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Very sharp are the excellent shares, |
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With which they set to work on the south-lying acres. |
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They sow their different kinds of grain, |
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Each seed containing a germ of life. |
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There are those who come to see them, |
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With their baskets round and square, |
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Containing the provision of millet. |
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With their light splint hats on their heads, |
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They ply their hoes on the ground, |
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Clearing away the smart-weed on the dry land and wet. |
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These weeds being decayed, |
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The millets grow luxuriantly. |
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They fall rustling before the reapers. |
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And [the sheaves] are set up solidly, |
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High as a wall, |
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United together like the teeth of a comb; |
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And the hundred houses are opened [to receive the grain]. |
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Those hundred houses being full, |
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The wives and children have a feeling of repose. |
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[Now] we kill this black-muzzled tawny bull, |
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With his crooked horns, |
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To imitate and hand down, |
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To land down [the observances of] our ancestors. |
Published
by The Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities, © Copyright 2003
by Anne Kinney and the University of Virginia