-- from Chuang Tsu --
Horses with their hoofs tread upon the frost and snow
and with their hair withstand the wind and cold.
Unbridled, they prance and leap and go where they go,
unconcerned as to whether they’ll be bought or sold.
This is the easy manner of horses,
before people undertake to make them their own,
bridle, hobble, clip them, subject them to courses
and ignore the ways to which they are prone.
And now they are made to suffer hunger and thirst,
are pranced and paraded in regular order.
The blind whip pursues them as they rehearse,
and the bit gnaws in front from border to border.
For every dozen at least two or three will die.
And they’re made to sleep in their own ordure
when before they were wont to rest beneath the sky.
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