Hello, World Game

This is a sample game for the KenningHaikuCompetition. The page KenningHaiku has explicit rules for making kenning haiku.

Introduction

A "Hello, World" program is the first and simplest program in a typical computer programming manual. All it does is print "Hello, World!" and quit. Such a program shows the programmer how to do basic things: start and stop the program and print text, but not much else.

This game was originally intended to be the equivalent of a "Hello, World" program in the realm of KenningHaiku, but eventually became too elaborate for that purpose. For a truly introductory game, see the NorseLanguageGame.

Term 1: greeting

Quotation

If one listens to the faintest but constant suggestions of his genius, which are certainly true, he sees not to what extremes, or even insanity, it may lead him; and yet that way, as he grows more resolute and faithful, his road lies. The faintest assured objection which one healthy man feels will at length prevail over the arguments and customs of mankind. No man ever followed his genius till it misled him. Though the result were bodily weakness, yet perhaps no one can say that the consequences were to be regretted, for these were a life in conformity to higher principles. If the day and the night are such that you greet them with joy, and life emits a fragrance like flowers and sweet-scented herbs, is more elastic, more starry, more immortal -- that is your success. All nature is your congratulation, and you have cause momentarily to bless yourself. The greatest gains and values are farthest from being appreciated. We easily come to doubt if they exist. We soon forget them. They are the highest reality. Perhaps the facts most astounding and most real are never communicated by man to man. The true harvest of my daily life is somewhat as intangible and indescribable as the tints of morning or evening. It is a little star-dust caught, a segment of the rainbow which I have clutched.

--Henry David Thoreau, Walden, "Higher Laws", Chapter 11, paragraph 7, <http://www.gutenberg.net/etext95/waldn10.txt>

Equation

    greeting    acceptance
    -------- :: ----------
     friend        life
     
    hello (greeting) = friend acceptance

    friend           = greeting life
    acceptance       = life greeting
    life             = acceptance friend

Explication

In the NorseLanguageGame, the first kenning (language = tongue battle) is easily extrapolated from the existing kenning (battle = language of swords). This kenning requires some work to extract from Thoreau. It is most strongly implicit in the bolded part of the quotation. (In this and the following quotations, the most relevant parts are in boldface.)

Visualisation

Imagine fondly embracing your dearest friend after a long separation, accepting them with all their faults and foibles. This is greeting.

Term 2: friend

Quotation

Friendship is a furrow in the sand.

--Tongan proverb

And a youth said, Speak to us of Friendship.
And he answered, saying:
Your friend is your needs answered.
He is your field which you sow with love and reap with thanksgiving.

--Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet

As o'er the glacier's frozen sheet
Breathes soft the Alpine rose,
So through life's desert springing sweet
The flower of friendship grows;
And as where'er the roses grow
Some rain or dew descends,
'T is nature's law that wine should flow
To wet the lips of friends.
Then once again, before we part,
My empty glass shall ring;
And he that has the warmest heart
Shall loudest laugh and sing.

--Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., "A Song of Other Days", The Poetical Works of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Complete, http://www.gutenberg.net/etext05/ohp1310.txt

Equation

    friend(ship)    furrow
    ------------ :: ------
       world        desert

    friend = world furrow

    world  = friend desert
    furrow = desert friend
    desert = furrow world

Explication

All three of the quotations for this term (friend) use the same metaphor: a friend is a furrow you have sown, from which a flower (friendship) springs up in time.

"If the day and the night are such that you greet them with joy," writes Thoreau in the first quotation in this game (that is, if you accept it as a friend), "[then] life emits a fragrance like flowers and sweet-scented herbs..." This is the "true harvest of [your] daily life."

Here the quotation for the first term (greeting) harmonises with the quotation for the second term (friend). This is an important aesthetic in KenningHaiku. (The following visualisation also alludes to Thoreau.)

Visualisation

Imagine a furrow that you have plowed in the night sky, filled with fertile "star-dust caught", ready to blossom. This is a friend.

Term 3: acceptance

Quotation

The things are three of which thou art composed: a little body, a little breath [life], intelligence. Of these the first two are thine, so far as it is thy duty to take care of them; but the third alone is properly thine. Therefore if thou shalt separate from thyself, that is, from thy understanding, whatever others do or say, and whatever thou hast done or said thyself, and whatever future things trouble thee because they may happen, and whatever in the body which envelops thee or in the breath [life], which is by nature associated with the body, is attached to thee independent of thy will, and whatever the external circumfluent vortex whirls round, so that the intellectual power exempt from the things of fate can live pure and free by itself, doing what is just and accepting what happens and saying the truth: if thou wilt separate, I say, from this ruling faculty the things which are attached to it by the impressions of sense, and the things of time to come and of time that is past, and wilt make thyself like Empedocles' sphere,

"All round and in its joyous rest reposing";

and if thou shalt strive to live only what is really thy life, that is, the present,--then thou wilt be able to pass that portion of life which remains for thee up to the time of thy death free from perturbations, nobly, and obedient to thy own daemon [to the god that is within thee]

--Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, XII.3, http://www.gutenberg.net/etext04/tmrcr10.txt

Equation

    acceptance    roundedness
    ---------- :: -----------
       sage          sphere

    acceptance  = sage roundedness

    sage        = acceptance sphere
    roundedness = sphere acceptance
    sphere      = roundedness sage

Explication

The word daemon in this quotation should not be confused with the English word demon. It literally means "the god that is within [you]", as the translator annotated it, and is directly analogous to the word genius in the Thoreau quotation at the start of this game ("If one listens to the faintest but constant suggestions of his genius, which are certainly true...").

Here the quotation for the first term (greeting) harmonises with the quotation for the third term (acceptance). Since Terms 1 and 2 are already in harmony, this ties together all three parts of the KenningHaiku.

Empedocles was a Greek philosopher of the fifth century BCE. He held that history occurred in cycles, and that originally the Universe was bound by the force of Love into a single Sphere, which then dissolved unter the force of Strife (Eris), then reunited again, endlessly. The Sphere's being "all round and in its joyous rest reposing" means that it manifests the Stoic ideal of apatheia (freedom from negative emotions) , or, as Marcus puts it, "accepting what happens".

Visualisation

Imagine an intelligent sphere, somewhat like Humpty Dumpty, wearing a crown. It is round; it is regal; it is complete, and in its completeness, nothing can disturb it. This is acceptance.

Conclusion

Equation

    greeting   = (friend acceptance)
    friend     = (world furrow)
    acceptance = (sage roundedness)

    greeting   = ((world furrow) (sage roundedness))

Explication

Put into plain English, a greeting is acceptance of a friend, which is sagacious roundedness toward a furrow in the world.

Note that "greeting" or "hello" is the first term in this KenningHaiku, and "world" is the last (see the kenning tree at the start of this game; these terms are highlighted). Hello, World!

Visualisation

Imagine fondly embracing your dearest friend after a long separation, accepting them with all their faults and foibles. This is greeting.

Imagine a furrow that you have plowed in the night sky, filled with fertile star-stuff, ready to blossom. This is a friend.

Imagine an intelligent sphere, somewhat like Humpty Dumpty, wearing a crown. It is round; it is regal; it is complete, and in its completeness, nothing can disturb it. This is acceptance.

Imagine a regal, intelligent sphere, fondly waiting for the star-stuff it has sown into the sky to blossom, not caring whether the flowers be good or bad. This is greeting.

--Ron_Hale-Evans?