Canto 4Note on the Texts
Book 17. Appendix: Poems in Greek and in French
Sri Aurobindo once wrote that he was “a poet and a politician” first,
and only afterwards a philosopher. One might add that he was a poet
before he entered politics and a poet after he ceased to write about
politics or philosophy. His first published work, written apparently
5towards the end of 1882, was a short poem. The last writing work he
did, towards the end of 1950, was revision of the epic poem Savitri. The
results of these sixty-eight years of poetic output are collected in the
present volume, with the exception of Savitri, dramatic poetry, poetic
translations, and poems written in Bengali and Sanskrit. These appear,
10respectively, in Savitri: A Legend and a Symbol, Collected Plays and
Stories, Translations, and Writings in Bengali and Sanskrit, volumes
33–34, 3–4, 5, and 9 of THE COMPLETE WORKS OF SRI AUROBINDO.
The poems in the present volume have been arranged in seven
chronological parts. The dates of the parts overlap because some of
15the books that define each period contain poems from a wide range of
dates. Within each part, poems from books published by the author are
followed by complete and incomplete poems published posthumously.
Poems that appeared in books published by Sri Aurobindo during his
lifetime are arranged as they were in those books. Otherwise, poems
20within each section of each part are arranged chronologically. Poems
written in Greek and in French appear in an appendix at the end of
the volume.
PART ONE: ENGLAND AND BARODA, 1883–1898
Sri Aurobindo went to England as a child of seven in 1879. He lived in
25Manchester until 1884, when he went to London to study at St. Paul’s
School. From there he went to Cambridge in 1890. Three years later
he returned to India, and until 1906 lived and worked in the princely
state of Baroda. He began writing poetry in Manchester, and continued
in London, Cambridge and Baroda. His first collection, published in
30Baroda in 1898, contained poems written in England and Baroda. This
collection is reproduced in the present part, along with other poems
written during these years.
Poem Published in 1883
Light. Published 1883. Asked in 1939, “When did you begin to write
35poetry?”, Sri Aurobindo replied: “When my two brothers and I were
staying at Manchester. I wrote for the Fox family magazine. It was
an awful imitation of somebody I don’t remember.” The only English
journal having a name resembling “the Fox family magazine” is Fox’s
Weekly, which first appeared on 11 January 1883 and was suspended
40the following November. Published from Leeds, it catered to the middle
and working classes of that industrial town. A total of nine poems
appeared in Fox’s Weekly during its brief existence. All but one of
them are coarse adult satires. The exception is “Light”, published in
the issue of 11 January 1883. Like all other poems in Fox’s Weekly,
45“Light” is unsigned, but there can be no doubt that it was the poem
to which Sri Aurobindo referred when he said that his first verses
were published in “the Fox family magazine”. The poem’s stanza is an
imitation of the one used by P. B. Shelley in the well-known lyric “The
Cloud”. Sri Aurobindo remarked in 1926 that as a child in Manchester,
50he went through the works of Shelley again and again. He also wrote
that he read the Bible “assiduously” while living in the house of his
guardian, William H. Drewett, a Congregationalist clergyman.
Songs to Myrtilla
This, Sri Aurobindo’s first collection of poems, was printed in 1898 for
55private circulation by the Lakshmi Vilas Printing Press, Baroda, under
the title Songs to Myrtilla and Other Poems. No copy of the first edition
survives. The second edition, which was probably a reimpression of
the first, is undated. The date of publication must therefore be inferred
from other evidence. The book’s handwritten manuscript, as well as
60the second edition, contains the poem “Lines on Ireland”, dated 1896.
The second edition contains a translation from Chandidasa that almost
Note on the Texts
certainly was done using an edition of Chandidasa’s works published
in 1897. On 17 October 1898, Sri Aurobindo’s brother Manmohan
65wrote in a letter to Rabindranath Tagore: “My brother . . . has just
published a volume of poems at Baroda.” This book evidently is Songs
to Myrtilla. In another letter Manmohan tells Tagore: “Aurobinda is
anxious to know what you think of his book of verses.” This second
letter is dated 24 October 1894, but the year clearly is wrong. Manmo-
70han had not even returned to India from England by that date. When
the two letters are read together and when other documentary evidence
is evaluated, it becomes clear that the second letter also was written in
1898, and that this was the year of publication of the first edition of
Songs to Myrtilla.1 The “second edition” apparently appeared a year
75or two later.
A new edition of the book, entitled simply Songs to Myrtilla, was
published by the Arya Publishing House, Calcutta, in April 1923.
When a biographer suggested during the 1940s that all the poems
in Songs to Myrtilla were written in Baroda, except for five that were
80written in England, Sri Aurobindo corrected him as follows: “It is the
other way round; all the poems in the book were written in England
except five later ones which were written after his return to India.”
The following poems certainly were written in Baroda after his return
to India in 1893: “Lines on Ireland” (dated 1896), “Saraswati with
85the Lotus” and “Bankim Chandra Chatterji” (both written after the
death of Bankim in 1894), and “To the Cuckoo” (originally subtitled
“A Spring morning in India”). “Madhusudan Dutt” was probably
also written in Baroda, as were the two adaptations of poems by
Chandidasa. This makes seven poems. The number five, proposed by
90the biographer and not by Sri Aurobindo, was probably not meant by
Sri Aurobindo to be taken as an exact figure.
The handwritten manuscript of Songs to Myrtilla contains one
poem, “The Just Man”, that was not printed in any edition of the
book. (It is reproduced here in the third section of Part One.) The
95manuscript and the second edition contain a dedication and a Latin
epigraph, which Sri Aurobindo later deleted. They are reproduced here
1 Manmohan Ghose’s letters to Tagore are reproduced and discussed in Sri Aurobindo:
Archives and Research, volume 12 (1988), pp. 86–87, 89–91.
from the manuscript:
100To my brother
Manmohan Ghose
these poems
are dedicated.
Tale tuum nobis carmen, divine poeta,
105Quale sopor fessis in gramine, quale per aestum
Dulcis aquae saliente sitim restinguere rivo.
* * *
Quae tibi, quae tali reddam pro carmine dona?
The Latin lines are from Virgil’s fifth Eclogue, lines 45–47 and 81.
110They may be translated as follows:
So is thy song to me, poet divine,
As slumber on the grass to weary limbs,
Or to slake thirst from some sweet-bubbling rill
In summer’s heat . . .
115How, how repay thee for a song so rare?
Four of the poems in Songs to Myrtilla are adaptations of works written
in other languages: two in ancient Greek and two in mediaeval Bengali.
