... storyteller of the fading stars.
silk road.
Joined June 2024
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.. they say there is a woman who walks west; she remembers babylon, persia, and the moon over chang’an. if one becomes lost upon the silk road, they need only listen for the sound of a camel bell. her name, they say, is scheherazade.
on particularly cold nights, i think i still hear the sound of camel bells beyond my door. there are those who say she remembers babylon. others insist she has seen the moon above chang’an with her own eyes. such stories belong to scholars and not merchants. as for me,
i am not an orchard. i am not spring. my tears do not resemble rain. the moon is not in my pupil. you have no right to love me as one loves the fantasy of an inaccessible world.
jade gate pass, unknown year,
[if you hear a bell in the desert, do not fear. fear, instead, when you hear nothing at all.]
journal of a guiyi army’s soldier, liangzhou,
[the foreign woman listened quietly as we spoke of chang’an. when i lamented that i would likely never see it again, she said, ‘i understand.’ yet, when asked if she had ever been to chang’an, she merely smiled.]
undated, recovered in dunhuang,
[she speaks persian, aramaic, arabic, sogdian, and chinese with equal ease. when asked where she learned them, she replied, ‘i had time.’]
year 861 CE. near nishapur,
[i met a woman clothed in green who asked me whether the apricot trees still bloomed in persepolis. i informed her persepolis had long since fallen. she appeared saddened, though only for a moment.]
