Dunno whether this should go here or in the obfu section, but it started out as a simple Perl poem, and poetry is still the intent. I might as well put it here.

Side Note: It's amazing what a little linguistic contortion can teach you about the language :-)

#!/usr/bin/perl

# 9. Retire
# Fill a cup to its brim and it is easily spilled
# Temper a sword to its hardest and it is easily broken
# Amass the greatest treasure and it is easily stolen
# Claim credit and honour and you easily fall
# retire once your purpose is achieved -- this is natural.
#  -- taken from Peter Merel's Interpolation of Tao Te Ching
#     http://www.clas.ufl.edu/gthursby/taoism/ttcmerel.htm

$e='easily'; sub fill{c("Fill",$_[0+0+0],$_[+1],"spilled")};$n='and'
;sub temper{c("Temper",$_[0],$_[98-97+$q],"broken")};$o='it is';sub
amass{c(''.'Amass',$_[sqrt(0)], 'stolen')};$ar='ARRAY';sub claim{c(
'Claim',\@_,"fall")};sub c{if($#_==3){$p="$_[0] a ${_[1]} to its ".
"${_[2]} $n $o $e $_[3];"}elsif($#_==2){if ( ref($_[1])eq$ar){ $o =
'you will' ;$p = "$_[0] ".join(" $n ",@{ $_[1+$\] } )." $n $o $e ".
"$_[2];"}else {$p="$_[00] $_[1] $n $o $e $_[2];"} $p}};eval{map{$s=
shift@$_;  print$s->(@$_),"\n"; hi_mom}(['fill',qw[cup brim] ],[qw[
temper sword hardest]  ],[    'amass',    join(' ', qw(the greatest
treasure))],[qw[claim credit honour]]);natural($this)};print$@if$@;

sub natural {
    print "Retire once your purpose is achieved.";
    die " -- This is natural.\n";
}

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Update:: Thanks to a note from fglock, I corrected an error where you were told to "Fill a brim to its brim". Little bug, easy fix. My high school teachers always were a little disappointed by my math skills.

In reply to Tao Te Ching #9: Retire by webfiend

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