( via / via )

Masquerade.

"Autumn Comes

For base and noble the same end
When every ambition's won or lost.
Galloping waves urge on the endless night,
Falling dew hurries the brief dawn.
--From Song of the Underworld (Tai k'ao-li hsing) by Pao Chao (414-66)

The wind in the wu-t'ung startles the heart, a lusty man despairs;
Spinners in the fading lamplight cry chill silk.
Who will study a bamboo book still green
And forbid the grubs to bore their powdery holes?
This night's thoughts will surely stretch my guts straight:
Cold in the rain a sweet phantom comes to console the writer.
By the autumn tombs a ghost chants the poem of Pao Chao.
My angry blood for a thousand years will be emeralds under the earth!"

--Li Ho, Goddesses, Ghosts, and Demons (tr J D Frodsham, 1970; 1983)

Before the Rain.

"chat, can you make up a list of names for 'jail' that all alliterate & use a different word for 'jail' each time?"

Not a book i actually wrote. AI imposter? (Here is one i did.)