SRI AUROBINDO
Translations
from Sanskrit and Other Languages
INDEXES
INDEX OF TITLES
A Beauty Infinite / By Jyotirmayee (c.1902)
A Beauty infinite, an unborn Power
A Choice: On Fools and Folly
Better were this, to roam in deserts wild,
A Contrast: On Pride and Heroism
The dog may servile fawn upon the hand
A Little Knowledge: On Fools and Folly
When I was with a little knowledge cursed,
A Miracle: On Wealth
Behold a wonder mid the sons of men!
A Mother’s Lament
Hadst thou been never born, Rama, my son,
A Parable of Fate: On Fate
A serpent in a basket crushed despaired,
A Rarity: Miscellaneous Verses
Rich in sweet loving words, in harshness poor,
A Rose of Women / By Meleager (I c. B.C.)
Now lilies blow upon the windy height,
Action be Man’s God: On Karma
Whom shall men worship? The high Gods? But they
Adornment: On Virtue
The hand needs not a bracelet for its pride,
Advice to a King: On Wealth
He fosters, King, the calf who milks the cow,
Age and Genius: On Pride and Heroism
Nature, not age is the high spirit’s cause
Altruism Oceanic: On Virtue
Here Vishnu sleeps, there find his foes their rest;
An Aryan City
Coshala by the Soroyou, a land
Anandamath
A wide interminable forest. Most of the trees
Appeal
Thy youth is but a noon, of night take heed,–
Aut Caesar aut Nullus: On Pride and Heroism
Two fates alone strong haughty minds endure,
Bhagavad Gita
A God mid hills northern Himaloy rears
Bhavani: Miscellaneous Verses
Father nor mother, daughter nor son are mine,
Bodies without Mind: On Fools and Folly
Some minds there are to Art and Beauty dead,
Circumstance: On Wealth
There is no absoluteness in objects. See
Comparisons: On Wisdom
Men cherish burning anger in their hearts,
Death, not Vileness: Miscellaneous Verses
Better to a dire verge by foemen borne,
Definitions: Miscellaneous Verses
What is clear profit? Meeting with good men.
Description of the Virtuous: On Virtue
Homage to him who keeps his heart a book
Evil Nature: On the Wicked
A heart unpitying, brawling vain and rude,
Facilis Descensus: On Fools and Folly
In highest heavens the Ganges’ course began;
Fame’s Sufficiency: Miscellaneous Verses
Victory is his on earth or Paradise,
Farewell Flute / By Dilip Kumar Roy (1897-1980)
A Flute of farewell calls and calls.
Fate and Freewill: On Fate
The actions of our former life control
Fate and Wisdom: On Wisdom
What can the extreme wrath of hostile Fate?
Fate Masters All: On Fate
I saw the brilliant moon eclipsed, the sun
Fate Masters the Gods: On Fate
Brihuspathy his path of vantage shows,
Fate: Miscellaneous Verses
Lo, the moon who gives to healing herbs their virtue, nectar’s home,
Fixed Fate: On Karma
Dive if thou wilt into the huge deep sea,
Flowers from a Hidden Root: On Karma
With store of noble deeds who here arrives,
Folly’s Wisdom: On Fools and Folly
One cloak on ignorance absolutely fits;
Foresight and Violence: On Karma
Good be the act or faulty, its result
Gaster Anaides: Miscellaneous Verses
Nay, is there any in this world who soon
Gods: On Firmness
Cease never from the work thou hast begun
Golden Daughter / By Nirodbaran (1903-)
At the day-end behold the Golden Daughter of Imagination –
Good Company: On Wisdom
Company of good men is a very soil
Great and Meaner Spirits: On Wisdom
Some from high action through base fear refrain;
Horu Thakur. 1
Who is this with smearèd limbs...
Horu Thakur. 3
Look, Lolita, the stream one loves so...
Horu Thakur. 4
I know him by the eyes all hearts that ravish...
Horu Thakur. 5
O fondly hast thou loved, thyself deceiving...
Horu Thakur. 6
What are these wheels whose sudden thunder...
