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Jain Digest. Summer 2007
The Blind Men and the Elephant by American poet John Godfrey Saxe (1816-1887)
Based on a Jain Fable
POETRY
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!"
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 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!"
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."
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!
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 and spake: "I see," quoth he, “the Elephant
Is very like a snake!"
LAS
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!"
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!
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