#sanmao

[heavenlyyshecomes]

There was a street right in front of my house, and beyond that was the endless desert, smooth and soft, full of serene mystery, stretching out all the way to the edge of the sky. It was a yellowish orange colour. I thought the surface of the moon probably looked pretty similar to this place. I loved how the desert was stained red at sunset. Every day as the sun went down, I’d sit on the roof until the sky was totally dark and feel an immense loneliness, out of nowhere, deep in my heart.

—Sanmao, ‘A Knife on a Desert Night,’ in Stories of the Sahara, tr. Mike Fu

[beyourselfchulanmaria]

🎨 浮魚〈母、あるいは〉2015年 松浦 シオリ (まつうら シオリ) b. 1993, Japanese.日本插畫家／日本のイラストレーター／illustrator  

* 

心若沒有棲息的地方，到哪裡都是在流浪。 If your heart has no place to perch on, you will always be a drifter no matter where you are. 

─ 三毛 Sanmao (1943-1991).  my favorite one of Taiwanese author. 

*

[lady-a-white]

He was quite excited, holding a large box in his hands.

I leapt up and ran over in my bare feet to snatch the box from him. ‘It must be flowers!’ I said.

‘How could flowers grow in the desert? Oh, please.’ He seemed a little disappointed at my guess.

I tore feverishly at the wrapping paper and opened the box. Wow! Two eye sockets of a skull stared up at me. I pulled this surprise gift out with some effort and took a proper look. It was a camel skull, white bones neatly assembled, with a huge row of menacing teeth and two big black holes for eyes.

I was overjoyed. This was just the thing to capture my heart. I set it on the bookshelf, clucking and sighing in admiration. ‘Ah, splendid, so splendid.’ José was worthy of being called my soulmate. ‘Where did you dig this up?’ I asked.

‘I went looking for it! Walked around the desert for ages. When I found this intact, I knew you’d love it.’ He was quite proud of himself. It was genuinely the best wedding gift possible.

Stories of the Sahara by Sanmao (tr. Mike Fu)

[lordrawrxe]

the locals call them desert roses

[my-brutal-heart]

[citizen-of-a-floating-world]

"I loved how the desert was stained red at sunset. Every day as the sun went down, I'd sit on the roof until the sky was totally dark and feel an immense loneliness, out of nowhere, deep in my heart."

From Stories of the Sahara by Sanmao

[womenintranslation]

Sanmao’s Footprints: Remembering the Writer on Her 77th Birthday

Taiwanese writer Sanmao inspired generations of Chinese-language readers with Stories of the Sahara, an account of her travels in the Sahara Desert (recently translated into English by Mike Fu). Today, on what would have been Sanmao's seventy-seventh birthday, her niece, Jessica Chen,

[shfanah]

“Every time I thought of you, a grain of sand fell from the sky. Thus the Sahara Desert formed.”

Sanmao