Here is a link to an anthology of English translations of work by Chilean poet and mathematician, Nicanor Parra. Some rank Nicanor Segundo Parra Sandoval (born 5 September 1914) among the most important poets of Spanish language literature. Parra describes himself as an "anti-poet," having a distaste for poetic pomp and function; after recitations he exclaims "Me retracto de todo lo dicho" ("I take back everything I said"). I posted Parra's small poem "Thoughts" here in October, 2010-- and below I offer another example of Parra's play with ideas and words and numbers:
The Last Toast by Nicanor Parra
Whether we like it or not,
We have only three choices:
Yesterday, today and tomorrow.
Showing posts with label Nicanor Parra. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nicanor Parra. Show all posts
Sunday, August 23, 2015
Monday, October 25, 2010
Writing poetry like mathematics
In an article about the Chilean mathematician and poet Nicanor Parra, Paul M Pearson says, : "Parra almost wrote poetry like he would a mathematical theorem using an extreme 'economy of language' with 'no metaphors, no literary figures.' " Today I present work by Nicanor Parra and Richard Aston, both of whom write their poetry with the same economy and care that are used when writing mathematics.
Labels:
arithmetic mean,
economy,
mathematician,
mathematics,
Nicanor Parra,
nothing,
plane,
poet,
poetry,
power,
precision,
Richard Aston,
Sisyphus,
whole,
zero
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