These adaptations are published here in their original context. They
are also published in Translations, volume 5 of THE COMPLETE WORKS
120OF SRI AUROBINDO.
Songs to Myrtilla. Circa 1890–98. This, the title-poem of the collec-
tion, is headed in the manuscript “Sweet is the night”.
O Co¨ıl, Co¨ıl. Circa 1890–98. The co¨ıl is the koyel or Indian cuckoo.
Goethe. Circa 1890–98.
125The Lost Deliverer. Circa 1890–98. In the manuscript and the Baroda
edition, this epigram is entitled “Ferdinand Lassalle”. Lassalle (1825–
64), a German socialist leader, was killed in a duel over a woman.
Charles Stewart Parnell. Dated 1891, the year of the Irish nationalist
leader’s death.
130Hic Jacet. Dated 1891 in the manuscript; subtitled in the manuscript
Note on the Texts
and in all printed editions: “Glasnevin Cemetery”. This is the cemetery
in Dublin where Parnell is buried.
Lines on Ireland. Dated 1896 in the manuscript and all printed editions.
135On a Satyr and Sleeping Love. Circa 1890–98. This is a translation of
a Greek epigram attributed to Plato.
A Rose of Women. Circa 1890–98. This is a translation of a Greek
epigram by Meleager (first century B.C.).
Saraswati with the Lotus. 1894 or later. Written after the death of the
140Bengali novelist Bankim Chandra Chatterji (1838–94).
Night by the Sea. Circa 1890–98.
The Lover’s Complaint. Circa 1890–98.
Love in Sorrow. Circa 1890–98.
The Island Grave. Circa 1890–98.
145Estelle. Circa 1890–98.
Radha’s Complaint in Absence. Circa 1890–98, probably towards the
end of this period. This is an adaptation of a poem by the Bengali poet
and mystic Chandidasa (late fourteenth to early fifteenth century).
Radha’s Appeal. Circa 1890–98, probably towards the end of this
150period. Another adaptation of a poem by Chandidasa.
Bankim Chandra Chatterji. Circa 1894–98. Certainly written after
Bankim’s death in 1894. The poem is entitled in the manuscript “Lines
written after reading a novel of Bunkim Chundra Chatterji”.
Madhusudan Dutt. Circa 1893–98.
155To the Cuckoo. Circa 1893–98. Subtitled in the manuscript “A Spring
morning in India”. The subtitle may have been deleted from the Baroda
edition simply for lack of space.
Envoi. Circa 1890–98, probably closer to 1898. Entitled “Vale” in
the manuscript. No title was printed in the Baroda edition, perhaps
160for lack of space. The title “Envoi” was given when a new edition
of Songs to Myrtilla was brought out in 1923. The Latin epigraph
is from the Appendix Vergiliana (poems once ascribed to Virgil, but
more likely by a contemporary), Catalepton, Carmen 5, lines 8–11.
The following translation of these lines is by Joseph J. Mooney (The
165Minor Poems of Vergil [Birmingham, 1916]):
O Muses, off with you, be gone with all the rest!
Ye charming Muses, for the truth shall be confessed
Ye charming were, and modestly and rarely still
Ye must revisit pages that I then shall fill.
170Poems from Manuscripts, circa 1891–1898
All but one of the pieces in this section and the next are taken from a
notebook Sri Aurobindo used at Cambridge between 1890 and 1892.
To a Hero-Worshipper. September 1891. From the Cambridge note-
book.
175Phaethon. Circa 1891–92. From the Cambridge notebook.
The Just Man. Circa 1891–98. This poem forms part of the manu-
script of Songs to Myrtilla but was not included by Sri Aurobindo in
the printed book.
Incomplete Poems from Manuscripts, circa 1891–1892
180Thou bright choregus. No title in the manuscript. Circa 1891–92.
These two stanzas are from the Cambridge notebook. Published here
for the first time.
Like a white statue. No title in the manuscript. Circa 1891–92. This
incomplete prose poem is from the Cambridge notebook. In the manu-
185script, there is a comma at the end of the last line.
The Vigil of Thaliard. 1891–92. Sri Aurobindo wrote this incomplete
ballad in the Cambridge notebook. He dated certain passages of it
August and September 1891 and March and April 1892.
PART TWO: BARODA, CIRCA 1898–1902
190Complete Narrative Poems
Urvasie. Circa 1898. This poem first appeared in a small book printed
for private circulation by the Vani Vilas Press, Baroda. (A deluxe edi-
tion was printed later by the Caxton Works, Bombay.) In 1942, Sri
Aurobindo informed the editors of Collected Poems and Plays that
195Urvasie was printed “sometime before I wrote ‘Love and Death’”,
that is, before 1899. He also indicated that Urvasie was subsequent
Note on the Texts
to Songs to Myrtilla, which was published in 1898. Taking these data
together, one is obliged to assign Urvasie to 1898–99.
200Love and Death. The handwritten manuscript of this poem is dated
“June. July 1899”. The poem first appeared in print in the review
Shama’a in January 1921, and was reprinted the same year by Mri-
nalini Chattopadhyay, Aghore Mandir, Madras.
A Note on Love and Death. Circa 1921. This is the longest of three
205handwritten drafts of a note Sri Aurobindo thought of adding to Love
and Death when it was published in 1921. In the event, the poem was
published without a note.
Incomplete Narrative Poems, circa 1899–1902
Khaled of the Sea. 1899. The handwritten manuscript of this poem is
210dated in three places: “Jan 1899” at the end of the Prologue, “Feb.
1899” in the middle of Canto I, and “March, 1899” at the end.
Uloupie. Circa 1901–2. A portion of the rough draft of this poem
was written below some notes that may be dated to May 1901. The
poem was never completed, but was drawn upon in the writing of
215Chitrangada (see below, Part Four).
Sonnets from Manuscripts, circa 1900–1901
Sri Aurobindo wrote the twelve sonnets in this section, as well as the
fourteen poems in the next section, in a notebook that contains the fair
copy of Uloupie, which was written in 1901–2. The other contents
220of the notebook may have been drafted sometime earlier; “The Spring
Child” certainly was. The notebook was seized by the British police
when Sri Aurobindo was arrested in 1908. This made it impossible for
him to revise or publish these poems after his release from jail in 1909.
In the manuscript, the first four sonnets are grouped together under
225the heading: “Four Sonnets”. None of the twelve have titles.
O face that I have loved. Circa 1900–1901.
I cannot equal. Circa 1900–1901.
