Re: Sokal

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 I wrote as a nonsense poem out of syllables that
> sounded good, which in the story was supposed to be written in some
archaic
> Latinate language. Then, I got out a big language dictionary and
just for
> fun tried to `translate' it. To my surprise, I found that my poem
actually
> made some sense in Spanish! I have never in my life learned Spanish,
but it
> did. Thus the whole story became concerned with the translator
trying to
> decide what the words she *couldn't* find in her dictionary meant.
> 
> So does this mean I wrote the poem and I constructed the meaning? Or I
> found meaning in something that had no meaning? Couldn't you argue
that,
> like our favourite old tree collapsing in our Zen woods, there *is* no
> meaning until we find it. Either way it came out as quite a good poem:
> 
> You, my darling, my candied torment
> >From continual agony in vain
> Show me, my juicy globe, unyielding mistress
> You, my foundling, my sugared cake.
> 
That is really interesting. I should try it sometime (: It turned out
to be a really good poem.
-Liz Friedman
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