Poésies mathématiques

Sandra DeLozier Coleman est un ancien prof de maths, et elle est poète. Elle associe la poésie, l'art et les mathématiques, auxquels elle trouve des aspects communs. Elle rapproche le sentiment qu'elle éprouve lorsqu'elle achève un poème de celui que l'on peut ressentir lorsqu'on achève une preuve mathématique.
Actuellement Sandra DeLozier Coleman travaille sur la poésie de Sofia Kovalevskaya, mathématicienne russe du XIXe siècle, qu'elle décrit comme "un mathématicien avec l'âme d'un poète."

Un de ses poèmes :

Point of Distinction 

by Sandra DeLozier Coleman

A point in space begins to move

creating endpoints -- clearly two!

A new dimension is defined

as point evolves into a line.

This segment, we shall call an edge,

and on its motion now will hedge

the growth of what we call a face,

as likewise edge a path doth trace.

But note, the path’s particular.

It must be perpendicular!

So, long before the face is through,

of matching edges there are two!

Two others grow as we progress,

but two are instantaneous!

With length that equals width attained

we change the way we move again,

and once more, right away, it’s clear,

two matching faces just appear.

Four more develop over time,

but two are instantly defined!

Extending to the hypercube,

assuming a new way to move,

the cube which has six matching faces,

a path analogous now traces,

where slightest motion yields in full

two separate cubes–identical!

These move apart in such a fashion,

their pathway we can scarce imagine,

but, by analogy, in time,

six other cubes will be defined.

At this point what results we call

a cube that’s four dimensional.

There’s nothing special about four.

There could be any number more.

We try within our space to learn

to see them through the twists and turns

and slices that don’t show the whole,

but rather how the form unfolds.

But always it would seem to me

the thing most difficult to see

is that small speck of space and time,

where separateness is first defined!

Sandra DeLozier Coleman est aussi artiste, avec un goût prononcé pour la symétrie :

ou encore :

"A delicate circle of symmetry intending to capture the feather-like murmuring sound, the whispering soft repetition of waves washing over a shore, of wind moving blossoming branches, of seagulls at once taking flight."

J'aime beaucoup le texte qui accompagne cette oeuvre. Et il y aurait matière à de bien beaux EPI maths-anglais-français...