O letter dull and cold. Circa 1900–1901.
My life is wasted. Circa 1900–1901.
230Because thy flame is spent. Circa 1900–1901.
Thou didst mistake. Circa 1900–1901.
Rose, I have loved. Circa 1900–1901.
I have a hundred lives. Circa 1900–1901.
Still there is something. Circa 1900–1901.
235I have a doubt. Circa 1900–1901.
To weep because a glorious sun. Circa 1900–1901.
What is this talk. Circa 1900–1901.
Short Poems from Manuscripts, circa 1900–1901
Sri Aurobindo wrote these fourteen poems in the notebook he used
240also for Uloupie and the above sonnets. He wrote the heading “Mis-
cellaneous” above the poems. They are arranged here in the order in
which they appear in Sri Aurobindo’s notebook.
The Spring Child. 1900. As recorded in the subtitle, this poem was
written for Sri Aurobindo’s cousin Basanti Mitra, who was born on
2459 Jyestha 1292 (22 May 1886). The title and opening of the poem
involve a play on the Bengali word b¯asant¯ı, which means “vernal”,
“of the spring”.
A Doubt. Circa 1900–1901.
The Nightingale. Circa 1900–1901.
250Euphrosyne. Circa 1900–1901. The Greek word euphrosun¯e means
“cheerfulness, mirth, merriment”. In Greek mythology, Euphrosyne
was one of the three Graces.
A Thing Seen. Circa 1900–1901.
Epitaph. Circa 1900–1901.
255To the Modern Priam. Circa 1900–1901.
Song. Circa 1900–1901.
Epigram. Circa 1900–1901.
The Three Cries of Deiphobus. Circa 1900–1901.
Perigone Prologuises. Circa 1900–1901.
260Since I have seen your face. No title in the manuscript. Circa 1900–
1901.
So that was why. No title in the manuscript. Circa 1900–1901. Sri
Aurobindo wrote this passage at the bottom of several pages of the
notebook that contains the above poems. Dramatic in style, it may
265Note on the Texts
have been intended for a play.
World’s delight. No title in the manuscript. Circa 1900–1901.
PART THREE: BARODA AND BENGAL, CIRCA 1900–1909
Poems from Ahana and Other Poems
270Ahana and Other Poems was published in 1915. It consists of the
long poem Ahana, written in Pondicherry, and twenty-four shorter
poems, most of which were written in Baroda. Sometime after 1915,
Sri Aurobindo wrote in his copy of the book, “Written mostly be-
tween 1895 and 1908, first published at Pondicherry in 1915.” This
275inscription shows a degree of uncertainty: “1895” was written over
“1900”, while “1908” was written over “1907”. Neither of the dates,
written more than a decade after the poems, need be considered exact.
Surviving manuscript drafts of these poems do not appear to be earlier
than 1900. Near-final drafts of many of them are found in a typed
280manuscript that may be dated to 1904–6. When Sri Aurobindo looked
over these poems in 1942 while his Collected Poems and Plays was
being arranged, he commented: “I find that most of the poems are
quite early in Baroda, others later on and others in the second period
[of poems in the book, i.e. 1906–9]. It would be a pity to break
285up these poems, as they form a natural group by themselves.” In the
present volume, these twenty-four poems are published in a single
group, while “Ahana” is published along with other works written in
Pondicherry. Two of the poems in this section, “Karma” and “Appeal”,
are adaptations of mediaeval Indian lyrics. They are published here
290in their original context, and also in Translations, volume 5 of THE
COMPLETE WORKS OF SRI AUROBINDO.
Invitation. 1908–9. This poem was published in Sri Aurobindo’s
weekly newspaper Karmayogin on 6 November 1909, under the in-
scription: “(Composed in the Alipur Jail)”. Sri Aurobindo was a pris-
295oner in Alipore Jail between 5 May 1908 and 6 May 1909.
Who. Circa 1908–9. Published in the Karmayogin on 13 November
1909.
Miracles. Circa 1900–1906.
Reminiscence. Circa 1900–1906. A typewritten copy of this poem
300was an exhibit in the Alipore Bomb Case in 1908 (see Bande Mataram
weekly, 5 July 1908, p. 13).
A Vision of Science. Circa 1900–1906.
Immortal Love. Circa 1900–1906.
A Tree. Circa 1900–1906.
305To the Sea. Circa 1900–1906. A version of the poem was published
in the Modern Review in June 1909.
Revelation. Circa 1900–1906. A draft of this poem, entitled “The
Vision”, is found in the manuscript notebook that contains “Uloupie”
and other poems included in Part Two. This draft differs considerably
310from the version found in the typed manuscript of 1904–6, which was
used as the basis of the text published in Ahana and Other Poems.
Karma. Circa 1900–1906 or later. This is a free rendering of a poem
by the mediaeval Bengali poet Chandidasa.
Appeal. Circa 1900–1906 or later. This poem is based in part on a
315song by the mediaeval Maithili poet Vidyapati. The first stanza follows
Vidyapati’s text fairly closely; the next two stanzas are Sri Aurobindo’s
own invention.
A Child’s Imagination. Circa 1900–1906.
The Sea at Night. Circa 1900–1906.
320The Vedantin’s Prayer. Circa 1900–1906.
Rebirth. Circa 1900–1906.
The Triumph-Song of Trishuncou. Circa 1900–1906.
Life and Death. Circa 1900–1906.
Evening. Circa 1900–1906.
325Parabrahman. Circa 1900–1906.
God. Circa 1900–1906.
The Fear of Death. Circa 1900–1906.
Seasons. Circa 1900–1906.
The Rishi. Circa 1900–1908. Sheets containing draft passages of this
330poem were seized by the British police when Sri Aurobindo was ar-
rested in 1908. Sometime after the poem was published in Ahana and
Other Poems, Sri Aurobindo wrote under it in his copy of the book
“(1907–1911)” — but see the note under the section title above.
In the Moonlight. Circa 1900–1906.
335Note on the Texts
Poems from Manuscripts, circa 1900–1906
Sri Aurobindo wrote these poems around the same time that he wrote
those making up the previous section. Many of them form part of a
typed manuscript that contains poems included in Ahana and Other
340Poems. Sri Aurobindo chose not to include the poems in the present
section in that book when it was published in 1915. They first appeared
in print posthumously.
To the Boers. Circa 1900–1902. According to the subtitle, this poem
was written “during the progress of the Boer War”. The Boer War
345began in 1899 and ended in 1902.
Vision. Circa 1900–1906.
To the Ganges. Circa 1900–1906.
