The Rainbow has Hiden

By Xu Chang (Tang Dynasty)

Minor Snow comes with the winter,

The rainbow hides itself at this season.

The white and pure clouds are formed,

The stars in the sky shine as in summer.

The rainbow is incomparable When birds fly around it, what an auspicious sign.

Now the gully has no more sunshine,

The river in heaven loses its colorful bridge.

The morning rain falls thick and fast

In the evening, the sun is barely seen in the mist.

The weather changes as the solar terms goes,

For the latter has been through a long history.

About the poet: Xu lacked a distinctive style and so was not well-known during the Tang Dynasty, which was filled with famous poets, or quite a long time after it. There are only five poems of his collected in The Entire Tang Poems. And all we have known about him is only that he was an advanced scholar during the reign of the Dezhong Emperor in Tang Dynasty. This poem is written for the Minor Snow solar term with simple words and rich imagination.