Today's poem is very ancient: Chuang Tze lived in the 3rd or 4th century BCE
The Need to Win
When an archer is shooting for nothing
He has all his skill.
If he shoots for a brass buckle
He is already nervous.
If he shoots for a prize of gold
He goes blind
Or sees two targets --
He is out of his mind!
His skill has not change. But the prize
Divides him. He cares.
He thinks more of winning
Than of shooting --
And the need to win
Drains him of power.
[Translated from Chinese by Thomas Merton]
This is as true today as it was more than two millennia ago.
I wish I could have illustrated this with a picture from the Nadam archery games in Mongolia which I wittnessed. Both men and women, in traditional costumes [deels] competed within the category of their sex; I felt I was wittnessing something very, very ancient ... indeed, as the poem shows, it was.
