Yes, that's a great poem. I remember wondering when I first read it (in translation, of course, I'm not good enough to read it in Chinese), if there ever was a deliberate deception. There's nothing explicit in the first part of the poem that she's taking a male identity, only that she's taking her father's place (this may have been something that I'm losing in translation though).
This gives a different reading where it's actually the "ten years" of war which causes the transformation from girl to someone whose comrades take them for a man (and chances are, her comrades changed a lot over those ten years too - many none of those who knew her at the start were even alive by the end).
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2012-03-13 07:51 am (UTC)This gives a different reading where it's actually the "ten years" of war which causes the transformation from girl to someone whose comrades take them for a man (and chances are, her comrades changed a lot over those ten years too - many none of those who knew her at the start were even alive by the end).