Sri Aurobindo

Collected Poems

CWSA.- Volume 2

Part Seven. Pondicherry, c. 1927 – 1947
Three Sonnets

Man the Enigma¹

A deep enigma is the soul of man.

His conscious life obeys the Inconscient’s rule,

His need of joy is learned in sorrow’s school,

His heart is a chaos and an empyrean.

His subtle Ignorance borrows Wisdom’s plan;

His mind is the Infinite’s sharp and narrow tool.

He wades through mud to reach the Wonderful,

And does what Matter must or Spirit can.

All powers in his living’s soil take root

And claim from him their place and struggling right:²

His ignorant creature mind crawling towards light³

Is Nature’s fool and Godhead’s candidate⁴,

A demigod and a demon and a brute,

The slave and the creator of his fate.

Earlier edition of this work: Sri Aurobindo Birth Century Library: Set in 30 volumes.- Volume 5.- Collected Poems.- Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Asram, 1972.- 625 p.

¹ 1972 ed. SABCL, vol.5: The Human Enigma

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² 1972 ed. SABCL, vol.5: Hoping to grow and dominate the earth.

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³ 1972 ed. SABCL, vol.5: This little creature mind that would be great

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⁴ 1972 ed. SABCL, vol.5: struggling birth

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