(no subject)

[toothycat]

Original here
"...and seven thin cows came out of the river after them. And the seven thin cows devoured the seven fat cows, but got no fatter from it. How am I to interpret that?"
The Monarch narrowed his eyes and fixed his gaze upon the Prophet. The Prophet rubbed his forehead.
"How strange... So, you say the cows came out of the river?"
"Yes."
"And they ate the other cows?"
"Yeah, gobbled them right up. So?"
"Cows?!"
"Well, they're carnivores, right?", the Monarch replied. "Or am I mistaken?"
The Prophet rubbed his forehead again.
"Forgive me for asking, your Majesty, but have you ever seen a live cow?"
"Naturally. In my dream."
"And what did it look like?"
"Just like the ones in the pictures." The Monarch casually pointed at the frescoes on the walls. "They crawled out onto the banks, warmed themselves on the sand..."
In silence, the Prophet studied the image.
"They had long tails, large jaws and short legs?", he asked. "And they were green?"
"More a kind of greeny brown", the Monarch replied dubiously. "Is that important?"
The Prophet sighed.
"Then, one more question. You mentioned seven heads of grain that ate another seven heads. Could you describe them?"
The Monarch blinked in surprise, glanced at the bread on the table in front of him, and gave a detailed description of what he supposed a stalk of grain might look like in the wild.
The Prophet was silent for a full minute, as though honouring someone's memory.
"A most interesting and unusual dream", he finally declared. "Indeed, very interesting..."
"I know that!", the Monarch interrupted. "Why don't you explain it to me? What does it mean, what should I expect?"
"What's to explain?" The Prophet shrugged. "If the ruling power has such conceptions of farming and animal husbandry, there is only one thing to expect. Seven years of famine."

Comments

[theorah.livejournal.com]

Ahaha!! Another great translated story, and I never thought about the original story in that way before XD

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

:)