[lit-ideas] Just the facts about the proverbial elephant, ma'am
- From: Chris Bruce <bruce@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 8 Dec 2005 16:10:12 +0100
On 6. Dez 2005, at 14:33, Mike Geary wrote:
The FACT is we're all proverbial blind men feeling an elephant.
A long-absent pedant replies:
The 'proverb' (according to some 'a Hindu parable'; others 'an East
Indian tale of antiquity') is perhaps best known in English through a
poem (variously titled: 'The Blind Men and the Elephant'; 'Six Blind
Men and the Elephant') by the American poet John Godfrey Saxe
(1816-1887):
It was six men of Indostan
To learning much inclined,
Who went to see the Elephant
(Though all of them were blind),
That each by observation
Might satisfy his mind.
The First approached the Elephant,
And happening to fall
Against his broad and sturdy side,
At once began to bawl:
"God bless me! but the Elephant
Is very like a wall!"
The Second, feeling of the tusk
Cried, "Ho! what have we here,
So very round and smooth and sharp?
To me 'tis mighty clear
This wonder of an Elephant
Is very like a spear!"
The Third approached the animal,
And happening to take
The squirming trunk within his hands,
Thus boldly up he spake:
"I see," quoth he, "the Elephant
Is very like a snake!"
The Fourth reached out an eager hand,
And felt about the knee:
"What most this wondrous beast is like
Is mighty plain," quoth he;
"'Tis clear enough the Elephant
Is very like a tree!"
The Fifth, who chanced to touch the ear,
Said: "E'en the blindest man
Can tell what this resembles most;
Deny the fact who can,
This marvel of an Elephant
Is very like a fan!"
The Sixth no sooner had begun
About the beast to grope,
Than, seizing on the swinging tail
That fell within his scope.
"I see," quoth he, "the Elephant
Is very like a rope!"
And so these men of Indostan
Disputed loud and long,
Each in his own opinion
Exceeding stiff and strong,
Though each was partly in the right,
And all were in the wrong!
Moral:
So oft in theologic wars,
The disputants, I ween,
Rail on in utter ignorance
Of what each other mean,
And prate about an Elephant
Not one of them has seen.
The moral about 'theological disputants' is often left out of versions
I have seen. I know two 'alternate takes' to the story as presented
by the poem. Discussion as to whether they are relevant to the context
in which the 'proverbial blind men feeling an elephant' have been
introduced to Lit-Ideas is left as an exercise for the reader.
1) [author unknown] Once upon a time, there were five blind men who
had the opportunity to experience an elephant for the first time. One
approached the elephant, and, upon encountering one of its sturdy legs,
stated, "Ah, an elephant is like a tree." The second, after exploring
the trunk, said, "No, an elephant is like a strong hose." The third,
grasping the tail, said "Fool! An elephant is like a rope!" The fourth,
holding an ear, stated, "No, more like a fan." And the fifth, leaning
against the animal's side, said, "An elephant is like a wall." The five
then began to argue loudly about who had the more accurate perception
of the elephant.
The elephant, tiring of all this abuse, suddenly reared up and attacked
the men. He continued to trample them until they were nothing but
bloody lumps of flesh. Then, strolling away, the elephant remarked, "It
just goes to show that you can't depend on first impressions. When I
first saw them I didn't think they they'd be any fun at all."
2) [a Sam Gross cartoon] Along with (at least some of the) the usual
blind men learning what an elephant is, there's another - kneeling
behind the elephant feeling something on the ground and exclaiming: an
elephant is soft and mushy ….
Chris Bruce
Kiel, Germany
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