Sri Aurobindo

Collected Poems

CWSA.- Volume 2

Part Seven. Pondicherry
Sonnets from Manuscripts, c. 1934 – 1947

The Call of the Impossible¹

A² godhead moves³ us to⁴ unrealised things.

Asleep in the wide folds⁵ of destiny,

A world guarded by Silence’ rustling wings

Shelters⁶ their fine impossibility:

But parting⁷ quiver the caerulean⁸ gates;

Strange⁹ splendours look into our dreaming eyes;

We bear proud deities and magnificent fates;

Faces and hands come near from Paradise.

What shines above, waits darkling here in us:¹⁰

Bliss unattained our future’s birthright is,

Beauty of our dim souls¹¹ grows¹² amorous,

We are the heirs of infinite widenesses.

The impossible is our mask of things to be,¹³

Mortal the door to immortality.

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: Our godhead calls us

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² 1972 ed. SABCL, vol.5: Our

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³ 1972 ed. SABCL, vol.5: calls

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⁴ 1972 ed. SABCL, vol.5: in

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⁵ 1972 ed. SABCL, vol.5: fields

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⁶ 1972 ed. SABCL, vol.5: Sheltered

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⁷ 1972 ed. SABCL, vol.5: part, but

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⁸ 1972 ed. SABCL, vol.5: cerulean

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⁹ 1972 ed. SABCL, vol.5: Close

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¹⁰ 1972 ed. SABCL, vol.5: What shone thus far above is here in us;

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¹¹ 1972 ed. SABCL, vol.5: soul

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¹² 1972 ed. SABCL, vol.5: is

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¹³ 1972 ed. SABCL, vol.5: the hint of what shall be,

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