Nirodbaran

Talks with Sri Aurobindo

Volume 1

10 December 1938 – 14 January 1941

24 March 1940

Purani: Jinnah speaks of two Indian States – one Hindu and one Muslim.

Sri Aurobindo: Why two and not several?

Purani: Armando Menezes, the Goan poet, has come. He is publishing another book called Chaos and a Dancing Star.

Sri Aurobindo: The dancing star will be taken for a cinema star. (Laughter)

Purani: Yes, he himself fears so.

Nirodbaran: One criticism of Nishikanto’s book is out.

Sri Aurobindo: I was wondering why no criticism had been made by anybody. What does it say?

Nirodbaran: It is by Buddhadev. He says that Nishikanto, by using fine images and rhythms, gives us pictures as well as sound-patterns so that both eye and ear get plenty of joy.

Sri Aurobindo: Well, what more does he want?

Nirodbaran: He is lamenting over Nishikanto’s exclusion of his prose-poems and also his previous poetry. Bengalis think that his early work was wonderful.

Sri Aurobindo: I didn’t see anything in it. Does Nishikanto think like them?

Nirodbaran: Perhaps not. Buddhadev says that there are seeds of a great poet in him but they are likely to be spoiled if he remains secluded in the Pondicherry Ashram. The complaint is that he writes in the same way and on the same subject all the time.

Sri Aurobindo: He surely doesn’t write in the same way. As for the subject, others also write on the same subject, their own, though other than Nishikanto’s.

Nirodbaran: These people seem to be too much enamoured of their prose-poems. They think prose-poetry is a great creation.

Purani: Yes. I wonder how Tagore could take it up.

Sri Aurobindo: To keep up with the times. Nobody has really succeeded in prose-poetry except to some extent in France. Whitman has succeeded in one or two instances – but only when he has approached nearer poetic rhythm. I read somewhere that modern poets are giving up prose-poetry now and going more towards irregular free verse.

Purani: Tagore says that his works of this kind must be read aloud to catch the rhythm.

Sri Aurobindo: Anything read aloud can have a rhythm, even prose.