LIMIT

by Luís Madureira

Stone after stone,
Calculation after calculation,
I climbed exponentials of base major than one
As if there was no available time at all.
And I advanced unprotected
Surmounting fear,
And so, becoming brave
Willing to discover the secret.
I navigated never ending seas
Over agitated waves of period 2.
Night after night,
With nobody's help,
Calculating the cosine of the Moon,
The curve of the breast extrapolating;
Strange signs I heard from far lighthouses,
Counting imaginary real numbers from another margin;
And I advanced,
Anxious for unveiling the occult sense of the message.
I explored obscure caverns,
And from axiom to axiom
In the chain of multiple reason I got entangled,
Tearing from the earth its deepest,
From the hands bleeding the demonstration of the world, From all extracting the innumerable root,
From all numbers searching the old matrix,
Searching for an undefinable and quite rare mineral.
And I advanced,
I always advanced,
So strong was the will for deciphering this mystery.
No mask,
No weapon,
No scale or compass,
I only advanced,
I advanced step by step
Day after day;
Loving less the rigourous logic
Than the hot poetry.
Like a frightened child
That night after night counts without stopping
And very tired falls asleep
Without reaching the last number,
I have survived all dangers,
I was reborn from all lonelinesses;
and I have resisted the danger of complete rationality.

But, what for, if little I encountered of what I expected?
What for?
Perhaps to understand
That a limit is not reached by accumulation of calculation.

A limit...one has to feel from inside
And in a straight flight, quicker than Reason's,
Identify subject and knowledge,
As in any other succession.
Perhaps to recognize,
That many travels and conquests,
are not necessary condition to comprehend.
To be what one is, is enough,
To look around and see,
Or better still, see without looking,
And walking, without departing.
To wish without without desire,
To act without action,
To kiss without kissing,
To love without contradiction;
To move and remain immobile,
To combat for Truth, for the First Mobile,
Without ambitioning any profit.
And to definitely reject "for me",
For we just reach what we want
When, at last, we desire reaching nothing.