Carpe Diem today goes into the tarot today, and we have: the fool.

Portrait of the Ferrara Court Jester Gonella by Jean Fouquet
only a fool
thinks he’s smart enough
to oppose the king
by acting fool
the jester is unpunished –
telling king the truth
perhaps the king can only trust a fool — really liked these two!
Thank you… I think that is the real purpose of the jester. Isn’t like that in King Lear?
you know – I could never read Shakespeare, I just couldn’t handle the Old English — one of the reasons I admire you writing in English.
Heh heh…very good!
Unless this fool is also cunning, he may get into lots of hot water with the king! 🙂Fool
Have no idea if Tarot Fool is comparable to jester, but I like where you took it!
The Fool … has all wisdom and so in his role as a jester he can provide the king with words the king needs.
Plenty of wisdom in your foolish words methinks Bjorn 🙂
Yes, this is one of the purposes of the fool/jester–to be able to say anything and so to offer wisdom to the king without the king losing face for taking counsel.
In my reader I saw only the first haiku. At opening this post I realised the second haiku says what I was going to comment on: ‘only a fool KNOWS that he is smarter than the king’. Looking back at a few kings and queens in the world’s history this is very probable.
Interesting … the first was the last I wrote, but I think this order made more sense.
Truth tellers are rare in our world…
Old Fool
Sometimes being a fool is a win-win.
I loved it … a story of a fool perfectly told 😀
The fool and the king…
They are just one coin.
The wise fool is like a mirror for the king.
Yes, it’s a true art to oppose the king, yet staying true to oneself not letting being fooled. Cleverly penned! 🙂