El buit del temps

If I tell you that molecules are left-

or right-handed, that a carbon bound

to four others can be crafted by your

hands in nonsuperimposable mirror

image forms, that we are built from

just one hand, and that sinister, that

we smell and taste and are numbed

by one, and not its image, you’ll say,

in your sweet way: what’s left or right

got to do with it, do molecules

hide turns, switch-hitters, the lovingly

taught match of small arms and sleeves?

Roald Hoffmann, Poema n. 2 de Specula, del llibre Memory Effects (Calhoun Press, Chicago, 1999). Hi ha traducció castellana d’alguns dels poemes de R. Hoffmann a Catalista. Poemas escogidos (Huerga y Fierro Editores, Madrid 2002). Hoffmann rebé el Nobel de Química en 1981.

A la figura, les dues estructures especulars de la carvona. A l’esquerra, la que està present a la menta i a la dreta, la present al comí.

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