“The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao. The name that can be named is not the eternal name. The nameless is the beginning of heaven and earth. The named is the mother of ten thousand things.” —Lao Tzu in The Tao Te Ching
73
Morning is breaking. No; morning isn’t breaking.
Morning is an abstract thing, it exists, but is not a thing.
Here, at this hour, we’re beginning to see the sun.
If the morning light on the trees is beautiful,
It’s just as beautiful whether we call the morning “beginning to
see the sun”
As it is if we call it “the morning”;
That’s why there’s no advantage in giving things the wrong name,
Or indeed giving them names at all.
by Fernando Pessoa
from The Complete Works of Alberta Caeiro
New Direction Paperbooks, 2020
translation: Margaret Jull Costa & Patricio Ferrari