Horu Thakur. 7
All day and night in lonely anguish wasting...
Hymn of the Golden Age / By Nammalwar (IX cent.)
’Tis glory, glory, glory! For Life’s hard curse has expired;...
Hymn to Durga
Mother Durga! Rider on the lion, giver of all strength...
Hymn to the Mother = Bande Mataram: Translation in Prose
I bow to thee, Mother,
Hymn to the Mother = Bande Mataram
Mother, I bow to thee!
I Dreamed a Dream / By Andal (VIII cent.)
I Dreamed a Dream
Ill Luck: On Fate
A bald man, goes the story, when the noon
Invocation
To the calm Light inviolable all hail
Jnanadas. 1
O beauty meant all hearts to move!...
Jnanadas. 2
Ah nurse, what will become of us? This old...
Jnanadas. 3.
In vain my hands bale out the waves inleaping...
Jnanadas. 4
She. For love of thee I gave all life’s best treasures....
Jnanadas. 5
Neat-herdess, my star!...
Jnanadas. 6
Beautiful Radha, Caanou dost thou see not...
Jnanadas. 7
I will lay bare my heart’s whole flame...
Karma: On Karma
It is not beauty’s charm nor lineage high,
Karma
Love, but my words are vain as air!...
King and Devotee / By Nishikanto (1909-1973)
The King of kings has made you a king,
Lakshmi / By Dilip Kumar Roy (1897-1980)
At the mobile passion of thy tread the cold snows faint and fail,
Lion-Heart: On Pride and Heroism
The manèd lion, first of kingly names,
Love’s Folly: On Fools and Folly
She with whom all my thoughts dwell, is averse,–
Love-Mad / By Nammalwar (IX cent.)
Seated, she caresses Earth and cries,...
Magnanimity: Miscellaneous Verses
The world teems miracles, breeds grandest things,
Magnanimity: On Pride and Heroism
My brother, exalt thyself though in o’erthrow!
Mainak: On Pride and Heroism
O child of the immortal mountains hoar,
Malavica and the King: A Play by Kalidasa in Five Acts (Rough Draft)
The One who is Almighty, he who showers
Man Infinite: Miscellaneous Verses
Earth is hemmed in with Ocean’s vaster moan;
Man’s Will: Miscellaneous Verses
Renounce thy vain attempt, presumptuous man,
Misuse of Life: On Karma
This noble earth, this place for glorious deeds
Mother India / By Dwijendralal Roy (1863-1913)
India, my India, where first human eyes awoke to heavenly light,
Mountain Moloy: On Virtue
Legends of golden hills the fancy please,
Natural Enmities: On the Wicked
Trust not thy innocence, nor say, “No foe
Natural Qualities: Miscellaneous Verses
Three things are faithful to their place decreed,–
Nindu Babu. 1
Eyes of the hind, you are my jailors, sweetest...
Nindu Babu. 10
The spring is here, sweet friend, the spring is here...
Nindu Babu. 11
Ere I had taken half my will of joy...
Nindu Babu. 12
Nay, though thy absence was a tardy fire...
Nindu Babu. 13
I said in anger, “When next time he prays...
Nindu Babu. 14
Ah sweet, thou hast not understood my love,...
Nindu Babu. 15
How much thou didst entreat! with what sweet wooing...
Nindu Babu. 16
How could I know that he was waiting only...
Nindu Babu. 17
Into the hollow of whose hand my heart...
Nindu Babu. 18
Hast thou remembered me at last, my own...
Nindu Babu. 19
I did not dream, O love, that I...
Nindu Babu. 2
Line not with these dark rings thy bright eyes ever!...
Nindu Babu. 20
In true sweet love what more than utter bliss is...
Nindu Babu. 3
If the heart’s hope were never satisfied...
Nindu Babu. 4
What else have I to give thee? I have yielded...
Nindu Babu. 5
My eyes are lost in thine as in great rivers...
Nindu Babu. 6
Sweet, gaze not always on thine own face in the mirror...
Nindu Babu. 7
Why gazing in the glass I stand nor move...
