For Global Astronomy Month 2020 (56) - A New World Record in Astropoetry

Astropoem by Zigmund Tauberg, text and photos by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe

Published: Monday, November 30 -0001 00:00

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Zigmund Tauberg was born in October 21, 1927, and later he became a teacher of mathematics, a popularizer of astronomy, an enthusiastic astropoet and, after retirement, the leader of a literary circle. 

In October 20, 2019, he became the oldest astropoet in the world (92 years) who read original astropoems in a (subterranean) planetarium (“Supernova”, Unirea Saline, Slanic Prahova, Romania). 

In December 18, 2019, he became the oldest astropoet in the world (92 years and 2 months) who read original astropoems in an astronomical observatory (Admiral Vasile Urseanu Bucharest Municipal Observatory).

In April 25, 2020, wanting to demonstrate the power of human spirit at any age on any kind of time, Zigmund Tauberg wrote a new piece in his small house surrounded by blocks of flats in a Bucharestian neighborhood, and now he becomes the oldest astropoet (92 years and 6 months) who publishes an astropoem in the Astropoetry Blog of the world organization for the celebration of astronomy, Astronomers Without Borders, even during Global Astronomy Month 2020.

We present his last creation below (which is also his encouragement for all people during this world crisis) in the Romanian original version (classical style, two stanzas, eight syllables per line, alternate rhymes - ABAB) and in my English translation (classical style, two stanzas, eight syllables per line, but rhymes… only ABCA - oh, such translations are always complicated):

ASTROPOEZIE
(SOARELE ESTE O STEA)
de Zigmund Tauberg

Nălțând privirile spre cer,
După mult timp am priceput
Secretul marelui mister,
Al vieții noastre început.

Iată de ce cântăm în vers
Mulțimea lumilor stelare:

Noi toți suntem, în Univers,
Copiii zămisliți de Soare.

ASTROPOETRY
(THE SUN IS A STAR)
by Zigmund Tauberg

Looking up to the immense sky
We understand after much time
The sense of the great mystery,
When our life began to fly.

That’s why we use to praise through verse
The multitude of stellar worlds:
We are created by the Sun,
His children in the Universe.

(English translation from Romanian by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe)

Photos by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe:

1. Zigmund Tauberg leading the Mihail Sebastian Cultural Circle
(January 14, 2020)
2. The Sun in a Bucharestian neighborhood
(April 24, 2020)