|
IN a faraway northern county, in the placid, pastoral region,
Lives my farmer friend, the theme of my recitative, a famous Tamer of Oxen:
There they bring him the three-year-olds and the four-year-olds, to break them;
He will take the wildest steer in the world, and break him and tame him;
He will go, fearless, without any whip, where the young bullock chafes up and down the
yard;
The bullock’s head tosses restless high in the air, with raging eyes;
Yet, see you! how soon his rage subsides—how soon this Tamer tames him:
See you! on the farms hereabout, a hundred oxen, young and old—and he is the man who
has
tamed them;
They all know him—all are affectionate to him;
See you! some are such beautiful animals—so lofty looking!
Some are buff color’d—some mottled—one has a white line running along his
back—some are brindled,
Some have wide flaring horns (a good sign)—See you! the bright hides;
See, the two with stars on their foreheads—See, the round bodies and broad backs;
See, how straight and square they stand on their legs—See, what fine, sagacious eyes;
See, how they watch their Tamer—they wish him near them—how they turn to look
after
him!
What yearning expression! how uneasy they are when he moves away from them:
—Now I marvel what it can be he appears to them, (books, politics, poems
depart—all
else departs;)
I confess I envy only his fascination—my silent, illiterate friend,
Whom a hundred oxen love, there in his life on farms,
In the northern county far, in the placid, pastoral region.
|
Comments
I happily comment and wonder why no one has done this yet -
This is the year of the Ox in the Chinese Zodiac -
Maybe they appreciate nature more and their faithful helpers in toiling the soil, carting the loads, delivering even in death so much that can be used -
The meat, the hide, the horn, the bone -
So different from the crushed and compacted mountains of waste of cars -
So different in faithfulness, loyalty and pursuit of work - literally through thick and thin
Maybe the Chinese have not forgotten the true friends of man
the animals - and amongst them one of the most useful ones -
the OX
PS
Send it out to Asian friends for New Year's greetings in the Year of the OX
Nothing to waste not li
Phillips from United Kingdom