Sri Aurobindo

Letters on Poetry and Art

SABCL - Volume 27

Part 2. On His Own and Others’ Poetry
Section 2. On Poets and Poetry
Comments on the Work of Poets of the Ashram

Nirodbaran [2]

The growing A glowing heart of {{0}}day[[Here and in several other places in this section, the poem as submitted to Sri Aurobindo is printed in roman type, words cancelled by him are printed in strike-out mode, and words added by him are printed in bold type. — Ed.]]

{{0}}Is lily white[[Not only cheap but gratis.]] Woke diamond-white,

Rising out of the From its prison-bed of {{0}}clay[[It doesn’t usually.]]

Clothed with the night.

Silent and slow and dim

Are its hidden Its infant beat:

On its But in the invisible rim

Various Worlds on worlds {{0}}meet[[Terribly prosaic.]] met

And flowed upon a high

Current of thought

To an unknown destiny ecstasy

Transparence-shot wrought.

Behind an the emptiness

Of light and shade

Dreams of a heaven- Heaven’s intimate caress

Are secretly laid Secretly played

And the luminous wings eyes of stars

Come out of Looked from the deep

And its Eengulfing darkness {{0}}bars[[I don’t think bars ever engulf, but as it is surrealistically appropriate —]]

With its Of passion-sleep.,

Then And voices can could be heard

Across the sky,

Falling like a Calling the white sun-word

From Of infinity.

They are the Transient voices of time

Fading away

Beyond Around the mystic chime

Of the heart of day.

This again is a riddle! I absolutely surrendered. To whom?

Can you tell me and solve the mystery?

Not very cogent, whether realistically or surrealistically. But see how with a few alterations I have coged it. (Excuse the word, it is surrealistic). I don’t put double lines as I don’t want to pay too many compliments to myself. I don’t say that the new version has any more meaning than the first. But significance, sir, significance! Fathomless!

As for the inspiration it was a very remarkable source you tapped — super-Blakish, but your transcription is faulty, e.g. lily-white, rising out of the clay, that horrible “various”, and constant mistakes in the last four stanzas. Only the third came out altogether right — subject to the change you yourself made of “destiny” to “ecstasy” and “shot” to “wrought”. But obviously the past tense is needed instead of the present so as to give the sense of something that has been seen.

7 July 1938