Nindu Babu. 8
He whom I woo makes with me no abiding...
Nindu Babu. 9
Cease, clouds of autumn, cease to roll...
Noble Resentment: On Pride and Heroism
The crystal hath no sense disgrace to know,
Noblesse Oblige: Miscellaneous Verses
If some day by some chance God thought this good
Obstinacy in Folly: On Fools and Folly
Go, with strong violence thy jewel tear
Obstinacy in Vice: On Fools and Folly
One cloak on ignorance absolutely fits;
Odyssey / By Homer
Sing to me, Muse, of the man many-counselled...
On A Satyr and Sleeping Love / By Plato (V-IV B.C.)
Me whom the purple mead that Bromius owns
On the Same: On Fools and Folly
Nay, thou wilt find sweet oil in the sea-sands,
Ornaments: On Firmness
What is an ornament? Courtesy in high place,
Poets and Princes: On Wisdom
Unhonoured in a State when poets dwell
Policy: On Wealth
Often she lies, wears sometimes brow of truth,
Pride of Littleness: On Fools and Folly
The dog upon a meatless bone and lank
Protection from behind the Veil: On Karma
Safe is the man good deeds forgotten claim,
Radha’s Appeal
O love, what more shall I, shall Radha speak...
Radha’s Complaint in Absence
O heart, my heart, a heavy pain is thine!...
Rarities: On Wisdom
Whatever most the soul on earth desires,
Realities: On the Wicked
Greed if thou hast, thou art of sin secure:
Refuge / By Kulasekhara Alwar
Though thou shouldst not spare me the anguish...
Remonstrance with the Suppliant: On Wealth
What the Creator on thy forehead traced
Seven Griefs: On the Wicked
Seven griefs are as seven daggers in my heart,–
Since thou hast called me / By Sahana (1897-1990)
Since thou hast called me, see that I
Songs of Bidyapati. 1
Childhood and youth each other are nearing...
Songs of Bidyapati. 10
Ah, who has built this girl of nectarous face...
Songs of Bidyapati. 11
How shall I tell of Caanou’s beauty bright...
Songs of Bidyapati. 12
Caanou to see I had desire...
Songs of Bidyapati. 13
Sweet and strange as ‘twere a dream...
Songs of Bidyapati. 14
O friend, my friend, has pain a farther bound...
Songs of Bidyapati. 15
As the swan sails, so moved she...
Songs of Bidyapati. 16
The maned steeds in the mountain glen for fear...
Songs of Bidyapati. 17
Why fell her face upon my sight...
Songs of Bidyapati. 18. Alterantive version
Low on her radiant forehead shone...
Songs of Bidyapati. 18
In her beautiful face did use...
Songs of Bidyapati. 19
A shining grace the damsel’s face...
Songs of Bidyapati. 2
Day by day her milk-breasts drew splendour...
Songs of Bidyapati. 20
I saw not to the heart’s desire...
Songs of Bidyapati. 21
The moonwhite maiden from her bath...
Songs of Bidyapati. 22
Beauty stood bathing in the river...
Songs of Bidyapati. 23. Alterantive version
O happy day that to mine eyes betrayed...
Songs of Bidyapati. 23
O happy day that to mine eyes betrayed...
Songs of Bidyapati. 24
Beautiful Rai, the flower-like maid...
Songs of Bidyapati. 25
She looked on me a little, then...
Songs of Bidyapati. 26
Upon a thorn when the flowers bloom...
Songs of Bidyapati. 27
Wherever her twin fair feet found room...
Songs of Bidyapati. 28
I have seen a girl no words can measure...
Songs of Bidyapati. 29
When the hour of twilight its period kept...
Songs of Bidyapati. 3
Now and again a sidelong look...
Songs of Bidyapati. 30
O life is sweet but youth more bright...
Songs of Bidyapati. 31
Lotus bosom, lotus feet...
Songs of Bidyapati. 32
When the young warm Love her heart doth fill...
Songs of Bidyapati. 33
’Tis night and very timid my little love...
Songs of Bidyapati. 34
Hide now thy face, O darling white...
