http://qs1969.pair.com?node_id=46978

I'm not creative enough to write many poems. The last one I wrote was a cry of anguish as the academic quarter bit it's teeth into me. Nonetheless, I do enjoy taking great poems already written and translating them! The creative bit of making great poetry has already been acomplished, and what remains is to get it to parse in this holy language. That's easy.
So this time, I give you the mathmatical love poem written by Stanislaw Lem in his book The Cyberiad. I have always loved this poem. I tried reciting it to my love interest, however. She thought it was cute at the time, but ultimately rejected me. I wept. She was perfect for me. But enough of that. If you haven't read the Cyberiad, pick up a copy today! (Assuming you can find it, Lem, being a foreign (Polish) author is sometimes hard to find). The book is an incredibly good read. Very funny.

The setting of this poem is as follows. The constructor Trurl has just invented a cybernetic bard, and claims it can compose a poem about any subject the listener wants. Klapaucious, a rival constructor asks it for "A love poem, lyrical, pastoral, and expressed in the language of pure mathematics. Tensor algebra mainly, with a little topology and higher calculus, if need be. But with feeling, you understand, and in the cybernetic spirit." This poem is the result.
#!/usr/bin/perl #Let us hasten to a higher plane #Where dyads tread the fairy fields of Venn #Their indices bedecked from one to n #Co-mingled in an endless Markov chain. $quick; $z=$y+0*$x; $r=2; $y++; if (($dyads)&&($dyads{tread}="via Venn")){ for(1..$n){push @dyad_index, $_; while(1){$markov[$cnt]= $cnt++;}}} #Come, where every frustrum longs to be a cone #And every vector dreams of matricies #Hark to the gentle gradient of the breeze #It whispers of a more ergodic zone. $approach_now; $top_radius=>0; foreach $vector(@space){@matrix=>$_.$_;} $listen; for(1..9){@breeze[$_];} $breeze{whispering} = rand($zone); #In Riemann, Hilbert, Or Banach Space #Superscripts and subscripts go their ways. #Our asymptotes no longer out of phase #We shall encounter, counting, face to face. if(($space eq"Riemann")||($space eq"Hilbert")||($space eq"Banach")){ ($superscripts && $subscripts); split; $my=$your=tan(0); $you && $I; for(1..$n){} for(1..$n){}} #I'll grant thee random access to my heart #Thoul't tell me all the constants of thy love #And so we two all love's lemma's prove, #And in our bound partition never part. bless \$you; $index=rand(my @heart); $you; tell; $me; for(1..@LOVE) {$your{LOVE}[$_];} ($you &&$I); prove($all_lemmas); sub prove{1}; ($you && $I); !$you; !$I; #For what did Cauchy know, or Christoffel, #Or Fourier, or any Boole, or Euler, #Wielding their compasses, their pens and rulers, #Of thy supernal sinusoidal spell. $querey =~ /.*/, $cauchy.$christoffel{knowledge}; $querey =~ /.*/, $fourier.$boole.$euler{knowledge}; $Mathmaticians{wielding}= ("Compasses", "Pens", "Rulers"); for(1..90) {sin($_)+$your{spell};} #Cancel me not, for what then shall remain? #Abscissas, some mantissas, modules, modes, #A root or two, a torus and a node: #The inverse of my verse, a null domain. !$cancel; $me; defined($remains); @remain= ("2", "3", "23." , "5.", "LWP", "CGI", "strict", "debug"); $remains=($root || $two),($torus && $node); 1/(++$my_verse)==undef($domain); #Elipse of bliss converge, Oh lips divine! #The product of our scalars is defined! #Cyberiad draws nigh, and the skew mind #Cuts capers like a happy haversine. $x!=$y; $x=$y; $larrys{lips}; $my * $your != 0; $Cyberiad{locale}="Approaching fast"; $mad_mind = split /capers/ => $haversine; #I see the eigenvalue in thine eye. #I hear the tendor tensor in thy sigh. #Bernoulli would have been content to die, #Had he but known such A^2*cosine(2*Phi). $I{see}; @your{eye} = ($e*($x_1,$x_2)==$e*$x_1,$e*$x_2); $I{hear}; $your{sigh}= $A1*$P1+$A2*$P2+$A3*$P3+$A4*$P4; $bernoullis{will}; die if $A**2*cos(2*$phi);
~W

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Re: The Mathmatical Love Poem
by motomuse (Sexton) on Dec 21, 2000 at 07:03 UTC
    Ooo, the Cyberiad! A longtime favorite, equally long forgotten until this very pleasant reminder.

    Just a note, the last figure was not Phi, but Psi -- cause to sigh...

    My favorite poem by the cybernetic bard, though, was the "poem about a haircut, containing love, heroism and tragedy, six lines, cunningly rhymed, and every word beginning with the letter S":

    Seduced, shaggy Samson snored.
    She scissored short. Sorely shorn,
    Soon shackled slave, Samson sighed,
    Silently scheming,
    Sightlessly seeking
    Some savage, spectacular suicide.
    Immortal.
    - Muse