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By Noam Backner

A Requiem for a Donkey

The great poet Wang Can found a strange beauty in the braying of donkeys.

A donkey's requiem.
A donkey's requiem.

The great poet Wang Can had a peculiar fondness for the braying of donkeys. At his funeral, Emperor Cao Pi turned to the assembled mourners and said, "Wang loved the sound of a donkey’s call. Shall we each, then, let out a single bray to send him on his way?" And so, every one of the mourners raised their voice in a bray.

(Translated by the late Dan Daor)

A donkey's requiem.

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