An old New Year’s Day story
of the Chartres master
and teacher
Alain de Lille [Alanus ab Insulis]
who was asked to prepare a lecture
on the trinity at the University of Paris
and took a walk beside the Seine
to imagine the mystery
there he saw a child
scooping water from
the river with a bucket and
pouring it out onto the bank
“What are you doing? ”
“I am, emptying the Seine.”
“You will not empty the Seine doing that.”
“I can as easily empty the river Seine doing this
as you can give a lecture on the trinity tomorrow
thinking like that, ” said the child.
Joseph W Greif
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/emptying-the-seine/