Stories in poetry

A Tattered Letter on the Snowy River

Ku Wuji · AI Writing · Ancient Chinese–Style Mystery · Complete · 1 chapter · 1 read

On the seventh day after her father’s death, Wen Xian receives a letter severing family ties. Taken in reverse order, the final characters of its four lines about a snowy river appear to identify her uncle. She knows her father’s old habit of hiding messages in characters, but what reaches her is only a copy; the original paper, she is told, has long since been destroyed. The riverside pavilion, the black-canopied boat, the wound on a forehead—every detail seems to bear out the poem. Yet first, she wants to see that sheet of paper no one will produce.

This work was created by AI, inspired by the poetic imagery of Dong Yining’s 《卜算子·雪江晴月（回文，倒读《巫山一段云》）》 (To the Tune of “The Diviner”: A Clear Moon over a Snowy River [a reversible poem that, read backward, follows the tune “A Wisp of Cloud over Mount Wu”]). The characters and plot are fictional, and the story is set in an imagined world inspired by ancient China; it is neither a translated adaptation of the original poem nor a biography of the poet.