Fredagsdiktet: The Blind Men and the Elephant

Hvem har rett til å definere virkeligheten? Er min virkelighet sannere eller mer objektiv enn din? Kan mine erfaringer gjøres almenngyldige, eller sperrer de for min virkelighetsoppfatning? De siste dagene har Aslak Nore kritsert Åsne Seierstad som igjen har blitt forsvart av Marte Michelet. Mye av krangelen ser ut til å bunne i hvem som eier virkeligheten.
Samtidig blusser striden med Muhammed-tegningene opp igjen, og vi krangler om religion. Igjen.
Vel, det hele fikk meg i hvert fall til å huske et dikt jeg liker godt. Ukens fredagsdikt er skrevet for mye over hundre år siden (og selve historien er langt eldre), men du verden, så treffende det er. Dessuten liker jeg rytmen i det!

The Blind Men and the Elephant

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 and 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!

by John Godfrey Saxe (1816-1887)