Sharing stuff I read and like is one of my favourite activities. Today there were a lot of dead people walking through my mind and among them Nichita, our most dear and very missed Romanian poet.

So I'll share one of his poems. :)

Another kind of Mathematics

by Nichita Stanescu (1933 - 1983)

We know that one times one is one,
but an unicorn times a pear
have no idea what it is.
We know that five minus four is one
but a cloud minus a sailboat
have no idea what it is.
We know that eight divided by eight is one,
but a mountain divided by a goat
have no idea what it is.
We know that one plus one is two,
but me and you, oh,
we have no idea what it is.

Oh, but a comforter times a rabbit
is a red-headed one of course,
a cabbage divided by a flag
is a pig,
a horse minus a street-car
is an angel,
a cauliflower plus an egg
is an astragalus.

Only you and me
multiplied and divided
added and substracted
remain the same...

Vanish from my mind!
Come back in my heart!

Nichita Stanescu is probably the greatest contemporary Romanian poet who unfortunately left us too soon - he was only 50 when he died. Apart from his many wonderful poems he also left behind some excellent essays and a few insights which are often cited/mentioned.

Just two of them:

- "The poet has no biography: his biography is actually his work, better or worse, greater or less so."

- "The only real things which we take with us in the end are our own feelings, our loves, our hates and adversities. I ask myself - at the end of life, what will we leave behind? I suppose we can leave some feelings, less of hate, some passion, but.... especially love."

Nothing new here, many have expressed the same ideas before and they will be repeated, one way or the other, until the end of time, but if you could only hear him saying those words....