates with this poem: May 31

The poem

“The Pond Behind Qi'an” 齊安郡後池絶句

  1. 菱透浮萍綠錦池Water chestnuts push through duckweed on the green brocade pond;
  2. 夏鶯千囀弄薔薇summer orioles trill a thousand times among the roses.
  3. 盡日無人看微雨All day no one watches the fine rain;
  4. 鴛鴦相對浴紅衣a pair of mandarin ducks bathe face to face in red plumage.

Du Mu 杜牧 · Tang dynasty · 803–852 · seven-character verse

English translation by Poetune.

Why this poem

Du Mu on a summer pond: water chestnut leaves, orioles, mandarin ducks in drizzle.

This day in the Chinese calendar

Solar term: Major Heat.

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