红孩儿 Red Boy
身若涂朱或有才，暴眼晃亮甚张乖。
炼了真火未炼心，灵山只在寸心开。
On his red skin, talent may shine,
Eyes glaring bright, a mischievous sign.
Samadhi Fire forged, yet heart unrefined,
The gate to Mount Lingshan lies within the mind.
许多年来，红孩儿一直做着同一个噩梦。
小时候，他与母亲分享过这个噩梦。
“母亲，好多人，他们打打杀杀，都是冲着我来!”
“好孩子，等你再睡着，明日便忘了。”
但他很振奋:“可我很厉害，我打败了和山一样高的和尚，会飞的怪鸟，吐火的神像……我一点也不怕他们。”
“我儿真有本事。”
他继续说:“我梦见我长成了大人，头上生出很长的角，手上生出很长的刺，一次能打杀好大一片坏人。但他们太多了，我根本杀不完。后来又来了一些我没见过的怪人，他们静静地挂在天上，不下来，就在天上默默地看着我。”
母亲将他拦入怀里:“若真有那一日，父亲母亲会与你一道去天上，杀干净他们。”
“我们会死吗?”
“我梦见我被他们杀死了，变成一朵红莲花，母亲摘下了这朵莲花，我就成了母亲的孩子。”
……
他继续滔滔不绝:“我若是死了，母亲还愿意再生养我一次吗?”
“不许再说这种话!”
For many years, Red Boy had been having the same nightmare. In his childhood, he shared this nightmare with his mother.
"Mother, there were so many people, they were all coming to kill me!"
"My dear, once you fall asleep again, you'll forget all about it by tomorrow."
Yet the boy was excited: "But I am very powerful. I defeated monks as tall as mountains, strange birds, and fire-breathing statues... I am not afraid of them at all."
"Oh, how brave you are, my dear!"
He continued: "I dreamt that I grew up into an adult, with long horns on my head and long spikes on my hands. I could kill a bunch of bad people at once. But there were too many of them, I couldn't kill them all. Later, some strange people I had never seen before came. They hung quietly in the sky, not coming down, just silently watching me from above."
His mother pulled him into her arms: "If that day ever comes, your father and I will go to the sky with you and kill them all."
"Will we die?"
"..."
"I dreamt that they killed me, and I turned into a red lotus flower. And mother, you picked this lotus flower, and I became your child again."
"..."
He continued to chatter: "Mother, if I die, would you be willing to give birth to me again?"
"Don't you ever say this again!"
