MCLC: Li Cheng'en poem (1)

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: A. E. Clark <aec at raggedbanner.com>
Subject: Li Cheng'en poem (1)
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A pleasing translation, Mr. Winter: thank you for sharing it.  And I'm
glad you thought of Woeser!

Of Li's poem, you ask, "But why would you call on the mud to hold [your
flesh] for you?" 

The phrase occurs in the speech of the ghosts, does it not?  They have
given up almost all the aspects of their corporeality, lending (or
leaving) them to the material universe with the hope of reclaiming them
someday. If at death they were buried, they would indeed have given their
flesh to the mud for safekeeping.

I am intrigued by the twist at the end:  it seems that as the ghosts have
lost their bodies, the speaker has lost her soul; but she is not sure who
holds it for her and how she can get it back.

Andrew