Reading guide
The same words, mismatched then matched
The first verse describes the fool: ‘hurrying when it's time to dawdle; dawdling when it's time to hurry’ — timing mismatched at every turn. The third verse uses the identical vocabulary but matches it correctly: ‘dawdling when it's time to dawdle; hurrying when it's time to hurry’. Nothing in the words themselves changes; only whether they land in the right place.
A moon, waning then waxing
The second and fourth verses complete this mirror with the same simile in opposite phases: the fool's fortune ‘wastes away like the moon in the waning fortnight’, disgraced and ‘alienated from their friends’; the astute person's fortune ‘flourishes like the moon in the waxing fortnight’, ‘famous and respected, not alienated from their friends’. Even the closing clause about friends is mirrored, negated only by a single word.
The most exactly mirrored structure in this collection so far
This collection has found poems built from repeated refrains (Thag 3.4, Thag 3.11) and poems pairing opposite uses of a shared image (Thag 1.16 and 1.45's horse). This poem goes further: two complete halves, each four lines, sharing nearly identical vocabulary line for line, differing only in the timing described and the direction of the simile — the most exact point-for-point mirroring this reading guide has found in this collection.
Key terms
The text
§1Hurrying when it’s time to dawdle; dawdling when it’s time to hurry; being so disorganized a fool falls into suffering.
§2Their good fortune wastes away like the moon in the waning fortnight. They become disgraced and alienated from their friends.
§3Dawdling when it’s time to dawdle; hurrying when it’s time to hurry; being so well organized, an astute person comes into happiness.
§4Their good fortune flourishes like the moon in the waxing fortnight. They become famous and respected, not alienated from their friends.
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