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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.
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)
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