Sri Aurobindo

Collected Poems

SABCL - Volume 5

II. Sonnets
1930–1950

The Word of the Silence

A bare impersonal hush is now my mind,

A world of sight clear and inimitable,

A volume of silence by a Godhead signed,

A greatness pure of thought, virgin of will.

Once on its pages Ignorance could write

In a scribble of intellect the blind guess of Time

And cast gleam-messages of ephemeral light,

A food for souls that wander on Nature’s rim.

But now I listen to a greater Word

Born from the mute unseen omniscient Ray:

The Voice that only Silence’ ear has heard

Leaps missioned from an eternal glory of Day.

All turns from a wideness and unbroken peace

To a tumult of joy in a sea of wide release.

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.