Songs of Bidyapati. 35
Still in the highways wake nor dream...
Songs of Bidyapati. 36
The best of the year has come, the Spring...
Songs of Bidyapati. 37
A new Brindaban I see...
Songs of Bidyapati. 38
Season of honey when sweets combine...
Songs of Bidyapati. 39
Hark how round you the instruments sound!...
Songs of Bidyapati. 4
Childhood and youth, maiden, are met...
Songs of Bidyapati. 40
In the spring moonlight the Lord of love...
Songs of Bidyapati. 41
Angry beauty, be not loth!...
Songs of Bidyapati. 5
Playing she plays not, so newly shy...
Songs of Bidyapati. 6
In elder’s eyes’ she brooks not stay...
Songs of Bidyapati. 7. Alterantive version
A little and a little now...
Songs of Bidyapati. 7
A little and a little now...
Songs of Bidyapati. 8. Alterantive version
Childhood is flown, youth arrived...
Songs of Bidyapati. 8
Childhood is fled and youth in its seat...
Songs of Bidyapati. 9
Ah how shall I her lovely body express...
Songs of the Sea. 1 / Chittaranjan Das
O thou unhoped-for elusive wonder of the skies...
Songs of the Sea. 10 / Chittaranjan Das
What is this play thou playest with my life...
Songs of the Sea. 11 / Chittaranjan Das
My heart wings restless with this music’s pain...
Songs of the Sea. 12 / Chittaranjan Das
O painter, thou thy marvellous art didst use...
Songs of the Sea. 13 / Chittaranjan Das
O now today like a too brilliant dream...
Songs of the Sea. 14 / Chittaranjan Das
The day is filled with clouds and dusk and grey...
Songs of the Sea. 15 / Chittaranjan Das
Today the heavens are sealed with clouds and blind...
Songs of the Sea. 16 / Chittaranjan Das
This is not now the lyre’s melodious stream...
Songs of the Sea. 17 / Chittaranjan Das
When thy enormous wind has filled my breast...
Songs of the Sea. 18 / Chittaranjan Das
O high stark Death, ascetic proud and free...
Songs of the Sea. 19 / Chittaranjan Das
O loud blind conqueror, stay thy furious car...
Songs of the Sea. 2 / Chittaranjan Das
I lean to thee a listening ear...
Songs of the Sea. 20 / Chittaranjan Das
Thou hast come back, O Lord! this soul, thy sky...
Songs of the Sea. 21 / Chittaranjan Das
The light of the young dawn round every limb...
Songs of the Sea. 22 / Chittaranjan Das
O today in heaven there rings high a mournful strain...
Songs of the Sea. 23 / Chittaranjan Das
Sleep, sleep through clouded moons, O sea, at last...
Songs of the Sea. 24 / Chittaranjan Das
Where have I seen thee? where have clasped thy hand...
Songs of the Sea. 25 / Chittaranjan Das
None is awake in all the world but I...
Songs of the Sea. 26 / Chittaranjan Das
The sun has not yet risen. Luring night...
Songs of the Sea. 27 / Chittaranjan Das
The sunbeams fall and kiss thy lips and gleam...
Songs of the Sea. 28 / Chittaranjan Das
Nay, nay, let be! O not today that sound...
Songs of the Sea. 29 / Chittaranjan Das
How many aeons hast thou flowed like this...
Songs of the Sea. 3 / Chittaranjan Das
Long gazing on this dawn and restless sea...
Songs of the Sea. 30 / Chittaranjan Das
What years, what clime, what dim and distant shore...
Songs of the Sea. 31 / Chittaranjan Das
My sleepless midnight thou hast filled indeed...
Songs of the Sea. 32 / Chittaranjan Das
Lighting small lamps and in a little room...
Songs of the Sea. 33 / Chittaranjan Das
Evening has not descended yet, fast sets the sun...
Songs of the Sea. 34 / Chittaranjan Das
In this hushed evening on thy billows grey...
Songs of the Sea. 35 / Chittaranjan Das
Evening has fallen upon the world; its fitting tone...
