His Conversation consists
Of Nothing but Arithmetic²
Words are Sloppy – I like Math³
Swarming of Number over Number⁴
Number, fitting all things into the Soul
Through Sense Perception, renders them
Comprehensible and mutually in Accord⁵
In Broken Mathematics we estimate our Prize –
Vast in its Fading Ratio to our penurious eyes⁶
When I’m doing Math, I turn Transparent⁷
Eternal, Shallow Mathematical Present⁸
Equation Plagued on Both Sides⁹
Can one verify the Final Sum
Without Including oneself?¹⁰
¹ Douglas Adams, So Long and Thanks for All the Fish
² Charles Dickens, Great Expectations
³ Ursula K. Le Guin, Paradise Lost
⁴ Wallace Stevens, Chocorua to Its Neighbor
⁵ Philolaus of Tarentum tr. Simone Weil
⁶ Emily Dickinson, As By the Dead We Love to Sit
⁷ Haruki Murakami tr. Jay Rubin, 1Q84
⁸ Hermann Hesse tr. Richard & Clara Winston, Magister Ludi
⁹ Paul Celan tr. Ian Fairley, For Eric
¹⁰ Wisława Szymborska tr. Barańczak & Cavanagh, Elegiac Calculations