Sri Aurobindo

Collected Poems

SABCL - Volume 5

II. Sonnets
1930–1950

The Witness Spirit

I dwell in the spirit’s calm nothing can move

And watch the actions of Thy vast world-force,

Its mighty wings that through infinity move

And the Time-gallopings of the deathless Horse.

This mute stupendous Energy that whirls

The stars and nebulae in its long train,

Like a huge Serpent through my being curls

With its diamond hood of joy and fangs of pain.

It rises from the dim inconscient deep

Upcoiling through the minds and hearts of men,

Then touches on some height of luminous sleep

The bliss and splendour of the eternal plane.

All this I bear in me, untouched and still

Assenting to Thy all-wise inscrutable will.

Later edition of this work: The Complete Works of Sri Aurobindo.- Set in 37 volumes.- Volume 2.- Collected Poems.- Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 2009.- 751 p.