Songs of the Sea. 36 / Chittaranjan Das
The great heaven have no voice, the world is lying still...
Songs of the Sea. 37 / Chittaranjan Das
O by long prayer, by hard attempt have bloomed two flowers, thy eyes...
Songs of the Sea. 38 / Chittaranjan Das
Here there is light, - is it darkness on thy farther shore...
Songs of the Sea. 39 / Chittaranjan Das
Burns on that other shore the mystic light...
Songs of the Sea. 4 / Chittaranjan Das
The flute of dawn has rung out on the sea...
Songs of the Sea. 40 / Chittaranjan Das
This shore and that shore, - I am tired, they pall...
Songs of the Sea. 5 / Chittaranjan Das
Upon what bosom shall I lay my bliss...
Songs of the Sea. 6 / Chittaranjan Das
Dawn has become to me a golden fold...
Songs of the Sea. 7 / Chittaranjan Das
Behold, the perfect-gloried dawn has come...
Songs of the Sea. 8 / Chittaranjan Das
I have no art of speech, no charm of song...
Songs of the Sea. 9 / Chittaranjan Das
All day within me only one music rings...
Speech of Dussaruth to the Assembled States - General of His Empire
Then with a far reverberating sound
Statesman and Poet: Miscellaneous Verses
How like are these whose labour does not cease,
The Abomination of Wickedness: On Virtue
Rare are the hearts that for another’s joy
The Altruist: On Virtue
How rare is he who for his fellows cares!
The Aryan Ethic: On Virtue
Hear the whole Gospel and the Law thereto: –
The Ball: On Firmness
Lo, as a ball that, by the player’s palm
The Beauty of Giving: On Wealth
Be not a miser of thy strength and store;
The Birth of the War-God. Canto One. The 1-st rendering
A God mid hills northern Himaloy rears
The Birth of the War-God. Canto One. The 2-nd rendering
A God concealed in mountain majesty
The Birth of the War-God. Canto One. The 3-d rendering
A God concealed in mountain majesty,
The Birth of the War-God. Canto Two
But now in spheres above whose motions fixed
The Book of the Assembly Hall
And before Krishna’s face to great Arjoon
The Book of the Wild Forest
Then, possessing his soul, Rama entered the great forest
The Conqueror: Miscellaneous Verses
That man whose soul bright beauty cannot pierce
The Conquests of Sovereign Poetry: On Wisdom
Whatever most the soul on earth desires,
The Flame of the Soul: Miscellaneous Verses
Insulted, wronged, oppressed the unshaken mind,
The Follies of Fate: On Fate
Sometimes the gods build up a very man
The Friendship of Tyrants: On the Wicked
Tyrants have neither kin nor lover. Fire
The Good Friend: On Virtue
Thus is the good friend pictured by the pens
The Great Incurable: On Fools and Folly
For all ill things there is a cure; the fire’s
The Hard Lot of the Courtier: On the Wicked
Hard is the courtier’s lot who fain would please.
The Hero’s Touch: Miscellaneous Verses
Touched by one hero’s tread how vibrating
The High and Difficult Road: On Virtue
To give in secret as beneath a shroud;
The Human Cobra: On the Wicked
Avoid the evil man with learning crowned.
The Human Herd: On Fools and Folly
Whose days to neither charity nor thought
The Immutable Courage: On Firmness
If men praise thee, O man, ’tis well; nor ill,
The Kural / By Tiruvalluvar (early centuries of our era)
Alpha of all letters the first,
The Line of Raghu
For mastery of word and sense I bow to the Pair close-wedded...
