TEN DAYS FORE THE PLOW

　　耕作十天

　　Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva is called DiZang， Jizo， or Earthstore， in Chinese，Japanese， and English. He is so kind that he enters Hell to save suffering souls.

　　地藏菩薩在中文、日文、英文里分別叫做地藏、Jizo， 或者Earthstore.他非常慈悲，所以進入地獄去拯救那些倍受煎熬的眾生。

　　In a temple on Nine Flower Mountain in Anhui you can see the body he left behind after one of his reincarnations. In 1840， a group of believers went to pay their respects to him， but among them was a mean guy named Diao Zuan.

　　在安徽九華山的一個廟里，你能看到他圓寂后的肉身。在1840年的時候，有一群信眾去朝拜他。這群信眾中有一個很卑劣的人，叫做刁鉆。

　　He loved to eat meat， especially beef. But cows and bulls are big， patient animals，and since Chinese farmers plow with water buffaloes， beef is taboo for most Chinese. In the temple they visited， they saw a picture teaching people to be nice to cows and bulls.

　　他很愛吃肉，尤其是牛肉。牛是龐大而且溫順的動物，中國的農夫都用水牛來耕田，因此，牛肉對大多數中國人來說是一種禁忌食物。在他們拜訪的這座寺廟里，他們就看到了一幅教導人們要善待牛的圖畫。

　　Diao didn't think much of that. He sniffed and said， "Not me！ I can't do without beef， let me tell you！"

　　刁不以為然。他嗤之以鼻，說，"我可不行！我不能不吃牛肉，我告訴你們！"

　　No sooner had the words left his mouth than he dropped to the floor， foaming at the mouth and twitching.

　　他的話剛出口，就倒在地上，口吐白沫，四肢抽搐。

　　"He has desecrated the temple！" The whole group got down on their knees to plead Ksitigarbha to forgive Diao. He stopped twitching， but he didn't seem to know who or where he was.

　　"他褻瀆了寺院！"同來的人跪在地藏菩薩前，請他原諒刁。他不再抽搐了，但是他看上去好像不知道自己是誰，也不知道這是什么地方。

　　His friends put him on a stretcher and took him to the house of a relative who lived nearby. "We don't have a bedroom for him， so he'll have to go into the study，" his relative said. They were afraid he might go into another fit， so they tied him to the couch and made plans to take him home the next day.

　　他的朋友們用擔架把他抬到他附近的一個親戚家里。"我們沒有多余的床，所以他只能去書房。"他的親戚說。他們怕他又抽搐得昏過去，所以他們把他捆在躺椅上，決定第二天就送他回家。

　　The next morning when they opened the door， the study looked like a typhoon had hit. Somehow Diao had gotten out of the ropes. All the furniture was turned over， there were books and papers all over the floor， and the blanket they had covered him with was in shreds. Diao was down on all fours， snorting and pawing like a bull.

　　第二天早上他們開門后發(fā)現，書房看上去就像被臺風席卷過一樣。刁不知道怎么掙脫了繩子。所有的家具都被翻了過來，所有的書和紙都被扔在地上，他們蓋在他身上的毯子成了碎布。刁四肢著地，喘著氣，還不斷地刨著地，就像一頭牛一樣。

　　Somehow they got him back to his own house. When his wife saw him， she fainted dead away. She woke up and wailed and asked what had happened to her husband.

　　他們想辦法把他送回了他的家。當他的妻子看到他這副模樣，馬上昏死過去。她醒過來后嚎啕大哭，質問他丈夫這是怎么回事。

　　When she heard， the whole family swore off beef immediately. They made a vow that every summer， they would make a pilgrimage to Nine Flower Mountain.

　　當她知道后，全家發(fā)誓馬上戒除吃牛肉。他們還發(fā)誓，每年夏天都去九華山朝拜。

　　They prayed and prayed， but Diao stayed down on all fours and kept crawling back and forth across the room. Nobody could stop him， even if they tied him.

　　他們不停地祈禱，但是刁還是四肢著地，在房間里不斷爬來爬去。沒人可以阻止他，即使把他綁起來。

　　His family kept asking Ksitigarbha for help. Suddenly， on the tenth day， Tiao dropped to the floor again. When he opened his eyes again， he was normal.

　　他的家人向地藏菩薩祈禱。在第十天的時候，刁又忽然昏倒了。當他再次睜開眼睛時，又恢復了正常。

　　"What happened to you？" his relatives crowded around to ask.

　　"你到底是怎么回事？"他的親戚們圍上來問。

　　"Don't ask！ I've spent the last ten days plowing fields，" Tiao answered with a shudder.

　　"別提了！我犁了十天的地，"刁顫栗著說。

　　From then on， Diao never ate another piece of meat. Whenever he saw a cow or bull， he made a special point of patting it and saying a few kinds words to it.

　　從那時候開始，刁再也沒吃過肉。每當他看到牛 ，他就拍拍它，說一些好話。

　　He knew what it was like.

　　他知道當牛是什么滋味。

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