Poem: ‘(origins, positrons)’

Science in meter and verse

Illustration of purple planet disc shapes in space

Masha Foya

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Elementary particle compositions
silent sidereal peals
hailing from space
   energy
distributed across fourteen orders of magnitude
or of beauty if we believe it all begins with the sun
        a nova, supernova
      or a quasar, punctiform
and forms, footprints, equal amounts of matter
and its mirror.
      Vertigo
always favors the grace of emptiness, indeed
but it all builds up, don’t you see?
zygote, blastomere, morula
   and from this sum, forever
anti-particles, atoms, the positive and negative
everything that exists
   that decays
      and reproduces
in ever new collisions. Electrons. Positrons.
A stellar nucleosynthesis.

“Positrons,” from Corpuscoli di Krause, © 2022 by Fabiano Alborghetti (Gabriele Capelli Editore, Mendrisio, Switzerland). English translation © 2024 by Julia Nelsen.

Julia Nelsen is a translator and researcher of Italian literature based in Berkeley, Calif.

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Poet Fabiano Alborghetti lives in Canton Ticino, Switzerland. He is author of eight poetry collections and winner of the 2018 Swiss Literature Award.

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Scientific American Magazine Vol 332 Issue 3This article was originally published with the title “(origins. positrons)” in Scientific American Magazine Vol. 332 No. 3 (), p. 79
doi:10.1038/scientificamerican032025-4j7V9BwC8nidQtO9HOURjC