The Man of High Action: On Firmness
Happiness is nothing, sorrow nothing. He
The Man of Knowledge: On Wisdom
Scorn not the man of knowledge to whose eyes
The Middle Sort: On Fools and Folly
Easily shalt thou the ignorant appease;
The Might of Works: On Karma
Bow ye to Karma who with puissant hand
The Motion of Giants: On Pride and Heroism
On his wide hood as on a painted shield
The Narrow Way: On Wisdom
Kind to be, yet immutably be just;
The Nature of Beneficence: On Virtue
Freely the sun gives all his beams to wake
The New Creator / By Aruna (1895-1993)
You rose in India, O glorious in contemplation, O Sun,
The Noble Nature: On Virtue
Eloquence in the assembly; in the field
The Power of Company: On Virtue
Behold the water’s way,– on iron red
The Power of Goodness: Miscellaneous Verses
The bloom of natural goodness like a flower
The Praises of Knowledge: On Wisdom
Knowledge is nobler beauty in a man
The Prayer to Mammon: On Wealth
Cast birth into the nether Hell; let all
The Proud Soul’s Choice: Miscellaneous Verses
But one God to worship, hermit Shiv or puissant Vishnu high;
The Rain-lark to the Cloud: On Wealth
You opulent clouds that in high heavens ride,
The Rarity of the Altruist: Miscellaneous Verses
Low minds enough there are who only care
The Real Ornament: On Wisdom
It is not armlets that adorn a man,
The Roots of Enjoyment: Miscellaneous Verses
That at thy door proud-necked the high-foaming steeds
The Script of Fate: On Fate
When on the desert-bramble’s boughs you find
The Self-Reliance of the Wise: On Firmness
The tree once pruned shall seek again the skies,
The Slaying of Dhumraksha
Loud in their gladness and their lust of fight
The Softness and Hardness of the Noble: On Virtue
Being fortunate, how the noble heart grows soft
The Splendid Harlot: Miscellaneous Verses
Victory’s a harlot full of glorious lust
The Strength of Simple Goodness: On Karma
Toiler ascetic, who with passionate breath
The Three Blessings: On Virtue
He is a son whose noble deeds and high
The Transience of Worldly Rewards: Miscellaneous Verses
Your gleaming palaces of brilliant stone,
The Triple Way of Wealth: On Wealth
Three final roads wealth takes and only three,
The Universal Religion: On Wisdom
All varying Scriptures that the earth divide,
The Upstart: On the Wicked
Yea, how this high sun burns that was so low,
The Uses of High Standing: On Wealth
Men highly placed by six good gifts are high
The Waverer: Miscellaneous Verses
Seven mountains, eight proud elephants, the Snake,
The Way of the Lion: On Pride and Heroism
The dog with a poor bone is satisfied,
The Ways of the Good: On Virtue
Who would not honour good men and revere
The Wheel of Life: On Pride and Heroism
The world goes round and, as returns the wheel,
The Wife
But Sita all the while, unhappy child,
The Words of the Wise: Miscellaneous Verses
Serve thou the wise and good, covet their speech
To Lesbia / By Catullus (I c. B.C.)
O my Lesbia, let us live for loving,
To the Cuckoo / By Andal (VIII cent.)
O Cuckoo that peckest at the blossomed...
To the Rain-lark: On Wealth
O rain-lark, rain-lark, flitting near the cloud,
True Wealth: On Wisdom
Knowledge is truest wealth, not this which dies,–
Truth: Miscellaneous Verses
Dear as his own sweet mother to the man
Two Kinds of Friendship: On the Wicked
Like shadows of the afternoon and morn
Two Kinds of Loss: On Wealth
These things are deaths, ill-counsel ruining kings,
Udyoga Parva. Canto One (the first version)
Let the reciter bow down to Naraian
Uma / By Dilip Kumar Roy (1897-1980)
O thou inspired by a far effulgence,
Vidula
Hearken to the ancient converse of which old traditions tell,
Virtue and Slander: On the Wicked
A spiritless dull block call modesty;
Water and Milk: On Virtue
By water and sweet milk example Love.
Wealth of Kindness: On Virtue
’Tis more than earrings when the ear inclines
Wealth the Sorcerer: On Wealth
He who has wealth, has birth; gold who can spill,
Woman’s Heart: Miscellaneous Verses
More hard the heart of woman is to seize
Work and Idleness: On Firmness
Their bitterest enemy in their bodies pent
Worldly Wisdom: On Wisdom
Have mercy for all men, for thy own race
Ye Others / By Andal (VIII cent.)
Ye others cannot conceive of the love...