Paradoxes

Paradoxes

"You know... I'm sometimes under the impression that you deceive me or at

least that there are paradoxes in what you say... ".

"I don't know... maybe. As a matter of fact people can deceive without

'being aware' of it.

As regards paradoxes... well... how the poet says '... being driven by the wind,

white clouds wander free in the sky'.

Apart from the well-known saying by that Cretan, Epidemis, who always said:

'The Cretans lie', a favourite of mine is that by Lao Tzu, the legendary author

of the Tao Te Ching. Starting with his very name meaning 'old boy' or

something like that - as you know, a Chinese ideogram can take on different

meanings when it is translated into a western language.

Lao Tzu begins his Tao Te Ching with the resonant verse:

'The Tao which can be spoken about is not the eternal Tao', and then,

paradoxically, he continues speaking about it for thousands of ideograms.

The story goes that he left his country, perhaps because he was disappointed

with his fellow citizens, and was never heard of again.

When he arrived at the frontier he was obliged by the guards to leave his poem.

It was a happy circumstance so that we can enjoy his crazy verses still

nowadays, two thousand five hundred years later".