A Curse upon the Rats呪鼠文
1Preface
予家素不蓄貓。故群鼠橫恣。於是疾而呪之。
In my house I have never kept a cat. And so the rats have run riot as they pleased. Hating them for it, I lay this curse upon them.
Interlinear notes 1
幷序
The preface is taken in together with it.
惟人之宅。翁媼作尊。挾而輔之。各有司存。司烹飪者赤脚。司廝牧者崑崙。下至六畜。職各區分。馬司代勞。載驅載馳。牛司引重。或耕于菑。鷄以鳴司晨。犬以吠司門。咸以所職。惟主家是裨。問之衆鼠。爾有何司。孰以汝爲畜。從何產而滋。穿窬盜竊。獨爾攸知。凡曰寇盜。自外來思。汝何處于內。反害主家爲。多作戶竇。側入旁出。伺暗狂蹂。終夜窣窣。寢益橫恣。公行白日。自房歸廚。自堂徂室。凡獻佛之具。與事神之物。汝轍先嘗。蔑神無佛。以能穴堅。善入函櫝。以常穿突。煙生隈曲。飮食之是盜。汝亦營口腹。何故噬衣裳。片段不成服。何故齕絲頭。使不就羅縠。制爾者貓。我豈不畜。性本于慈。不忍加毒。略不德我。奔突抵觸。喩爾懲且悔。疾走避我屋。不然放獰貓。一日屠爾族。貓吻塗爾膏。貓腹葬爾肉。雖欲復活。命不可贖。速去速去。急急如律令。
In a man's household the old master and his wife are the honored ones, and among those who attend and assist them each has an assigned place. The one charged with boiling and cooking is the maidservant; the one charged with gathering wood and tending the animals is the manservant. Down to the six kinds of livestock, the duties are each divided out. The horse is charged with taking over the hard labor, being driven and being made to run; the ox is charged with hauling heavy things, and sometimes with plowing the fallow fields. The cock takes charge of the dawn by crowing, and the dog takes charge of the gate by barking. All of them, by what is charged to them, do nothing but help the master's house.
I ask you, rats: what duty have you? Who made you livestock, and where were you born to multiply so? Boring through, climbing over, and stealing — that alone is what you know. A thief, as a rule, is something that comes from outside; how is it that you live within and yet harm the master's house? You make many doors and holes, going in at the side and coming out at the flank; you watch for the dark to trample about as though mad, and you rustle the whole night through. More and more you run riot, going about brazenly even in broad daylight, from the room to the kitchen and from the hall to the room. Whatever is offered to the Buddha and whatever serves the spirits, you taste first without a thought — which is to slight the spirits and to make nothing of the Buddha.
Because you can gnaw through what is hard, you get easily into chests and cabinets; because you are forever boring and butting, smoke rises in the crooked places. Stealing food one might call your way of providing for mouth and belly; but for what reason do you bite clothes to shreds so that they cannot be made into clothes, and for what reason do you gnaw the ends of the thread so that it cannot be made into silk? What keeps you in check is the cat — and how should I be unable to keep one? It is only that my nature is kindly by birth and I could not bear to be so cruel. Yet you are not in the least grateful to me, and still you dash about and butt. I tell you this to chastise you and make you repent: run quickly and quit my house. If you do not, I shall loose a fierce cat and in one morning slaughter your whole kind. Your fat will be smeared on the cat's mouth and your flesh buried in the cat's belly, and though you then wish to live again, you will not be able to buy back your lives. Go at once, go at once — quickly, as the statutes command.