Another grook...

Note that this goes beyone the realms of poetry and into a new, and highly interesting mathematical discovery:
the constant .969696 recurring is the largest possible number which can be 'erred less' for the road to wisdom to be attained.
I think that this has far-reaching consequences for Perl, or possibly for the whole history of human endeavour.

Should I post this to the Seekers of Perl Wisdom section too? <grin>

$the_road_to_wisdom = <<GROOK;

THE ROAD TO WISDOM
by Piet Hein (in Grooks, 1966)
translated into Perl by Osfameron (hakim\@earthling.net) v 1.1

The road to wisdom? - Well, it's plain
and simple to express:
    Err
    and err
    and err again
    but less
    and less
    and less.
GROOK
my $error = ord("lots");
use constant less => .9696969696;

    #    #    #

    $to_express {$the_road_to_wisdom} ? Well : 
    ($it = "plain" and "simple");
do { 
    err ()
    and err ()
    and err (again);
    but: err (less)
    and err (less)
    and err (less);
} 
    #    #    #

until $on_road_to_wisdom; 
print $the_road_to_wisdom;

sub err { ($err = shift) && ($error *= $err) || ($error++);
    $on_road_to_wisdom++ if $error < ord (" less");
}
[download]

cheerio!
Osfameron