Suddenly out from the wonderful East. No title in the manuscript.
Circa 1900–1902. This poem is Sri Aurobindo’s earliest surviving
350attempt to write a poem in dactylic hexameters. A fair copy is found
on the same sheet as a fair copy of “To the Boers”, which was written
around 1900–1902. This and another draft of the poem were seized
by the British police when Sri Aurobindo was arrested in 1908. Several
years later, in Pondicherry, Sri Aurobindo began what appears to be a
355new or revised version of this poem, but wrote only three lines:
Where in a lapse of the hills leaps lightly down with laughter
White with her rustle of raiment upon the spray strewn boulders,
Cold in her virgin childhood the river resonant Ganges.
On the Mountains. Circa 1900–1906.
360PART FOUR: CALCUTTA AND CHANDERNAGORE, 1907–1910
Sri Aurobindo left his teaching position in Baroda in February 1906
and went to Calcutta to join the national movement. Between Novem-
ber 1906 and May 1908 he was the editor of the daily newspaper
Bande Mataram, and had little occasion to write poetry. In May 1908
365he was arrested and imprisoned in Alipore Jail. During the year of his
detention he managed to compose a few poems that were published
after his release in May 1909. Between June 1909 and February 1910,
he was the editor of the weekly journal Karmayogin, in which several
of his poems appeared. In February 1910 he went from Calcutta to
370Chandernagore, and six weeks later to Pondicherry, where he spent
the rest of his life.
Satirical Poem Published in 1907
Reflections of Srinath Paul, Rai Bahadoor, on the Present Discontents.
This poem was published on 5 April 1907 in the daily Bande Mataram.
375This political newspaper, edited by Sri Aurobindo and others, carried
a number of satirical poems, most of which were the work of Sri
Aurobindo’s colleague Shyam Sundar Chakravarti. This piece is the
exception. Sri Aurobindo remembered writing it in 1942 when his po-
ems were being collected for publication in Collected Poems and Plays.
380(It was not published in that collection because the file of the daily
Bande Mataram was not then available.) Later the poem was indepen-
dently ascribed to Sri Aurobindo by Hemendra Prasad Ghose, another
Bande Mataram editor and writer, who was in a way responsible for
its composition. In his report on the session of the Bengal Provincial
385Conference held in Behrampore in 1907, Hemendra Prasad wrote that
the chairman of the Reception Committee, a loyalist named Srinath
Paul (who bore the honourary British title Rai Bahadoor), finished his
address “perspiring and short of breath” (Bande Mataram, 2 April
1907). This phrase moved Sri Aurobindo to write this amusing piece
390of political satire. It was published under the heading “By the Way”,
which was the headline he used for his occasional column in Bande
Mataram. The same words were used in place of a signature at the end.
Short Poems Published in 1909 and 1910
The Mother of Dreams. 1908–9. Published in the Modern Review in
395July 1909, two months after Sri Aurobindo’s release from the Alipore
Jail. The following note was appended to the text: “This poem was
composed by Mr. Aurobindo Ghose in the Alipore Jail, of course with-
out the aid of any writing materials. He committed it to memory and
wrote it down after his release. There are several other poems of his,
400composed in jail.”
Note on the Texts
An Image. Circa 1909. Published in the Karmayogin on 20 November
1909. (This was the third poem by Sri Aurobindo that he published in
the Karmayogin. The first two, “Invitation” and “Who”, were included
405in Ahana and Other Poems in 1915, and so are included in Part Three
of the present volume.) “An Image”, Sri Aurobindo’s first published
lines in quantitative hexameters, may be related in some way to Ilion,
his epic poem in that metre, which he began to write in Alipore Jail
(see below, Part Five).
410The Birth of Sin. Circa 1909. Published in the Karmayogin on 11
December 1909. A fragmentary draft of a related piece is found in one
of Sri Aurobindo’s notebooks in handwriting of the 1909–10 period.
That piece, which is more in the nature of a play than a poem, is
published in Collected Plays and Stories, volume 4 of THE COMPLETE
415WORKS OF SRI AUROBINDO.
Epiphany. Circa 1909. Published in the Karmayogin on 18 December
1909. Around 1913, Sri Aurobindo copied the Karmayogin text into
a notebook, making a few deliberate changes as he did so. Later he
revised the opening and close of this version. Three decades later,
420when Collected Poems and Plays was being compiled, the editors,
not knowing about the 1913 version, sent the Karmayogin text to Sri
Aurobindo, who made a few revisions to it. This version was used in
Collected Poems and Plays (1942) and reproduced in Collected Poems
in 1972. The editors of the present volume have selected the more
425extensively revised version of 1913 for the text reproduced here. The
1942 version is reproduced in the Reference Volume.
To R. 1909. Published in the Modern Review in April 1910 under the
title “To R — ” and dated 19 July 1909. “R” stands for Ratna, which
was the pet name of Sri Aurobindo’s cousin Kumudini Mitra, who was
430born on 3 Sraban 1289 (18 July 1882). In the Modern Review, the
poem was signed “Auro Dada” (big brother Auro).
Transiit, Non Periit. 1909 or earlier. This sonnet to Rajnarain Bose,
Sri Aurobindo’s maternal grandfather and a well-known writer and
speaker, was first published at the beginning of Atmacharit, Rajnarain’s
435memoirs, in 1909. As mentioned in the note beneath the title, Rajnarain
died in September 1899. Sri Aurobindo may have written the poem
anytime between 1899 and 1909; but since there are no drafts among
his Baroda manuscripts, and since the poem belongs stylistically with
those of 1909, it seems likely that it was written close to the date of
440the publication of that book. Quite possibly it was written especially
for the book in 1909. The Latin title means: “He has gone beyond, he
has not perished.”
Poems from Manuscripts, circa 1909–1910
Perfect thy motion. No title in the manuscript. Circa 1909. The single
445manuscript text of this poem is found in a notebook that Sri Aurobindo
used for the dramatic version of “The Birth of Sin” (see the previous
section) and for the dialogue that follows. All these poems are in the
handwriting of the 1909–10 period.
A Dialogue. No title in the manuscript. Circa 1909. Written in the same
450notebook and in the same handwriting as “Perfect thy motion” and
the dramatic version of “The Birth of Sin”. Unlike that piece, it is not
structured as a play, and so has been printed here as a dramatic poem.
