Chapter 38அதிகாரம் 38 வளைதல் Yielding

The reed has learned that to bend is to stand. Go and ask it, fallen tree.

From a hand clenched tight the sand slips away; the same hand, loosened, holds a full measure.

Moist joints bow; dry joints put on valour and break.

Whoever fights the sea is taken by the sea; whoever goes with the sea is taken by the shore.

To bow your heart until your footing gives way is to cut a tree through at its base and then water a branch.

The trunk is what holds you up; the branch is what you go on tending once that is cut.

The black stone does not fear the great wave that falls once; it wears away under the small drop that falls every day.

The net sinks low and bends, and takes in the sea; the straight pole falls and breaks.

A fishing net works by sinking and sagging into the water, never standing against it.

Why call the one who showed his strength the winner? In life, is not the one who made way the strong one?

New fibre that will not bend never knows the twist; fibre that bends becomes the twist.

Plant fibres such as coir are twisted together into cord and rope. The Tamil word for ‘twist’ also means firmness, tautness.

The one who bends the bow knows strength; to the one who throws the bow aside unbent, the bow is firewood.