This cycle of three songs based on poems by Miroslav Holub was composed as a tribute to Peter Lipton. Peter Lipton was the Hans Rausing Professor of the History and Philosophy of Science at Cambridge University. He was much admired for his remarkable ability to communicate complex scientific and philosophical ideas. In particular, he relished stories and humour as ways of exploring problems.
These three poems by Holub evoke aspects of Peter's style. They describe classic scientific problems: accuracy, measurement, time, the convergence of parallel lines. I don't know whether Peter would have agreed with the interpretations suggested by Holub, but I think he would have savoured their precision, lucidity, humour and humanity.
Brief Reflection on Accuracy was translated by Ewald Osers and is used with permission from the publishers, Bloodaxe Books. The Clock and Parallels Syndrome were translated by David Young and are used with his permission.