Love and Strife

One line that meets itself and parts again. What Love joins, Strife undoes, and the whole begins again — one knot, tied and untied for ever.

The hidden text

Δίπλ’ ἐρέω· τοτὲ μὲν γὰρ ἓν ηὐξήθη μόνον εἶναι ἐκ πλεόνων, τοτὲ δ’ αὖ διέφυ πλέον’ ἐξ ἑνὸς εἶναι. Δοιὴ δὲ θνητῶν γένεσις, δοιὴ δ’ ἀπόλειψις· τὴν μὲν γὰρ πάντων σύνοδος τίκτει τ’ ὀλέκει τε, ἡ δὲ πάλιν διαφυομένων θρεφθεῖσα διέπτη. Καὶ ταῦτ’ ἀλλάσσοντα διαμπερὲς οὐδαμὰ λήγει, ἄλλοτε μὲν Φιλότητι συνερχόμεν’ εἰς ἓν ἅπαντα, ἄλλοτε δ’ αὖ δίχ’ ἕκαστα φορεύμενα Νείκεος ἔχθει.

In English, my rendering

I will tell a double tale: at one time it grew to be one alone out of many, at another it grew apart again to be many out of one. Double is the birth of mortal things, double their passing: the coming together of all things begets and destroys the one, while the other, nurtured as they part again, flies away. And these never cease their continual exchange, at one time all coming together into one through Love, at another each carried apart by the hatred of Strife.

Empedocles of Acragas, fragment 17 Public domain — ancient text, c. 450 BC

This is exactly what the sheet carries. The reader returns it letter for letter.

Measurements

Words: 62
On the sheet: 585 bytes
Capacity: 1555 bytes
Fill: 38%
Line length: 2.1 m
Data rungs: 3,110
Paper: A4 · 210 × 297 mm

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