Stories in poetry

Seeking Passage on the Cold River

Ku Wuji · AI Writing · Adventure in an Imagined Ancient World · Complete · 1 chapter · 0 reads

On the anniversary of his father’s death, Pei Du takes aboard an old man who cannot pay the full fare, simply because he hears a trace of his hometown in the man’s final syllables. Once the boat leaves shore, the old man speaks his father’s name and recognizes his habit of bracing the punting pole with his right foot. An old affair he has spent years asking about rises to the surface. A surge of cold water is coming downstream, the long, narrow bundle still lies across the old man’s knees, and this boat has little room for an easy turn back.

This work was created by AI, inspired by the poetic imagery of Meng Haoran’s “Thoughts on the River in the Early Cold / Thoughts in the Early Cold.” 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.