A Poem from 1 BC Calling for Compassion Toward Animals

[BubbaBuddhist]

Titus Lucretius Carus (Lucretius) (c 99-55BC)

A Cow Mourning For Her Calf

Oft at some consecrated altar-side,
Where fragrant incense burns, a calf lies slain,
And from his breast breathes out the warm life-tide:
But the lone mother, o'er the grassy land
Far ranging, sees his cloven hoof-prints plain,
And leaves with roving eyes no spot unscanned
For her lost young, and fills with lowings wild
The shady wood; then tireless turns again
To the bare stall, sore stricken for her child.
Naught can the dewy grass, or tender leaf,
Or brimming river-bank, once fondly known,
Avail to bannish that o'er-mastering grief;
Nor by the sight of other calves, upgrown
In the fair fields, is her sad heart beguiled:
So deeply yearns she for her one, her own.


- De Rerum Natura, II, 352-366

[bodom]

Sad.

[sukhamanveti]

Thank you for the beautiful verses by a great man, Bubbabuddhist. They reminded me a bit of a passage in the Pali Canon:

"And then the king, the lord of warriors, induced by the brahmins, had many hundreds of thousands of cows killed in a sacrifice.

"Not by their feet, nor by their horns, nor by anything else had the cows harmed anyone. They were like sheep, meek, giving pails of milk. Nevertheless, the king, seizing them by the horns, had them killed with a knife...

"This injustice of using violence has come down to us as an ancient practice. Innocent cows are killed; the sacrificers fall away from justice."

Sutta-Nipata 2.7.308-312

Best regards.

[cooran]

Hello BB,

Not only one calf - nowadays we do everything "bigger" and "? better". The gods must be pleased ....

"the single largest mass slaughter of animals on earth"
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/ind ... 80107.html

with karuna,
Chris