Pi
~Wislawa Szymborska~
The
admirable number pi:
Three point one four one.
All the following digits are also
initial,
Five nine two because it never ends.
It can't be
comprehended six five three five at a glance,
Eight nine by calculation,
Seven nine or imagination,
Not even three two three eight by wit, that is, by
comparison
Four six to anything else
Two six four three in the world.
The longest snake on earth calls it
quits at about
forty feet.
Likewise, snakes of myth and legend, though they may hold out a bit longer.
The pageant of
digits comprising the number pi
Doesn't stop at the page's edge.
It goes on across the table, through the air,
Over a wall, a leaf, a bird's nest, clouds, straight into the sky,
Through all the
bottomless, bloated heavens.
Oh how brief - a mouse tail, a
pigtail - is the tail of a comet!
How feeble the star's ray, bent by bumping up against space!
While here we have two three fifteen three hundred nineteen
My
phone number your shirt size the year
Nineteen hundred and seventy-three the sixth floor
The number of inhabitants sixty-five cents
Hip
measurement two fingers a charade, a code,
In which we find hail to thee,
blithe spirit, bird thou never wert
Alongside ladies and
gentlemen, no cause for alarm,
As well as heaven and earth shall pass away,
But not the number
pi, oh no, nothing doing,
It keeps right on with its rather
remarkable five,
Its uncommonly fine eight,
Its far from final seven,
Nudging, always
nudging a sluggish
eternity
To
continue.