Numere si semme

The unique aspect of Laura Garavaglia’s new book is that it consists of biographies of mathematicians, told through their fundamental discoveries. In Italy, it’s almost entirely unusual for a poet to dedicate their verses to mathematical inventions. However, these are presented as portraits where it becomes clear that life is determined by numbers. Garavaglia had already experimented with mathematical verses in her previous book, La simmetria del gheriglio (2013), in which the appreciation for mathematical sciences remained generic, although some poems benefited from it positively. In this new collection, the succession of portraits intrigues due to the author’s audacity, as she could have easily fallen into the banal, chronicling style of a review. Instead, Laura Garavaglia manages to maintain a rhythm suitable for the difficulty of the thought that elaborates on a historical event.

Furthermore, there are biographical notes on the scientists who appear, framed in Italian and translated into English, Romanian, and Spanish. To name a few of the mathematicians: the book begins with Archimedes (“every volume held / in the perfection of the cube”), and continues with many others: Al-Khwarizmi, Fibonacci, Descartes, Carl Friedrich Gauss, Evariste Galois, Georg Cantor, Bernard Riemann, David Hilbert and Herman Minkowski, Srinivasa Ramanujan, and Alan Turing.

The language is simple, evocative, and rational. Yet, reason pairs well with desire. Mathematics meets literature. The result is a fusion that has been unattempted (or unsuccessful) until now. Therefore, the effect is one of surprise, but the readability eliminates any acrimony for having to give up on enjoyment and perhaps idleness. The language is modern, sober, and certainly in tune. The outcome is a small collection of poems that attempt to unify science and literature. It’s a colloquial, intimate poetry, a conversation between the author and her distant interlocutors, which makes the resolution of “harmony” between science and literature more explicit. Succefully.

By an article of Ottavio Rossani