Re: I'll tell you what it's all about....
Thor Cameron (my_colours@hotmail.com)
Tue, 01 Dec 1998 15:19:48 -0800 (PST)
>I'd like to see the poem, please. Thanks a lot. Sorry, things like
>that
>interest me.
>Ellen
OK, Ellen, here ya go.....
ELEPHANT IN THE DARK
Some Hindus have an elephant to show.
No one here has ever seen an elephant.
They bring it at night to a dark room.
One by one, we go in the dark and come out
saying how we experienced the animal.
One of us happens to touch the trunk.
"A water-pipe kind of creature."
Another, the ear. "A very strong, always moving
back and forth, fan-animal."
Another, the leg. "I find it still,
like a column on a temple."
Another touches the curved back.
"A leathery throne."
Another, the cleverest, feels the tusk.
"A rounded sword made of porcelain."
He's proud of his description.
Each of us touches one place
and understands the whole in that way.
The palm and the fingers feeling in the dark are how the senses explore
the reality of the elephant.
If each of us held a candle there,
and if we went in together,
we could see it.
-- Jelaluddin Rumi
Translation by Coleman Barks
Barks has several books of his Rumi translations. Please let me know if
anyone else out there is a Rumi reader. For the 1200's his stuff is
still amazingly fresh.
Namaste,
Thor
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