Madeline Millán

I. Poeta invitado/Invited Poet Sultan Catto
II. Tesis sobre los movimientos del mar, Madeline millan

Amigo desde mis primeros años en FIT/SUNY, nuestra amistad no vino sola sino de la mano de Pilar Blanco, luego se unió Cheng. Somos cuatro amigos, casi inseparables. Hablamos lenguas distintas pero nuestro humor se expande como ondas de amor y de confianza. Yo he sido la primera en alzar vuelo de allí, y ya no vivo ni enseño en Nueva York desde el verano de 2021. El covid fue el periodo intermedio de esa transición.
 
Sultan Catto es uno de los grades poetas contemporáneos que está todavía por descubrirse. Una joya, un secreto de la poesía. La grandeza de su escritura tiene dos ejes: el narrativo y el poético. El del diario personal y el de la saga de viajes infinitos por el mundo y sobre todo por las calles de Manhattan. No lo conocen los que saben de poesía. Diríamos que se transforma en secreto, a la espera de una justicia en el tiempo. Tengo muchísimos poemas de él que adoro. Pero en esta sección abro con algunos que van dejando la huella de su conocimiento en física y matemática. Es teórico físico. Cuando le oímos hablar su palabra de profe se convierte en música, en poesía, en milagro. 

Pilar y yo le tradujimos una colección de poemas que salieron bajo el título de Echo/Eco. En la sección de traducción daremos a conocer algo de ese trabajo. 

Espero que lo disfruten. En la segunda parte, le presento un poema mío donde mezclo ciencia y poesía. "Tesis sobre los movimientos del mar" (2001) fue traducido por la poeta puertorriqueña-inglesa-italiana, Linda Rodríguez Gugliemoni. 

 

I. Tres poemas de Sultan Casto
 

CONFUSED

 

I did not acquire skills in mathematics properly—

ascertaining how to add and subtract feelings,

how to multiply thoughts with remembrances,

taking square roots of real complaints,

squaring and cubing the effect of poetry on the human soul.

When it came to division, there I failed miserably.

I couldn’t divide my life and place it into compartments

of the past and the future. Unable to compare double anxieties,

I wasn’t even aware, whether I had a future or a past.

 

I was taught by mathematicians and scientists

that division by zero is undefined, or tends to infinity,

a concept that always has been beyond my comprehension;

so, I lend myself to studying non-standard analysis.

I no longer care about the division of yesterday and tomorrow,

am living in the present between the two,

motioning along a unidirectional time axis toward the unknown.

 

I walk along uncharted borders as if compiling a dictionary—

flinging watermelons into a river, watch them roll atop the waters,

follow the wind going to the horizon to spend its vacation,

rename all the stars above me, alchemize into sky’s collection,

and try to exist like a poet, or a tachyon, violating causality.

 

 

HABIBI

 

After so many of his poetic manuscripts 

sat among a large number of piled-up works on editors’ desks,

he felt his brain began forming some sort of a crust; he revealed

he, too, became one of those blackholes existing in our universe.

 

He wrote love poems, rendered surrealistic oil paintings on large canvases,

living in Chelsea, a neighborhood of Manhattan he truly loved,

made a living by selling his poems and paintings on the corner

of 19th Street and Seventh Avenue, occasionally taking the subway

coming up to the Creeps Corner at the old West End Bar,

or to the Hungarian Pastry Shop around the corner, visiting old friends.

Although he claimed for years that he was an extinguished star,

the light of his verses reached me and shaped me for decades to come.

 

Whenever we met, I informed him that those elusive blackholes

emit so much radiation we detect coming from swirling matter

falling into them at a place, we scientists call “the event-horizon.”

Any radiation they emit can still escape and reach our souls.

Always laughing at my comments, he often said

that he and I were nothing but “mountains of griefs… “

 

Calling him often, while I was at Yale, begging him

to send me some of those old and new love poems he wrote,

like an excited astronomer, I felt lucky and overwhelmed

to receive some of the antiquities from his incredible shop.

 

He was one of those prophetic beings who was able to explain

unknown by the unknown, magic by its magic. He did not believe

cosmos can become a transcendental point of reference for Man

and that the point of reference is others. He was one of them.

 

They say, when a man dies, his portraits change,

his eyes look a different way, his lips smile a different smile,

but not so. Now that he is gone, my mountain bends before my grief,

the great river no longer flows, but Habibi’s poetry wind

still blows through the ancient rocks he placed in my soul.

 

BROOM-WORK

 

Comprised of unobservable waves,

the so-called primordial vacuum

explodes with a big bang, creating time and space,

moves forward with an unending quest, 

evolves into our observed universe.

 

Creating a poem is a different reality:

You begin in the middle

work forwards and backwards in slow steps

until some exhaustion takes over.

Words are poet’s tools. He uses them,

moves them around, changes their color,

knowing poppies and red roses have the same hue

but green is their stem. He soon discovers

the beginning of a verse is already played out

and before reaching the last line

he is already checkmated.

He no longer could change the denouement.

