SRI AUROBINDO

Translations

from Sanskrit and Other Languages

II. From Bengali

Chittaranjan Das

Songs of the Sea (Sagar Sangit)

XII

O painter, thou thy marvellous art didst use

In green and pearl and blue and countless hues

To make this pattern of myriad flowers untold,

Passions of azure, miracles of gold.

My eyes had hunger for form’s mysteries

And wandered in vision upon colour’s seas.

Paint out these hues! draw darkness like a brush

Over these tired eyelids! blind me, hush!

Ah, not for visible delight I long!

My soul enchanted only by thy song

I will swim out upon thy waves of sound,

O Voice, and sink into thee for ever drowned.

Then shall I pass into thy hymn, O sea.

There shall be nothing else to eternity.

The universe shall but to sound belong,

And Time and Space shall tremble into song.