ni li ken ala: nanpa li sewi.
nanpa li tu e nanpa ante la ni pali e nasin pi nanpa mute.

These are the words as recovered from the awoken well:

jan Pisika li lukin e linja wawa suno lon kon wawa ike. one li toki e ni tawa jan Sipi: suno li tawa wawa seme? jan Sipi li toki e ni: ken la, suno li tawa wawa mute. jan Pisika li pilin ike li toki e ni:

sina jan sona sewi, anu seme? nanpa pi tawa wawa li seme kin?

jan Sipi li toki e ni: ni li wan. jan Pisika li toki e ni: wan li wan pi ijo seme? jan Sipi li toki e ni:

nasin wan li toki e ni: sina tawa wawa ala.

Here follows a relaxed translation:

Pisika looks at the lightning in a storm. He asks Tipi: “How fast is the speed of light?” Tipi answers: “Could be very fast?” Pisika is angry. “You are a guru and you don’t know? What is the speed exactly?” Tipi answers: “It is one.” Pisika asks: “One? One what?” Tipi answers: “One way to call you slow.”

Associative musings:

Numbers are fascinating. Sometimes they become so captivating, though, when more is attributed than what makes sense. Because numbers are unitless you can tag on meaning. In addition, because numbers can be found anywhere and anything can be converted to numbers, and numbers themselves can be transformed into other numbers using mathematical operators, it is easy to confuse the numbers with the patterns they represent.

A pattern is an abstract version of pieces of information. If we use numbers to find similar patterns, this may be very informative. But at the same time we can easily be deluded to worship certain numbers for their magical powers. The information is not in the number itself but the patterns or ratios of these numbers.

Read a newer koan (Everyone is a hypocrite and that is fine.)

Read an older koan (Strong words destroy the strength of the object.)