So, you didn't get it, did you. Okay, here is a somewhat longer quote:

Achilles: You may know more about Chinese cuisine
than I do, Mr. T, but I'll bet I know more about Japanese poetry than
you do. Have you ever read any haiku? Tortoise: I'm
afraid not. What is a haiku? Achilles: A haiku is a
Japanese seventeen-syllable poem - or minipoem, rather, which is
evocative in the same way, perhaps, as a fragrant rose petal is, or a
lily pond in a light drizzle. It generally consists of groups of five,
then seven, then five syllables. Tortoise: Such
compressed poems with seventeen syllables
can't have much meaning . . .
Achilles: Meaning lies as much in the mind of
the reader as in the haiku. Tortoise:
Hmmm . . . That's an evocative statement.
- Douglas R. Hofstadter: Gödel, Escher, Bach
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