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Gentling the Bull –  Searching for the Bull

The search for what?  The bull has never been missing.  But without knowing it the herdsman estranged himself from himself and so the bull became lost in the dust.  The home mountains recede even further, and suddenly the herdsman finds himself on entangled paths.  Lust for gain and fear of loss flare up like a conflagration, and views of right and wrong oppose each other like spears on a battlefield.

Alone in a vast wilderness, the herdsman searches for his bull in the tall grass.
Wide flows the river, far range the mountains, and ever deeper into the wilderness goes the path.
Wherever he seeks, he can find no trace, no clue.  Exhausted and in despair,
As the evening darkens he hears only the crickets in the maples.

………………………………………………………..

Looking only into the distance, the searching herdsman rushes along.
Does he know his feet are already deep in the swampy morass?
How often, in the fragrant grasses under the setting sun,
Has he hummed Hsin-feng [Shinpo], the Song of the herdsman, in vain?

……………………………………………………..

There are no traces in the origin.  Where then to search?
Gone astray, he stumbles about in dense fog and tangled growth.
Though unwitting, grasping the nose of the bull, he already returns as a guest,
Yet under the trees by the edge of the water, how sad is his song.