 

Perhaps one day we shall be able to read

between the words, read blank spaces

through which we come to words,

on that day we will come to understand

natural motion to the way of love,

a broom-work, by sweeping that raises dust

keeps the luster covered that confuses us.

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II.  Tesis sobre los movimientos del mar / Thesis on the Movements of the Sea

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I. Introducción

Como ejemplo de los computadores paralelos el uso del Intel hypercube

modela la propagación de los sonidos del mar, usando los procesadores

Su algoritmo paralelo  alcanza una velocidad de X-MP/ (iPS/2)=2.8

pero ello no sirve para explicar la acústica tridimensional

de la propagación del sonido del mar

El modelamiento global de la computación oceánica guarda

una memoria de actividad intensa:

Ejemplos tomados en el Golfo de California

demuestran que podemos simular factores

tan complejos como la viscosidad, difusidad de las aguas

temperatura y salinidad en momemtums distintos

Para reducir el tiempo de ejecución, Semtner y Chervin (1988)

robustecieron el diagnóstico y las estrategias termodinámicas

Es un reto para los modeladores sacar ventaja de los multiprocesadores

en largas y complejas escalas de simulación oceánica

En el presente, no hay ninguna forma simple  de automatizar o mecanizar la conversión de códigos seriales ni códigos paralelos

 

II.  Metodología

 

LF30V4 o Laura, como cariñosamente le llamamos

lee de derecha a izquierda y de izquierda a derecha

una porción de las siete partes del mar

Una vez dividido el mar en siete partes iguales se regula a LF30V4,

La primera parte interpreta el movimiento del mar en 3.0m por segundo,

Ello indica que el computador iguala la lectura del oceanógrafo

Suponiendo que las ondas del  movimiento se detengan

aparecerá en la pantalla el mar dividido en un color rojo

Un caballo blanco galopará a paso veloz dividiendo las aguas

Antes de que vuelva a cerrarse esa porción de mar

otro caballo negro y su jinete pasarán al otro lado

La porción que no se mueve es la más difícil de interpretar

Se ha demostrado que el computador es exacto

en la simulación del movimiento

Sin embargo, los oceanógrafos de este proyecto pionero de la oceanografía

han descubierto un problema que Schultz (1990)

había afirmado no sin haber sido acusado de extravío

Según Schultz el mar no se mueve. El mar se encuentra siempre en reposo

El Mar Muerto no es una metáfora solo una imagen de la eternidad

en la profundidad de sus aguas

Para Schultz el mar dormía bajo el peso del cielo, 

del sol,  de los astros y seres invisibles

La teoría shultziana se descartó inmediatamente por la siguiente razón:

Si el mar está realmente muerto no sería factible convertirlo

en objeto de los estudios acerca de los movimientos del mar

Mucho menos compete a una tesis científica

La teoría de los lapsos del Mar Muerto

espantó a los científicos por sus connotaciones metafísicas

Fue abandonada luego con su teorizador quien habría tenido

que elaborar una ley gravitacional diferente

Con LF30V4 leemos la muerte por lo menos de una de las partes del mar

 

III. Conclusiones e inicio de una segunda propuesta de tesis

 

Diez años después reconocemos: El movimiento del mar exige su reposo

Ni siquiera el más feliz y procreador de los mares

brinda un pronóstico seguro

El Mar Muerto posee en su sedimento materia viva

No siendo el llamado Mar Muerto como el Mar de los Sargazos ni el Mar Rojo

fenómenos de planteamientos lógicos sobre la mortandad de este cuerpo

o analogías por el estilo deben ser descartadas

para presentarse en distintas tesis

Conflictivas en su lenguaje y método

la teoría que presentamos  ha sido aplicada a través de un computador

diagramado con fórmulas ficcionales: El famoso LF4V9 o Pepe

así apodado en el laboratorio ocenográfico de California

Se ha avanzado más en la descripción móvil del mar

desde que LF4V9 inició la lectura del Mar Muerto

Ahora, confirma la ley de entropía aplicada a los ruidos del mar

ha ido identificando los sonidos de todos los peces

el producido por las algas,  el de las anémonas inquietas

y la vegetación marina carnívora, registra formas no identificadas

en sus variados modos de procreación y exitencia

Como toda teoría debe seleccionar un campo de información y negar otro

se han ido descartando el producido por tornados de mar y maelstroms

Así también el de todo sismo y erupción volcánica interna en las aguas

El lenguaje del mar debe ser reducido a su minimalismo

y debe ser expresado en su minimalización teórica sin incluir el universo externo que lo habita, el lenguaje del mar será muy sencillo

Debemos admitir, sin embargo, que sus detalles sobrepasan

cualquier lectura de LF30V4.  Un problema científico encararán

los futuros investigadores a partir de nuestro estudio

y aseguramos que será de una coyuntura trágica:

