‘I Love You, Wittgenstein’

As part of our student creatives series, Saksham Sharma presents an ode to Wittgenstein, a Cambridge philosopher of the early 20th century

An installation at the site of Wittgenstein's grave pays homage to his ladderAndrew Dunn / Wikimedia Commons

by Saksham Sharma

Saturday September 12 2020, 10:30pm

As I say a word,
it reminds me of you -
my world is not yours
and yours can’t be mine.

As I surmount this ladder,
of trying to say things –
you threw it away as if
you want to see me falling.

As I fall, I start whistling,
the things I can’t say –
like this crazy you who
said things he couldn’t say.

The Sound of Cosmopolitan Bombay: Gulshan Ewing

As I start seeing semblances,
a likely bias stops me –
for my intuition and illogic,
but you seem to hold me.

As I am about to touch down,
you connect me to forms of life –
of thoughts, habits, and cultures,
of being able to love and loved by.

As I think of love, I think of you
and the moment expands to eternity –
my heart glazes intensely on imagining
your passion, profundity, and intensity.

In short Who was Wittgenstein?

Ludwig Wittgenstein, born 26 April 1889 in Vienna and died 29 April 1951, was a philosopher who taught at the University of Cambridge. Some consider him to be the greatest philosopher of the 20th century.

Wittgenstein's Ladder is a philosophical proposition about the nature of learning which states that, in his words,

"My propositions serve as elucidations in the following way: anyone who understands me eventually recognizes them as nonsensical, when he has used them—as steps—to climb beyond them. (He must, so to speak, throw away the ladder after he has climbed up it.) He must transcend these propositions, and then he will see the world aright."

Click to show

Support Varsity

Varsity is the independent newspaper for the University of Cambridge, established in its current form in 1947. In order to maintain our editorial independence, our print newspaper and news website receives no funding from the University of Cambridge or its constituent Colleges.

We are therefore almost entirely reliant on advertising for funding and we expect to have a tough few months and years ahead.

In spite of this situation, we are going to look at inventive ways to look at serving our readership with digital content and of course in print too!

Therefore we are asking our readers, if they wish, to make a donation from as little as £1, to help with our running costs. Many thanks, we hope you can help!