Narrative Poems Published in 1910
Baji Prabhou. Circa 1904–9. Sri Aurobindo wrote that this work
455was “conceived and written in Bengal during the period of political
activity”. This leaves the precise date of its composition unclear. Sri
Aurobindo went to Bengal and openly joined the national movement
in February 1906, but he had been active behind the scenes for some
years before that. A partial draft of Baji Prabhou is found in a note-
460book he used from around 1902 to around 1910. The handwriting
of this draft is that of the later years in Baroda (1904–6), and it is
probable the poem was written during that period. (Sri Aurobindo
spent a good deal of time in Bengal during these years.) Baji Prabhou
was published for the first time in three issues of the Karmayogin: 19
465February, 26 February and 5 March 1910. At some point he revised
the first instalment of the Karmayogin text, but did not make use
of this revision subsequently. In 1922 he published the Karmayogin
text (with new, very light, revision) at the Modern Press, Pondicherry.
This text became the basis of a further revised version published in
470Collected Poems and Plays in 1942. This 1942 version is the basis of
the present text. (In the version published in Collected Poems [1972],
Note on the Texts
the editors included readings from the revised Karmayogin text. In the
present edition these readings have been ignored, but the 1922 and
4751942 revisions, both approved by Sri Aurobindo, have been included.)
Chitrangada. 1909–10. This incomplete poem is related in theme and
form to “Uloupie” (see above, Part Two), which Sri Aurobindo wrote
around 1901–2. The manuscript of “Uloupie” was confiscated by the
police in 1908 and never returned. There were, however, two draft
480passages of the poem in a notebook that Sri Aurobindo had with him
in 1909–10, and he apparently drew on these to write Chitrangada.
Many of the lines in the final version are identical or almost identical to
those in the draft passages. Sometime before he left Bengal in February
1910, he gave the manuscript of Chitrangada to the Karmayogin staff
485for publication. The poem appeared in that newspaper in the issues of
26 March and 2 April 1910. “To be continued” was printed at the end
of the second instalment, but the issue in which it appeared was the
last to come out. The manuscript of the rest of the poem has been lost.
Around 1930, one of Sri Aurobindo’s disciples typed the incomplete
490poem out from the Karmayogin and sent it to Sri Aurobindo, who
expressed some dissatisfaction with it. In 1937 he indicated that the
poem required some revision before it could be published, but that it
was “not the moment” for that. More than a decade later, he revised
Chitrangada for publication in the 1949 number of the Sri Aurobindo
495Circle annual. The following note was printed along with the Circle
text: “Sri Aurobindo had completed this poem but the original has been
lost, only this fragment remains. It has been revised for publication.”
The revision considerably enlarged the passage containing the speech
of Chitrangada’s “dying sire”. The new lines appear to be the last
500poetical lines Sri Aurobindo composed, with the exception of the final
revisions and additions to Savitri.
Poems Written in 1910 and Published in 1920–1921
These three poems have an unusual history. They form part of a manu-
script containing material apparently intended for three issues of the
505Karmayogin. This manuscript also contains articles on yoga, histori-
cal studies, satirical sketches, and pieces headed “Passing Thoughts”,
which was the name Sri Aurobindo gave to his weekly column in the
Karmayogin early in 1910. (See the Note on the Texts to Early Cultural
Writings, volume 1 of THE COMPLETE WORKS OF SRI AUROBINDO, for
510more information on this “Chandernagore Manuscript”.) In the mid-
dle of February 1910, Sri Aurobindo left Calcutta for Chandernagore,
where he remained for six weeks before departing for Pondicherry.
It would appear that he left the manuscript containing these poems
behind in Chandernagore, that someone there made copies of the po-
515ems and other contents of the manuscript, and that at some point the
original manuscript was sent to him in Pondicherry. (See Arun Chandra
Dutt, ed., Light to Superlight [Calcutta: Prabartak Publishers, 1972],
p. 207.) In 1920–21 defective texts of the poems (as well as some of
the other contents of the manuscript) were published in the Standard
520Bearer, a journal brought out from Chandernagore. Sometime after
their publication, Sri Aurobindo revised the Standard Bearer texts.
In 1942, the Standard Bearer versions were given to Sri Aurobindo
for further revision before inclusion in Collected Poems and Plays.
Evidently he and the editors of the volume had by this time forgotten
525about the existence of the original manuscripts. These manuscripts,
however, are superior to the defective Standard Bearer texts and also
to the 1942 version, which is based on those texts. The editors of
the present volume have therefore based the texts printed here on the
original manuscripts, incorporating the deliberate changes made by Sri
530Aurobindo in 1942. The texts printed in Collected Poems and Plays
are included in the Reference Volume.
The Rakshasas. 1910. This poem was intended for the first issue of
the Karmayogin to be printed from the manuscript described in the
above note. A corrupt version was printed in the Standard Bearer on
53514 November 1920. This version was revised by Sri Aurobindo for
inclusion in Collected Poems and Plays in 1942. The present version
is based on the original manuscript.
Kama. 1910. This poem was intended for the second issue of the
Karmayogin to be printed from the manuscript described in the above
540note. A corrupt version was printed in the Standard Bearer on 27
March 1921. This version was revised by Sri Aurobindo for inclusion
in Collected Poems and Plays in 1942. The present version is based on
the original manuscript.
Note on the Texts
545The Mahatmas. 1910. This poem was intended for the third issue of
the Karmayogin to be printed from the manuscript described in the
above note. In the manuscript, the poem is entitled “The Mahatmas:
Kutthumi”. A corrupt version was printed under the title “The Ma-
hatma Kuthumi” in the Standard Bearer on 12 and 26 December 1920.
550This version was revised by Sri Aurobindo for inclusion in Collected
Poems and Plays in 1942. The present version is based on the original
manuscript.
PART FIVE: PONDICHERRY, CIRCA 1910–1920
Sri Aurobindo came to Pondicherry in 1910 and remained there until
555his passing in 1950. During this period he published four collections
of short poems as well as Collected Poems and Plays (1942). He also
published a number of short poems in journals, and wrote scores of
poems, long and short, that were not brought out until after his passing.
Two Poems in Quantitative Hexameters
560Ilion. Sri Aurobindo began work on this epic in quantitative hexam-
eters in 1908 or 1909. The earliest surviving manuscript lines of the
poem — then entitled “The Fall of Troy: An Epic” — were dated by the
author as follows: “Commenced in jail, 1909, resumed and completed
in Pondicherry, April and May 1910.” Between then and 1914, he
565worked steadily on this “completed” poem, transforming it from a
brief narrative into an epic made up of several books. During the first
stage of this enlargement, between April 1910 and March 1913, he
produced almost a dozen drafts of the first book and a smaller number
of drafts of the second. In March 1913, a sudden fluency permitted
570him to complete and revise a version of the epic extending up to
the end of what is now Book VIII. He wrote the fragmentary ninth
book (untitled and not actually headed “Book IX” in the manuscript)
in 1914. Probably before then, he copied out the first eight books
into notebooks that bear the title Ilion. Subsequently he revised and
575recopied the completed books, or passages from them, several times.
