SRI AUROBINDO

Translations

from Sanskrit and Other Languages

II. From Bengali

Chittaranjan Das

Songs of the Sea (Sagar Sangit)

XXXVI

The great heaven have no voice, the world is lying still:

Thou too hast spoken no word awhile, O illimitable.

The evening rains down on thee its calm influences,

Thou liest a motionless flood of purity and peace;

Thy song fallen silent in the first pale cave of night,

Keeps thy heart secret, murmuring with dumb joy of light.

My petty house of pain and pleasure sinks unshaped

In thy vast body by a tranced delight enwrapped:

All Nature floats to thee like a lotus still and sweet,

And Death and Time have paused arrested at thy feet.

Some mighty Yogin keeps his posture on my breast,

Collected, unbreathing, mute, with lids of moveless rest.

The light of Him I have seen. Himself I reach not. O sea,

Silent I’ll wait; make me one formless soul with thee.