The ancient Sophist saints of Greece were exceptionally clever with the use of their tongues. Don't play with them, they can bind us cunningly with their tongues. And don't corner them, we will never forget what we get in retaliation. Here in this poem, one such sophist saint is being tried in Court for a crime when the Judges get stung. The classical sophists were well-versed in paradoxes. The Judges in the Trial Court fail in understanding the real meaning of what the saint said.
A poem with a Greek theme, praising the sophists' skill in paradoxes.
SOPHIST.
A poem by P.S.Remesh Chandran, Editor,
Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum.
A sophist saint in ancient Greecian land
Said whatever he said was a falsity,
Was asked to state anything before he died,
When once he'd committed an act of crime.
He would be hanged, if tell the truth he did;
And would be beheaded, if he told untruth.
Being always prepared for th'unexpected,
That to be beheaded was he, stated he.
If he was executed cutting throat,
Then that would prove that what he'd told was truth,
For which the sentence had to be hanging him,
Thereby to prove that he had told untruth,
For which again to be cut the head apart,
Or if to be hanged; is this a paradox?
So thinking such and such the Judges swoon'd,
And asked the saint to step out from the Court.
Thus neither to be beheaded or be hanged,
He roamed the country side and forest land.
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Picture
A magpie on the gallows, always swift to fly away.
Sophists were learned saints who lived among the ancient Greeks and Romans. They were well-versed in paradoxes. A paradox is a statement which appears to be false, but is true. One sophist once said: 'Whatever I say is false.' We will wonder what would he be meaning with his words. If that statement is true, he is a regular teller of untruth. But what if that statement too is false? Then the meaning would be in the negative and it would mean that he occasionally would tell truth too. That is the skill of a sophist in dealing cleverly with his language, and escaping unscathed when he is faced with danger.
Sophists can say tricky things, understanding the meaning of which won't be so easy. In this poem the Sophist is said to have told people, whatever he said was a falsity. So we will begin to think that he is a frequent sayer of lies. But what if that very sentence also is a lie? Then it may mean that he may occasionally tell the truth. Trying to understand the true meaning of their sayings will make our heads spin. That is why in history we see that people kept them at a distance out of fear and out of respect. Such people who soothe, please, entertain and terrorise with words are what Language, Literature and the World wishes to have in plenty, but unfortunately are dwindling in numbers. Words are what convey human thought to others in the society, and unless they are sharpened and used as weapons, mankind won't survive. It is because anti-survival instincts are inborn in man. The relevance of saints, scholars and sophists lies in mankind's need for guarding against anti-survival instincts.