Pippin. What is a document?
Alcuin. The preserver of history.
P. What is a word?
A. The revealer of the mind.
P. What generates the word?
A. The tongue.
P. What is the tongue?
A. The winnower of the breath.
P. What is breath?
A. The preserver of life.
P. What is life?
A. A delight to the blessed, a grief to the unhappy, an experience of waiting for death.
P. What is death?
A. An inevitable happening, an unpredictable journey, the tears of the living, the coming into force of a testament, the robber of human beings.
P. What is a human being?
A. A slave to death, a traveller passing through, a stranger in the place.
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This is an excerpt of a philosophical, riddle-like poem from the Ancient World written by Alcuin of York, advisor and tutor to Emperor Charlemagne, c. 735-804. Thank you History 80f for point me to it.
And no, that’s not Pippin from Lord of the Rings…Pippin was Charlemagne’s son and also the name of his father. ;)
