SRI AUROBINDO

Translations

from Sanskrit and Other Languages

II. From Bengali

Chittaranjan Das

Songs of the Sea (Sagar Sangit)

XXXIX

Burns on that other shore the mystic light

That never was lit here by eve or dawn?

Is’t there, the song eternal, infinite,

None ever heard from earthly instruments drawn?

Sits there then any like myself who yearns

Thirsting for unknown touches on the soul?

Is’t there, the heart’s dream? unsurpassable burns

Thy shadowy self we seek, there bright and whole?

My thirst is great, O mighty One! deep, deep

The thirst is in my heart unsatisfied.

Ah, drown me in thy dumb unfathomed sleep

Or carry to that ungrasped other side.

Will not my hope’s dream there be held at last?

My barren soul grow kingly, rich and vast?