Saneh Sangsuk, A story as old as rain

For At first glance, taking to the water to catch a crocodile is indeed playing with death, but come to think of it, not at all. The crocodile is a silly animal, and certainly dangerous, especially when it’s in the water. It is an animal attached to its territory. Even the tiger, which is a cruel, cunning and resourceful animal, must beware of the crocodile. He’s too afraid to be grabbed by a paw and dragged under water to drown. The crocodile doesn’t care who its prey is and where it comes from. I saw with my own eyes, one morning in the cold season, as I was climbing to collect honey at the top of a huge tree where bees had made hundreds of nests of all sizes, the fog still covered the whole jungle like a shroud, large bright dewdrops still clinging to the blades of grass, the wild roosters still hoarse their throats flapping their wings and the flowers of tell me still exhaling their intoxicating scent, I saw a tiger chasing a wild boar, out I don’t know where. The tiger galloped at top speed. The boar fled like hell, constantly feigning, one swipe left, one swipe right. He wasn’t in pain yet, so he wasn’t thinking of a fight, even though his devices were formidable. Squealing like our pigs do, he suddenly rushed straight to a pond and jumped into the water. The tiger followed. The boar somehow started wading to escape them. Both are land animals that can swim. In its flight, the boar moved further and further from the edge of the pond, with the tiger still on its heels. With one leap, the tiger grabbed the boar’s hind leg and spun to walk back to shore with its prey, but then had to abruptly stop. A huge crocodile floated silently and without warning closed its mouth on the neck of the boar, which was in fact running away from the tiger to fall on the crocodile, as the saying goes. The crocodile’s jaws, sturdy and primitive and powerful, with yellowish fangs and widely spaced teeth, were hideous. It was clear that the crocodile also wanted the boar and due to his superior strength and having the advantage of territory, he pulled the boar and also pulled the tiger who refused to let go of his prey’s hind leg and drove them into deep water .

Saneh Sangsuk, A story as old as rain (2003), translated from the Thai by Marcel Barang, Éditions du Seuil, 2004, pp. 109-111.

© Julien de Kerviler

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