Two Precious Scroll Narratives of Guanyin and Her ... - Khamkoo

176 The Precious Scroll of Good-in-Talent and Dragon Girl
‘‘It’s too saddening: these evil men are without foundation,
They don’t want to repay a favor, they repay it with a feud.
I pulled the plow and dragged the harrow, heavy as rocks,
But the eight-foot-long hempen whip whipped my back.
If the soil was too heavy or the water too deep to plow,
And my tears would stream down because of my hunger,
They would constantly curse me in language most foul,
With every word they would curse me: ‘You rotten cow!’
My only wish was to rest for a while in the early morning:
‘You don’t do a thing from midnight till the hour of noon!’
When I was hungry and ate of the grass that grows by the field,
All the laborers, old and young, cursed me: ‘You thievish cow!’
All I got to eat throughout the year was only straw, whereas
The rice and grain I helped plant was all harvested by others.
The white rice they harvested was cooked as food and eaten,
The glutinous rice was made into wine to entertain friends.
Millet and rice and cotton flowers—all was provided for,
Beans and wheat and sesame seeds—all were harvested.
But when bringing home a bride or marrying off a daughter,
The first thought if money was short was to sell off the buffalo.
When they saw that I had grown old and lacked strength,
They sold me to the butcher so he could turn me into beef.
I was tightly bound with a hempen rope and hit with an axe,
My skin was flayed, my flesh was cut—what feud did we have?
My tears gushed down as I was totally overcome by pain,
My four legs all facing up to the sky and my life now gone.
When my skin was flayed, it was made into a booming drum,
Which scares Heaven and Earth, distressing ghosts and gods.
I will take revenge on the people who killed me, and I
Refuse to forgive and forget the people who dined on me.
This is how evil the heart is of the people in this world:
You do them a favor and they will repay you with a feud.’’
When the snake-sprite heard this story, she wiggled her head and
whipped her tail and said: ‘‘Fine! Fine! Fine! I’m really starving.
Little monk, quickly relieve a little of the hunger in my belly!’’
Good-in-Talent said to her: ‘‘I’ve told you this before. We will ask
three people, and you can eat me only if they all say that a favor is
repaid by a feud. Now we have asked only one person, so how can
you want to eat me right away? After we have asked three people,