Poetry and Mathematics || Azfar Hussain

I think I’ve always loved mathematics in my own ways.

True, given the kinds of options that were available in our high school in Faridpur (Bangladesh), I enthusiastically opted for what then used to be called the “Humanities Group.” But I opted for that group–and later majored in literature–not out of my fear or dislike of mathematics though.

In fact, very early on in my life, I used to look at mathematical symbols–or, say, at certain mathematical “compositions”–as I would look at a painting or even at a poem with a sense of awe and wonder. The symbols arranged in certain order on a page simply looked beautiful to me. Once in my dream–one that, oh yes, I vividly recall now–I saw how an entire Shakespearean sonnet morphed into a mathematical composition right under my eyes! Indeed, way before I began to read the French philosopher Alain Badiou–whose love of mathematics is unmistakable–I had realized–in my own naive way–that mathematics is more than just logical proofs; that mathematics cannot simply be reduced to logic; and that mathematics does not even have to do with accuracy but it surely involves the power of our imagination. As I recall, I even told a mathematics teacher during my Dhaka University undergrad days that there’s poetry in mathematics. He laughed out loud, thinking I was crazy or even wondering if I was stoned on pot.

But I was surely high on the poetry of mathematics itself.