This work continued until around 1917. It would appear that two
factors — the writing-load of the monthly journal Arya (1914–21)
and the attention demanded by his other epic, Savitri — caused him to
stop work on Ilion before completing what presumably was intended
580to be a twelve-book epic.
During the twenties and thirties, Sri Aurobindo returned to Ilion
from time to time. As late as 1935, he complained jocularly that if
he could get an hour’s freedom from his correspondence every day,
“in another three years Savitri and Ilion and I don’t know how much
585more would all be rewritten, finished, resplendently complete”. He in
fact never found time to complete Ilion, but in 1942 he revised the
opening of the first book to serve as an illustration of the quantitative
hexameter in “On Quantitative Metre”, an essay that was published
in Collected Poems and Plays in 1942 and also in a separate booklet
590issued the same year. This revised passage of 371 lines was the only
portion of Ilion to appear in print during his lifetime. The full text
was transcribed from his manuscripts and published in 1957. A new
edition, corrected against the manuscripts and with the addition of the
opening of the fragmentary ninth book, was brought out in 1989. The
595present text has been rechecked against the manuscripts.
Ahana. This poem in rhymed hexametric couplets, grew out of “The
Descent of Ahana” (see below), which took its final form around
1912–13. “The Descent of Ahana” is divided into two parts. The
first part consists of a long dialogue between Ahana and “Voices”; the
600second consists of a speech by Ahana, a speech by “A Voice”, and a
final speech by Ahana. In the final draft of “The Descent”, the last
two speeches of the second part comprise 160 lines. In or before 1915,
Sri Aurobindo revised and enlarged these 160 lines into the 171-line
poem that was published in Ahana and Other Poems. In this version,
605Sri Aurobindo added a head-note setting the scene of the poem and a
footnote glossing the term “Ras”. Sometime after 1915, he revised the
1915 text, but apparently forgot about this revision, which has never
been published. In or before 1942, he again revised the 1915 text for
publication in Collected Poems and Plays. This 1942 revision brought
610the poem to its present length of 518 lines.
Note on the Texts
Poems from Manuscripts, circa 1912–1913
The Descent of Ahana. Circa 1912–13. The earliest known draft of
this poem is found among the papers that the police seized from Sri
615Aurobindo’s room when he was arrested in May 1908. A complete
fair copy is found in a manuscript notebook that may be dated circa
1912–13. The second part of the fair copy was subsequently revised
and published under the title “Ahana” in Ahana and Other Poems
(1915). See the note to “Ahana” in the previous section.
620The Meditations of Mandavya. 1913. Sri Aurobindo wrote the date
“April 12, 1913” at the end of a draft of the first part of this poem.
The incident of the scorpion-sting happened before 14 February 1911,
when Sri Aurobindo mentioned it in Record of Yoga as something
that had happened in the past. In the mid 1930s, when the book
625entitled Poems Past and Present was being prepared, a copy of “The
Meditations of Mandavya” was typed for Sri Aurobindo, who revised
it lightly. He chose however not to include the poem in that collection.
The revisions done at that time are incorporated in the text for the first
time in the present edition.
630Incomplete Poems from Manuscripts, circa 1912–1920
Thou who controllest. No title in the manuscript. Circa 1912. Sri
Aurobindo wrote these lines in dactylic hexameter inside the back
cover of a notebook that he used sometime before November 1912.
He was working on Ilion at this time, but these lines do not seem to
635belong to that poem. Neither do they appear to be a translation of
lines from the Iliad, the Odyssey or any other classical text.
Sole in the meadows of Thebes. No title in the manuscript. 1913.
Written on the same manuscript page as the following poem, at around
the same time. It is almost certainly to this poem that Sri Aurobindo
640was referring when he wrote in Record of Yoga on 21 September 1913
of beginning an “Eclogue in hexameter”.
O Will of God. No title in the manuscript. 1913. Written on the same
manuscript page as the previous poem.
The Tale of Nala [1]. Circa 1916–20. There are very few clues by
645which this incomplete poem might be dated. Judging from the hand-
writing, it was composed towards the end of the second decade of the
century. It obviously is based on the story of Nala, as recounted in the
Mahabharata and later texts, but does not seem to be a translation
of any known Sanskrit work. The passages separated by a blank line
650were written separately and not joined together.
The Tale of Nala [2]. Circa 1916–20. Sri Aurobindo seems to have
written this rhymed version of the opening of his proposed poem on
Nala after the blank verse version. He retained several lines from the
earlier version unchanged or practically unchanged.
655PART SIX: BARODA AND PONDICHERRY, CIRCA 1902–1936
Poems Past and Present
These eight poems were published as a booklet by the Sri Aurobindo
Ashram in 1946. (Four of them — “Musa Spiritus”, “Bride of the
Fire”, “The Blue Bird” and “A God’s Labour” — had appeared in
660journals connected with the Ashram earlier the same year.) All the
poems were written at least a decade, one of them four and a half
decades, before 1946. The first draft of “Hell and Heaven” dates back
to around 1902, early drafts of “Kamadeva” and “Life” to around
1913. A notebook containing these three early poems was uncovered
665by Sri Aurobindo’s secretary, Nolini Kanta Gupta, in April 1932. He
typed out copies and sent them to Sri Aurobindo with this note: “I have
copied these poems out of a notebook that was being hopelessly eaten
away by insects. I do not know how far I have been able to recover
the text.” Sri Aurobindo revised these poems around that time, adding
670a fourth, “One Day”, while he worked. Several years later these four
poems were published along with four that had been written in 1935
and 1936 under the title Poems Past and Present. The eight poems are
reproduced here in the order in which they are printed in that book.
Musa Spiritus. 1935. An early draft of this poem occurs between drafts
675of “A God’s Labour” and “The Blue Bird” (see below). Sri Aurobindo
wrote the date “31.7.35” at the end of a later draft. There are two
Note on the Texts
handwritten manuscripts and one typed manuscript of this poem.
Bride of the Fire. 1935. The first draft of this poem is dated 11 Novem-
680ber 1935. There are two handwritten and two typed manuscripts.
