Date: Wed, 14 Mar 2007 13:30:45 -0400
From: Steve Smith <sgs at aginc.net>
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>
Subject: [WSFA] Happy Pi Day!
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>

Celebration starts at 1:59!

Via Kevin Wald <http://www.math.uchicago.edu/~wald/lit/>.  (What is this
man on, and where can I get some?)  If you want to memorize 160 digits
of pi:

Kevin Wald: Pied-Throned Deathless Aphrodite

This is a slightly modified version (line 8 is different) of something
I originally posted to sci.math during a discussion of pi mnemonics.
It is simply a translation of Sappho's "Hymn to Aphrodite" in which the
number of letters in each word gives the corresponding digit of pi.
(The ampersand, of course, is a 0-letter word.)

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now I pray, O queen Aphrodite on ornate chair,
Sly, death-shunning thunderer-progeny,
Devastate not my own emotions with aching or sorrow;

Come the way formerly you, my plaints detecting,
Heard & in hurrying downward left
A begetter's mansion. A golden cabriolet

You harnessed; posthaste did finches impel 't &
Whirr winglets by & overshade Midgard
 From firmament down unto lower midranges of sky, &

Arrived speedily. O milady, holy & eterne in splendor,
Smiled ye & inquired wherefore lamenting resounds,
Whence my distress, &

For what, signally, I'm heart-mad.
"Whom am I t' ensnare & seduce?
Whoever currently troubles ye, O poet?

Rebuffer & offering-dumper shall I set to pursuing ye now, &
Giving thence many gifties; & transform now-unloving maid
Into adorer (& unwilling wooer, maybe)." &

Speed likewise to me now, I entreat; my heart set again
Woelessly free, & whatever I so heartily wish achieved p.d.q.,
Fulfill that thing, & be Psappho's ally.

--
Steve Smith                                    steve at zipbeep dot org
Agincourt Computing                              http://www.zipbeep.org