Muwa Gisun Section Four

discourse 21
We do this in shifts. If we don’t take turns, it just won’t work – we will be bumping into each other. When it’s your turn, you won’t run into others and there is no trouble.
That is quite correct. Let us then leave things that way.

discourse 22
I was not saying anything; it was you [plural] who were talking all the while about me. If what you were saying was sincere, would I not have believed you? No matter what, I cannot prevail over all of you just by myself. So I will believe what [you] said.

discourse 23
How can you be so slow? If you say you are going, then it would be good if you went. Why do you never stir, all the time in the same place? Are there really such slowpoke people like you? You must be hopelessly late.
Why are you in such a hurry? So long as we get there on time, that’s that.

discourse 24
Light the charcoal. I want to smoke a pipe of tobacco. If you can’t light it, here’s a flint.
I don’t have tinder. Do you have any?
Mine won’t light, because I got it wet yesterday in the rain. The tinder is still damp, so even if you try to light it, how is it supposed to burn?

discourse 25
If you look at the way the sky has darkened, it’s definitely going to rain. If we still aren’t going, [then] what are we waiting for?
It’s not a problem. I have brought an umbrella. You can still go if you want to. I’ll wait another little while.

discourse 26
Why don’t you stop blabbing incessantly? What are you quarreling about? If you persistently quarrel when someone blames you, won’t you be made fun of? It would be good if all schoolmates got along. Why are you always causing trouble [lit., being disharmonious]?

discourse 27
You are doing this only for show. You know very well that I have eaten, but you’re still offering me food. What is this, if not falseness? Offering food after someone is full is not as honest as not offering anything at all.

discourse 28
I have been studying for nearly a year, and I still am only able to get a few words out of my mouth. Honestly, what’s the reason?
Perhaps it was because the books you read were unfamiliar and the commentaries on them unclear.

discourse 29
Looking at you, you are just like a will-’o-the-wisp. Just as I turned my head, you had again disappeared. If you study halfheartedly like this (lit., like “going fishing for three days, drying the nets for two”), you will never amount to anything (lit., “that is merely obtaining an empty name”).

discourse 30
Has the rain stopped?
It has not yet stopped. It is still raining lightly.
I can’t go into the street [then] – there is a lot of mud and it’s slippery.

Section Three