The Blue Bird. 1935. The first draft of this poem is dated 11 November
1935. There are two handwritten and two typed manuscripts.
A God’s Labour. 1935–36. A late draft of this poem is dated as follows:
“31.7.35 / Last 4 stanzas 1.1.36”. There are four handwritten and two
685typed manuscripts.
Hell and Heaven. Circa 1902–30s. The earliest extant draft of this
poem is found in the typed manuscript that contains drafts of “To the
Ganges”, “To the Boers”, etc. (see above, Part Three). Around 1912 Sri
Aurobindo copied the poem out by hand in a notebook. Twenty years
690later, his secretary Nolini Kanta Gupta typed this and the next two
poems out from this notebook and presented them to Sri Aurobindo
for revision. Fourteen years after that they were included in Poems Past
and Present. There are one handwritten and two typed manuscripts.
Kamadeva. Circa 1913. The earliest surviving drafts of this poem and
695the next one are found in the notebook that contains “The Meditations
of Mandavya” (see above, Part Five), the opening of which is dated
1913. In 1932 they were typed out and fourteen years later included
in Poems Past and Present. There is one handwritten and one typed
manuscript.
700Life. Circa 1913. The earliest surviving drafts of this poem and the
previous one are found in the notebook that contains “The Meditations
of Mandavya” (see above, Part Five), the opening of which is dated
1913. In 1932 they were typed out and fourteen years later included
in Poems Past and Present. There is one handwritten and one typed
705manuscript.
One Day. Circa 1932. Sri Aurobindo wrote the first draft of this poem
in the notebook containing drafts of the previous three poems, which
Nolini Kanta Gupta uncovered and sent to him in 1932. This draft was
lightly revised and later included in Poems Past and Present. There is
710one handwritten and one typed manuscript.
PART SEVEN: PONDICHERRY, CIRCA 1927–1947
Sri Aurobindo published three short volumes of poetry, and a vol-
ume on poetics that included poems as illustrations, between 1934
and 1946. One of the volumes of poems, Poems Past and Present,
715comprises Part Six of the present volume. The other volumes are
included in this part, which also contains complete and incomplete
poems from his manuscripts of the same period.
Six Poems
These poems were written in 1932, 1933 and 1934. In 1934 a book
720was planned that would include the six poems along with translations
of them into Bengali by disciples of Sri Aurobindo. This book was
published by Rameshwar & Co., Chandernagore, before the end of the
year. Shown a proposed publicity blurb for the book, Sri Aurobindo
wrote: “One can’t blow one’s own trumpet in this monstrous way, nor
725do I want it to be indicated that I am publishing this book. It is Nolini’s
publication, not mine. Why can’t a decent notice be given instead of
these terrible blurbs?” He also wrote his own descriptive paragraph
stating that the six poems were in “novel English metres” and that the
book included “notes on the metres of the poems and their significance
730drawn from the letters of Sri Aurobindo”. The texts as well as the notes
were reprinted in Collected Poems and Plays (1942).
The Bird of Fire. 17 October 1933. No handwritten manuscripts of
this poem survive. There are three typed manuscripts, two of which
are dated 17 October 1933. In a letter written shortly afterwards, Sri
735Aurobindo said that “Bird of Fire” was “written on two consecutive
days — and afterwards revised”. He also wrote that this poem and
“Trance” (see below) were completed the same day.2
Trance. 16 October 1933. There are two handwritten manuscripts and
one typed manuscript, which is dated “16.10.33”. In the same letter
740in which Sri Aurobindo wrote about the composition of “The Bird of
Fire” (see above), he noted that “Trance” was written “at one sitting
2 Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Poetry and Art, volume 27 of THE COMPLETE WORKS
OF SRI AUROBINDO, p. 244.
Note on the Texts
745— it took only a few minutes”. In Six Poems “Trance” was placed
after “The Bird of Fire”.
Shiva. 6 November 1933. There are two handwritten manuscripts and
one typed manuscript, which is dated “6.11.33”.
The Life Heavens. 15 November 1933. There are four handwritten and
750three typed manuscripts. The typed manuscripts are dated “15.11.33”.
Jivanmukta. 13 April 1934. There are four handwritten and two typed
manuscripts. The typed manuscripts are dated “13.4.34”. The poem
was published in the Calcutta Review in June 1934.
In Horis Aeternum. 19 April 1932. Sri Aurobindo began this poem
755while corresponding with Arjava (J. A. Chadwick, a British disciple)
about English prosody. He wrote the first stanza in a letter to Arjava
and the full poem in a subsequent letter (Letters on Poetry and Art,
pp. 231–34). There are two handwritten and two typed manuscripts.
One of the typed manuscripts is dated “19.4.32”.
760Notes. These notes were compiled from Sri Aurobindo’s letters and
revised by him for publication while Six Poems was under production.
Poems
These six poems were written during the early 1930s and published as
a booklet by the Government Central Press, Hyderabad, in 1941. The
765next year they were reprinted in Collected Poems and Plays under the
heading “Transformation and Other Poems”. Sometime in the 1940s
a small edition of the book was published by the India Library Society,
New York.
Transformation. Circa 1933. This sonnet was published in the Calcutta
770Review in October 1934. Two months earlier, Sri Aurobindo asked
his secretary to type copies of this poem and three others (“The Other
Earths”, “The World Game” and “Symbol Moon”) from the notebook
in which they and others had been written. When “Transformation”
and “The Other Earths” were published in 1934, Sri Aurobindo in-
775formed a disciple that they were “some years old already” (Letters on
Poetry and Art, p. 211), but it is unlikely that they were more than
a year old at that time. The first draft of “Transformation” occurs in
a notebook just after the first draft of “Trance”, which is dated 16
October 1933; it is probable that “Transformation” was written the
780same year. There are two handwritten and two typed manuscripts of
this poem.
In a note written after “Transformation” and the next two sonnets
were typed for publication, Sri Aurobindo said that he wanted the
sestets of Miltonic sonnets to be set as they have been set in the present
785book, irrespective of rhyme scheme.
Nirvana. August 1934. This sonnet was written while the texts of
“Transformation” and “The Other Earths” were being prepared for
publication in the Calcutta Review. It was published along with them in
that journal in October 1934. There are two handwritten manuscripts
790and one typed manuscript of this poem.
