The Sacred Clan Jacqueline Saphra Turning on the drawn-out thread

Turning on the drawn-out thread of a relationship in freefall

At times purely physical

Translated by Hubert Moore and Nasrin Parvez

and special places of Ireland (Inishfallen

Allen Fisher

The Sacred Clan Jacqueline Saphra Turning on the drawn-out threadWu Township is hollowing out. Our most capable sons and daughters have long since uprooted from their birthplace on the central plains to fuel Chinas economic miracle. The ancient trees now sit in the shade of a modern aqueduct, funnelling even our precious water to the metropolises beyond. From the marketplace where gossip is traded to the long abandoned execution grounds, ordinary life carries on. For we who remain, feuds between neighbours compound