Con LF4V9 se llega a las mismas conclusiones que con el antiguo LF30V4

Esto es una especie de cogito cartesiano

Habrá que permitirse en el intento

no solo la entrada a otras disciplinas como filosofía,

antropología, teología, historia y lingüística,

además de física y biología marina para poder

escribir semejante tesis y consagrarla a unos posibles lectores

Como ocurre en la República de Platón,

un príncipe educado de por vida para ese reto

podrá escribirla y dirigir el destino de nuestros conocimientos

Aún así, faltaría un director de tesis competente

Y, con suerte, ser bendecidos con un comité

sensible e inteligente que la apruebe

Pero como se trata de un poema, confiamos que en el lector

sabrá conjeturar su poeticidad intrínseca

 

(Publicado por Ciberayllu, página en la internet, 2001)

 

I. Introduction

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As an example of parallel computers the use of the Intel hypercube

models the propagation of sounds created by the sea, using the processors

Its parallel algorithms reaches a velocity of X-MP X-MP/ (iPS/2)=2.8

but this does not serve to explain the three-dimensional acoustics

of the propagation of sounds created by the sea

The global modeling of the ocean’s computation guards

a memory of intense activity:

Samples taken from the Gulf of California demonstrate that we can

simulate factors of such complexities as viscosity, diffuseness of the waters

temperature and salinity during a diversity of momemtums

To reduce the time of execution, Semtner and Chervin (1988)

strengthened the diagnostic and the thermodynamic strategies

Modelers are challenged to obtain any advantage from the multiprocessors

during long and complex scales of oceanic simulation

At present, there is no simple way of automatizing or mechanizing

the translation of serial codes nor parallel codes

 

 

II. Methodology

 

LF30V4 or Laura, as we call it with affection

reads from right to left and from left to right

an area of the seven parts of the sea

Once the sea is divided into seven equal parts it is regulated to LF30V4

The first part interprets the movement of the sea in 3.0 per second,

This indicates that the computer equals the reading of the oceanographer

Supposing that the waves of the movement stop

the divided sea will appear on the screen as a reddish color

A white horse will gallop fast dividing the waters

Before that section of the sea closes in on itself once again

another black horse and its rider will pass to the other side

The part that does not move is the most difficult to interpret

It has been demonstrated that the computer is exact

in the movement’s simulation

Even so, the oceanographers of this pioneering project of oceanography

have discovered a problem that Schultz (1990)

had affirmed not without having been accused of straying

According to Schultz the sea does not move. The sea is continually at rest

The Dead Sea is not a metaphor but an image of eternity

in the depth of its waters

For Schultz the sea slept below the weight of the sky,

the sun, the stars and the invisible beings

The Schultzian theory was discarded immediately for the following:

If the sea were really dead it would not be possible to turn it into

the aim of research on sea movements

Much less it would be the proper base for a scientific thesis

The theory of the Dead Sea’s failure

frightened the scientists because of its metaphysical connotations

Afterwards it was abandoned together with its theorists who would have had to elaborate a different gravitational law

With LF30V4 we read the demise of at least one part of the sea

 

III. Conclusions and beginnings of a second thesis proposal

 

Ten years later we recognize that the movements of the sea demand their rest

Not even the happiest and most creative of seas

delivers a foolproof prognostic

The Dead Sea possesses live matter in its sediment

The so-called Dead Sea not being neither the Sargasso nor the Red Sea

phenomena of logical assertions about the mortality of this body

or analogies of similar style must be discarded

To be put forward in a variety of theses

Disagreeing in their language and methods 

the theory we have exposed has been applied through a computer

diagramed with fictional formulas: The famous LF4V9 or Pepe

as it was nicknamed at the California oceanographic laboratory

More advances have been made in the mobile description of the sea

since LF4V9 initiated the reading of the Dead Sea

It now, confirms the laws of entropy applied to the sea sounds:

identifying the sounds of each type of fish

that produced by the algae, by the unquiet anemones

and the carnivorous marine vegetation, registers unidentified forms

in its various forms of procreation and existence

As all theory it must select a field of information and negate another

those produced by sea tornados and maelstroms have been discarded

as that of all seismic and volcanic eruption in the waters

The language of the sea must be reduced to a minimalism

and must be expressed in its theoretical minimization without including the exterior universe which inhabits it, the language of the sea will be very simple

We must admit, even so, that its details are more

than any reading of the LF30V4. A scientific problem will confront

the future investigators after our study

which we assure will be being tragic in nature

With LF4V9 we arrive at the same conclusions as with the older LF30V4

This is a type of Cartesian cogito

It must be allowed in the attempt

not only the entrance into other disciplines such as philosophy,

anthropology, theology, history and linguistics,

as well as physics and marine biology to be able

to write such a thesis and consecrate it to some ideal readers

Such as takes place in Plato’s Republic,

a prince educated throughout his lifetime for that purpose

will be able to write the text and direct the destiny of our knowledge

Even so, a competent thesis director would be needed

And the luck to be blessed by a sensible and intelligent

committee that approve it

But as it concerns a poem, we trust that the reader

will be able to conjecture its intrinsic poetic

 

 

 

(Published by Ciberayllu, internet page, 2001 and in El rastro de las mariposa.

A Woman’s Anthology of Hispanic Poetry. Selection and prologue by Leo Zelada. Lord Byron Editions, Peru-Madrid).

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