Cosmopoetry Superlatives 2022 (6):
Astro-Humour
By Andrei Dorian Gheorghe
Recently, among the joyous stars,
I heard a special rumour:
Adrian Bruno Sonka has a
Strong sense of astro-humour!
-Andrei Dorian Gheorghe-
The world is so small!
Another absolute superlative chosen by SARM in 2022 was a faculty colleague (Physics, University of Bucharest) with the laureate of the Great National Astropoetry Award (Adrian Sima).
It is about the coordinator of the Bucharest Municipal Observatory (and a former general secretary in SARM), Adrian Sonka (or, in full, Adrian Bruno Sonka), an astronomy enthusiast in many directions (from sky observations to popularization for the general public), the author of two exceptional books, The Little Astronomer's Guide to the Universe and A Walk through the Universe.
As a popularizer of astronomy, he has created a unique style, through which he delights the reader or auditor not only with informational competence, but also with an irresistible sense of humour, for which he massively uses literary-poetic methods such as personification and comparison (I'm really curious if someone from Astronomers Without Borders can report a similar case in the world).
All in all, I have selected and translated from his blog (Sonka Adrian - Astronomie, started in 2011) three examples in this sense from 2022:
Astro-humour with Adrian Bruno Sonka
-from “Closer to the Mayor of the Galaxy”, January 13, 2022:
“Everyone knows that no matter what city you are in, you still live in the Galaxy.
And just like in the case of Romanian cities, the Mayor of the Galaxy is a black hole, a mysterious object that behaves inexplicably.
The darkness comes from the Mayor of the Galaxy, and he also gives us the reference point for the position of the stars, being the place from which we measure distances in the Galaxy…”
-from “James Webb Space Telescope - January 24”, February 11, 2022
“Guess who's far from all the madness on Earth?
The James Webb Space Telescope, who arrived on January 25 at 1.5 million kilometers from us.
From there he will arrange himself with his back to our planet.
Then he will observe the interesting part of the Universe.”
-from “Solar Flare”. June 26, 2022
“On the occasion of the summer solstice, I want you to pay attention to my eruptions, which are getting stronger as I approach the peak of activity.
Signed:
the Sun,
the second most important object in human life, after the telephone!”
#poetry