Lu Xun Complete Works/en/tu he mao

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Rabbits and Cats

兔和猫 von/by/par Lu Xun (鲁迅)

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[Rabbits and Cats]

Third Aunt bought a pair of white rabbits one summer for her children. The pair were still young, with red ears and suspicious eyes. A little dog S was forbidden to bite them.

They lived in the small yard, ate mulberries, scared off crows by leaping like snowballs. A big black cat lurked on the wall.

After months they dug a burrow and carried grass inside. Everyone hoped for babies. But the young apparently died -- the mother didn't nurse. One day a small rabbit hopped in the yard; another poked its head at the hole. Then they all disappeared.

Third Aunt found scratch marks at the wall -- too large for rabbits. She dug up the old burrow: only rotting grass and fur. In the new burrow lay seven tiny, naked, still-blind rabbits. The black cat had killed the first ones.

She put all seven in a box and forced the mother to nurse evenly. My mother said such laborious rabbit-raising belonged in the 'Book of Uniques.'

The family prospered. But from then on I always felt a sadness. At night...

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