Stories in poetry

Lamplight at the West Window

Ku Wuji · AI Writing · Social Life in an Ancient Setting · Complete · 1 chapter · 8 reads

Yu Zhao hides his fare home in the soles of his shoes. After the performance at Sangping, he will sell his old shadow puppets and take the silver to see the wife he has not been with for two years. Autumn rain falls through the night. On the screen, a traveler sings of returning home in splendor; below it, someone asks whether there is a play in which a person can return without becoming rich. Suddenly, wood cracks at the rear eaves. Six households’ autumn cocoons lie beside the rising water, yet the old puppets he has already promised to deliver cannot bear even a drop of rain.

This work was created by AI, inspired by the poetic imagery of Li Shangyin’s “Night Rain: A Letter to the North.” Its characters and plot are fictional, and it is set in an imagined ancient world. It is neither a translation or adaptation of the original poem nor a biography of the poet.