~Eagam Khaling~
This above reduced proposition (title) is extracted from Lakshmiprasad Devkota’s poem titled ‘Pagal’[1] (literally means a lunatic or a mad person), written against the autocracy, dictatorship and hypocrisy of then rulers of Nepal. Devkota was a great Nepali poet of the twentieth century. One of the scholars measuring his genuineness and extraordinary ability has honoured him with the title of ‘A Geographical Mistake’. Rahul Sanskritiyan considered him as equal to three jewels of Hindi literature (Pant-Prasad-Nirala) and some Nepali scholars have even honoured him with the titles of ‘Maha Kavee’ and ‘Aashu Kavi’ which mean a great poet who can instantly compose and write spontaneously (like the flow of a stream) because he had such incredible quality. He was one of the great figures of Nepali literature. The more we write about him the less we cover. That’s why; I am quickly coming to the objective of the above proposed title. Devkota writes,
Mero Ganitma Ekbat Ek Jhike
Ekai Bahki Rahanchha[1].
(Nepali)
In my mathematics,
Subtract one from one
The product is still one.
(Translation)
If we reduce the above lines into a proposition it will be ‘One minus one is equal to one’ and we know that a proposition may be true or false. These above lines used sarcastically to protest against anything would be general acceptance but the question is that, is this type of changing mathematical truth in poetry (in any art form) possible? This seems odd and obscure but poetry is literally free and may relate to anything, in the sense that anything from experiences and expressions, in its own freedom and limitation. There always remains a possibility that when a poet does not get some appropriate words and sentences that are able to carry the full expressions, at that particular moment of dissatisfaction he consciously or unconsciously breaks the existing rules and principles. Thus the answer would be obviously ‘Yes’ for us, and therefore, poetry as a part or art is another name of the possibility.
In the case of mathematics such kind of proposition ‘1-1=1’ is not valid and acceptable. There is difference between ‘1-1=1’ and ‘Subtract one from one the product is still one’ or ‘One minus one is equal to one’. As we know that subtracting one from one the product is always zero and mathematics does not accept the result or product other than zero. This is because in mathematics we are concerned not with the meanings of the sentences but with their objective truth values. Further the proposition ‘1-1=1’ can be logically shown to be a negative proposition (as negative argument) as ‘1-1≠ 0’ or ‘One minus one is not equal to zero.’ But according to Immanuel Kant (Critique of Pure Reason, 1781), the mathematical propositions or judgments are not governed by the principle of contradiction. Again, the supposed proposition ‘1-1=1’ cannot be logically drawn from ‘1-1≠ 0’. Thus in Kantian senses the propositions ‘1-1=1’, ‘1+1=1’ and ‘1+1=3’ are not mathematically true because mathematical propositions are necessary and universal. We must be always able to understand that poetry is not all about the propositions otherwise it will not remain poetry. In fact, we cannot give a physical interpretation to the operative signs, as well as to the numerical signs and they do not have such meanings in mathematics. The mathematical propositions do not depend for their truth upon the physical interpretations of their constituent elements. But Devkota’s use of ‘1-1=1’ is not against any mathematical principle or formula (or a mathematical doctrine) but a mathematical sentence symbolically used in a form of satire.
We cannot say that there are no propositions in poetry at all, for we do find many meaningful propositions in some of the finest poetry of the world. Their aesthetic reactions are directly related to our beliefs and certain known ideas. Those poems containing propositions about the world are true or false but we cannot conclude them to be true or false for the simple reason that the propositions involving judgments about the world and ideas are parts of bearing meanings in an organic whole transcending the parts. Further, in poetry emotive experience dominates the part containing thoughts and feelings and cannot be true or false. A poem as a final product with many elements in it where thought and feeling are unified so that a whole emotive experience may be gained by a provisional belief independently of our permanent belief got through intellectual verification of the thought. Generally, the thought in a literary work is not thought proper like we meet in science and philosophy, rather it is a kind of intuition which cannot be judged by the standards of mathematics and logic for truth or falsity but simply believed in entirely. Hence, Devkota’s use in the meaning of mathematics is literally intelligible and legitimate and also contemporary in expression and understanding.
We all know that mathematics is different from poetry; but we must also be able to know how mathematical propositions and sentences and elements can be used in poetry. Poetry is not a science and it is not dry as much as mathematics. It always widely appeals to emotion, experience and aesthetic and artistic values. Poetry depends on human beings and the world as a whole but mathematical truths are independent of human beings. Thus our main focus would remain to see (find out) how a poet can use various subjects and elements in his works for the purpose of materializing them into his artistic sense of intelligently using their subjective properties in various forms.
In the poem the sentence ‘Subtract one from one the product is still one’ or the false proposition ‘One minus one is equal to one’ is literally meaningful in its own form but not valid in mathematics. In one sense it is a legitimate deconstruction within the scope of the subject for the purpose of artistic (creative) construction. It stands on the feet of irrationality. Therefore Devkota’s abstraction of mathematical formula in rejection in his own literal use of elements of mathematics is poetical and experimental applied to cast more successful and expressive meanings (and senses) in the satire.
[Courtesy: Pines and Camellias (2011), Darjeeling Government College.]
Lakshmi Kavitasangrah (includes 72 poems written by the poet from the year 1956 to 1959), Pulchok, Sajha Prakashan, 1976.
[1] ‘Pagal’ is one of the poems of his book Lakshmi Kavitasangrah.
[2] Lakshmi Kavitasangrah (includes 72 poems written by the poet from the year 1956 to 1959), Pulchok, Sajha Prakashan, 1976.
(Source : Writer submitted via ‘Kritisangraha@gmail.com‘.)
