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  • Headscarf
  • Jidi Majia

In the Nuosu region on Daliang Mountain, men customarilygive women a shawl as a token of their love.

A man gave a shawlto the woman he lovedThis woman was really luckybecause she was able tomarry the man she truly lovedShe loved him in the morningShe loved him in the eveningThe years passed quietlyand as long as she saw the shawlall her sweet memories returned

A man gave a shawlto the woman he lovedBut the woman’s parentsforced her to marrysomeone she’d never metFrom then on, she shed many tearsFrom then on, she had many dreamsAnd so she could only use the shawlto wipe the dust in her dreams

A man gave a shawlto the woman he lovedBut maybe because of windmaybe because of rainor maybe because of a giant mountain torrentthey lost touch with each otherAnd so after many yearswhen the woman suddenly ran into the manat a market fair crossingthey were both silentNeither wanted to speak of the pastThey were each leading their own childrenby the hand

A man gave a shawlto the woman he lovedPerhaps because of a distant clap of thunderor because of an early summer chillthe woman went off with a man from another village [End Page 9]

She wanted to wait and then return on a midsummer eveningbut when she returned, it was already a winter morningFrom then on she could only wait for moonlit nightsand count the patterns on that shawl

A man gave a shawlto the woman he lovedbut it was for an eternal waitingthe sky said he would betray herthe earth said he would betray herIn fact, there were two opposite shoreseven though there once had been a boatmurmuring when awakemurmuring when asleepThe woman eventually diedand the people in the funeral processiondiscovered the shawlamong her remaining valuablesBut no one took an interestand no one knew its storyAnd so they just used the shawlto cover her pale faceand, together with her curled-up body,it burned to ash in the mountain plains

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