Sri Aurobindo

Letters of Sri Aurobindo

CWSA 27

Fragment ID: 7368

On Some Words and Expressions Used by Writers of the Ashram [6]

In my lines –

This heart grew brighter when your breath’s proud chill

Flung my disperse life-blood more richly in!

a terminal “d” will at once English that Latin fellow “disperse”,¹ but is he really objectionable? At first I had “Drove” instead of “Flung” – so the desire for a less dental rhythm was his raison d’être, but if he seems a trifle weaker than his English avatar, he can easily be dispensed with now.

I don’t think “disperse” as an adjective can pass,– the dentals are certainly an objection but do not justify this Latin-English neologism.

12 June 1937

¹ Sri Aurobindo had written in the margin of a typed copy of this poem: “What is this Latin fellow “disperse” doing here?” – Ed.

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