“The world needs saints, and all of us, without exception, are called to holiness. We are not afraid!” Pope Francis, October 14, 2018
I
Dear mathematician; a canzone:
A man of India, a child of God.
Born in the south but of gifts, there’s just one.
To sift through numbers - isolated one -
Wrote handwritten books; no proofs - but beauty!
Sure of the work because of its source, one
Man’s journey to publish, to share - this one
Dream drew the intercession of the saints.
Prayers to his gods like prayers to the saints,
Carried a letter to England - only one.
This postal union with Ramanujan:
Professor Hardy and Ramanujan.
II
His mother loved him much; Ramanujan
Was her only son. She picked his wife, one
Young woman, half is age. Ramanujan
Loved her but loved math more. Ramanujan,
Slate and chalk in hand, knew the will of God:
To find and write new math. Ramanujan,
A man with a new wife! Ramanujan,
Would soon have to choose between one beauty
Or another; one country; or beauty
Lying beyond all bounds. Ramanujan
Prayed without ceasing. I believe the saints
Heard him; interceding, the work of saints.
III
Yes, messengers these angels and these saints,
Divine will, their concern; Ramanujan
Their charge. With no formal training, the saints
Got him to Cambridge. Through sickness, the saints
Sustained him; a racism victim - one
More trial. His peers believed not in the saints
Or gods, or in math without proofs. These saints
Saw to it; hearing his prayers; kin to God,
Bearing bravely; blighty men with no God,
Sending sparks of grace; these works of the saints
Opened eyes and ears! The realm of beauty;
Novel results soon proven; what beauty!
IV
Nothing else except math; blinding beauty!
First he proved: who needs proofs? Work of the saints!
Then, a concession to rigor, beauty
In bounds and discipline; now more beauty!
Prized scholars respecting Ramanujan,
Genius and status - this man of beauty.
Elected as Fellow; savant of beauty!
A man of India, now the first one
To receive such honors and to be called one
Of the greats. His rise, a tale of beauty,
A story of struggle; the guidance God
Gives through trial and error. All proofs point to God!
V
Young man, age thirty two, taken by God;
Has taught mankind that order is beauty.
God’s not one of many - this can’t be God;
This one has; another has not; not God.
God is ALL teaches His Son. For the saints
Inspired by the Holy Ghost; God IS God.
If god is short something this is not God.
While every formula Ramanujan
Wrote could not be proven, Ramanujan
Was a man of prayer and a man of God.
Subject to reason and proof, love for the One
Trinity; now face to face - All Three: ONE.
Envoi
I believe your soul to be in Heaven, one
With the Lord and His Heavenly Hosts. God
Chose you to expand math; make proofs - beauty!
If I could ask to validate one saint:
Prove Saint Srinivasa Ramanujan!
-Gary Edward Geraci
According to Edward Hirsch (A Poet’s Glossary) The poet Dante “...composed a maddeningly difficult form of the canzone, which was modeled on the Provençal chanso — a poem that uses the same five end-words in each of the twelve-line stanzas, intricately varying the pattern. There is also a five-line envoi (a tornata) that uses all five of the words. It operates with mathematical precision.” And its what I have attempted to do here in my poem “Prove Saint Srinivasa Ramanujan.” What better way to pay tribute to one of the greats in the field of mathematics? A devoutly religious mathematician at that. I meld two world religious beliefs here, using the license and imagination of a poet, but entirely from my own background as a Catholic believer in the One, Trinitarian God and the Communion of Saints. Although Mr. Ramanujan is not a publicly canonized saint in the Christian world, Catholics believe those that have made it to Heaven, by the grace of God, are already Saints. Further, the Second Vatican Council teaches that God is not limited in how He brings souls to Heaven; after all He has created each one in His image - whether practicing Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim, Jew, Christian, etc. the transcendent, immortal human soul is made in the image of God - the Catholic Magisterium guides us so.
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