Sri Aurobindo

Letters of Sri Aurobindo

Volume 1

Letter ID: 211

Sri Aurobindo — Roy, Dilip Kumar

February 11, 1932

This poem [“Warning” by A. E. or George Russell] I liked so much because it tallied so surprisingly with yogic aspiration. I have perhaps been forced to make it a little free in consequence? But hope not too free?

It is a good translation reproducing the spirit and movement and manner of the original – exact correspondence of the words does not matter.

The substance of A. E.’s poetry is always very good – he is one of the two or three whose poetry comes nearest to spiritual knowledge and experience. He has too a very fine and subtle perception of things – a little more vital élan (of what he seems to have had abundance in his life but not so much in his poetry) and he would have been not only a fine but a very great poet.