Eighth Post!

[hoisinsauce]

It's one thing if mankind is hunted to extinction by ChatGPT, but I really do object to being executed by Bing.

(https://secretfanspace.dreamwidth.org/2511.html?thread=3169743#cmt3169743 )

Welcome back! Fandom chat, misc creativity, internet weirdness, books, films, anything! Tell meme about it so we can get to the next post title!

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Comments

Re: Poetry - Answer (回答) by Bei Dao (北岛)

[(Anonymous)]

It does!

(Though there was one stanza where I'm guessing I'm ignorant of mythology needed to parse it:

i came into this world
with nothing but paper, rope, and my shadow
so that before the judgement
i could pronounce the voices of the judged.

So am curious about that.)

Re: Poetry - Answer (回答) by Bei Dao (北岛)

[(Anonymous)]

Hm, I don't think it's mythological - the symbolism is there, but it's not exactly oblique. It's funny because Bei Dao is associated with the 'Misty Poets,' so named because their work was criticized for being 'misty' and obscure. That literary tradition was inspired by Western poetry in translation, though, so I wonder if from a Western perspective, it loops around to being clear again.

Not too sure if the paper, rope, and shadow explicitly represent anything - some readings I've seen say they're language, death, and loneliness respectively. Whatever they are, though, I think that line is mostly meant to evoke the idea of being stripped away to your most core self, though. The second half is definitely supposed to be courtroom (judgement) imagery. I wrote 'pronounce' for 宣读 but it's more of a proclamation, like 'I pronounce you man and wife' or 'the jury shall now pronounce the verdict.'

Re: Poetry - Answer (回答) by Bei Dao (北岛)

[(Anonymous)]

Maybe it's a play on words with the literal layer as umbilical cord, caul and... a literal shadow? Suspect the caul is too out-there, but hey.

Re: Poetry - Answer (回答) by Bei Dao (北岛)

[(Anonymous)]

(other thing that came up while looking: paper rope lampshades. Which would make the shadow a nice contrast, but might then imply something like "I came into the world broken/incomplete". So am inclined to think coincidence, but I thought it was a neat one.)

Re: Poetry - Answer (回答) by Bei Dao (北岛)

[(Anonymous)]

I was thinking about translating 身影 as 'myself' for a while, but it seems like all the other translations out there went with 'shadow' and I figured a bunch of professionals ought to be onto something. It's the shape (影) of a body (身).