The XII. Bolyai-Gauss-Lobachevsky Conference took place in Budapest from May 1st to 3rd, organized by our researchers. Experts in the theory of gravity and spacetime discussed the latest and most interesting developments in the field and paid homage to the great predecessors, recalling their work and spirit in several presentations.
Among other things, this poem was also recited at the conference:
I have created a new, different universe out of nothing”– Letter of Bolyai to his father –
God had imprisoned our minds in space.
Those puny things have remained prisoners.
Thought, the hungry bird of prey fought the curse,
but never breached its diamond bars embrace
I’m though a happy bird who manages to cope
By peeking outside through a window of my cage,
from nothing a new universe I learned to stage,
like from spiderwebs prisoners weave a rope.
With new natural laws, past the narrow sky.
I opened up a new infinity past the thinkable;
no king in history has conquered more than I
by stealing the secret treasures of the impossible
Listen Euclid, your laws command you not to plod
beyond your prison; I just laugh at you with God.
Mihály Babits
Translation by Paul Sohar
