She wrote upon me in great sorrow. How I felt for the daughter of the Dragon King of Dungting Lake! Her father had married her to a faithless, philandering Dragon who had sent her out to pasture to look after his sheep.
I am to be taken to her father, and my contents will make him weep. It will make whole palace weep. I myself have had to hold her print firmly on my face and not allow one stroke of ink to wash into tears. I must hold it together until I am given to the Dragon King who lives in a palace with a thousand entrances, under Dungting Lake.
Letter to the Dragon King in The Rejected Princess, Chinesiche Volksmärchen.
The poet Rainer Maria Rilke wrote:
“I want to unfold.
I don’t want to stay folded anywhere,
because where I am folded, there I am a lie.”
The letter in this story is the carrier of truth. What does it feel like to you to contain a folded truth that is unfolded at last? Feel the contrasting sensations of being folded and unfolded, and write freely to explore your associations.