The Other Earths. Circa 1933. This sonnet was published in the Cal-
cutta Review in October 1934. Its first draft occurs just after the first
draft of “Transformation”, which is dated 16 October 1933; thus it
belongs, in all probability, to the year 1933. See the note to “Trans-
795formation” for more details. Writing to a disciple who was trying to
translate it into Bengali, Sri Aurobindo wrote that the line “Fire impor-
tunities of scarlet bloom” meant “an abundance of scarlet blossoms
importuning (constantly insisting, besieging) with the fire of their vivid
hues”. There are two handwritten and two typed manuscripts of this
800poem.
Thought the Paraclete. 31 December 1934 (this is the date on a typed
manuscript; the handwritten manuscripts were probably written in
June 1934). This poem originated as a metrical experiment, in which
Sri Aurobindo tried to match a Bengali metrical model submitted to
805him by his disciple Dilip Kumar Roy.3 There are at least three hand-
written and two typed manuscripts of this poem. A printed text was
produced sometime before 1941, but apparently was never published.
Moon of Two Hemispheres. July 1934. Like “Thought the Paraclete”,
this poem originated in an attempt to duplicate a Bengali metre pro-
810posed by Dilip Kumar Roy. Replying to Dilip, Sri Aurobindo began:
“After two days of wrestling I have to admit that I am beaten by
your last metre. I have written something, but it is a fake.” He then
wrote out the first stanza of the poem, pointing out where he had
3 Dilip Kumar Roy, Sri Aurobindo Came to Me (Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram,
8151952), p. 237.
Note on the Texts
failed to meet Dilip’s specifications. He closed by saying: “I have some
idea of adding a second stanza”, though “it may never take birth at
all” (Letters on Poetry and Art, pp. 235–36). He did write a second
820stanza later. The poem was published in the “Sri Aurobindo Number”
(volume 2, number 5) of the Calcutta fortnightly journal Onward in
August 1934. There are four handwritten and two typed manuscripts
of this poem.
Rose of God. 29–30 December 1934. There is one handwritten and
825one typed manuscript of this poem. The typed manuscript is dated 31
December 1934; however Sri Aurobindo wrote in a letter to a disciple
that “Rose of God” was ready “on the 30th having been written on
that and the previous day”. On 31 December, he wrote to his secretary
that the just-typed “Rose of God” could be “circulated first as a sort
830of New Year invocation”. On 2 March 1935, his secretary wrote to
him saying that the editor of a quarterly journal had asked for a poem
to be published, and asking whether “Rose of God” could be sent.
Sri Aurobindo replied: “I feel squeamish about publishing the ‘Rose
of God’ in a magazine or newspaper. It seems to me the wrong place
835altogether.”
Note. This note did not form part of Poems (1941); it was first
published in 1942 in Collected Poems and Plays.
Poems Published in On Quantitative Metre
With two exceptions, these poems were written in 1942 for publication
840in Collected Poems and Plays. Sri Aurobindo later commented that he
wrote them “very rapidly — in the course of a week, I think”. In regard
to “Flame-Wind” and “Trance of Waiting”, this would refer not to the
composition but the revision, since the first drafts of these pieces were
written during the mid 1930s. The fourteen poems, along with the first
845371 lines of Ilion, first appeared as an appendix to On Quantitative
Metre. This text was published as part of Collected Poems and Plays,
and also as a separate book, in 1942. Each of the poems was followed
by a footnote written by the author giving details of the metre used.
These notes have not been included in the present volume, but may
850be seen in the text of On Quantitative Metre, published in The Future
Poetry with On Quantitative Metre, volume 26 of THE COMPLETE
WORKS OF SRI AUROBINDO. The first 371 lines of Ilion appear in Part
Five of the present volume as part of the full text of the poem.
Ocean Oneness. 1942. Two handwritten manuscripts, both entitled
855“Brahman”, precede the On Quantitative Metre revision work.
Trance of Waiting. Circa 1934. The first draft of this poem was written
around the same time as “Jivanmukta”, which is dated 1934. Two
handwritten manuscripts precede the On Quantitative Metre revision
work in 1942.
860Flame-Wind. 1937. A handwritten draft of this poem is dated 1937.
This draft is entitled “Dream Symbols”. Three other handwritten
manuscripts precede the On Quantitative Metre revision work in 1942.
The River. 1942. Three handwritten manuscripts precede the On
Quantitative Metre revision work.
865Journey’s End. 1942. Two handwritten manuscripts precede the On
Quantitative Metre revision work.
The Dream Boat. 1942. A single handwritten manuscript precedes the
On Quantitative Metre revision work.
Soul in the Ignorance. 1942. A single handwritten manuscript precedes
870the On Quantitative Metre revision work.
The Witness and the Wheel. 1942. A single handwritten manuscript
precedes the On Quantitative Metre revision work.
Descent. 1942. A single handwritten manuscript precedes the On
Quantitative Metre revision work.
875The Lost Boat. 1942. Two handwritten manuscripts precede the On
Quantitative Metre revision work.
Renewal. 1942. A single handwritten manuscript precedes the On
Quantitative Metre revision work.
Soul’s Scene. 1942. Three handwritten manuscripts precede the On
880Quantitative Metre revision work.
Ascent. 1942. Two handwritten manuscripts precede the On Quanti-
tative Metre revision work.
The Tiger and the Deer. 1942. A single handwritten manuscript pre-
cedes the On Quantitative Metre revision work.
885Note on the Texts
Sonnets
Sri Aurobindo wrote a total of seventy-five sonnets between 1933 and
1947. Only three of them were published in a book during his lifetime
(see above under Poems). The other seventy-two are reproduced in the
890present section. See the note to “Transformation” for typographical
conventions. Sri Aurobindo wrote in 1934 that he intended his sonnets
to “be published in a separate book of sonnets”. This was done in the
book Sonnets, first published in 1980.
Three Sonnets
895One of these sonnets was written around 1934, the other two in 1939.
Sri Aurobindo selected them from among his completed sonnets for
publication in the Sri Aurobindo Circle, Bombay, in 1948. They were
published under the heading “Three Sonnets”.
Man the Enigma. 17 September 1939. Three handwritten and two
900typed manuscripts precede the Circle publication in 1948.
The Infinitesimal Infinite. Circa 1934. Three handwritten and four
typed manuscripts precede the Circle publication in 1948.
The Cosmic Dance. 15 September 1939. Four handwritten and two
typed manuscripts precede the Circle publication in 1948.
905Sonnets from Manuscripts, circa 1934–1947
On 31 December 1934, Nolini Kanta Gupta wrote in a note to Sri
Aurobindo: “Sometime ago I typed Seven Sonnets — Are they not in
their final form?” Sri Aurobindo replied: “No. I have had no time
to see them — and I am still a little doubtful about their quality.” The
910seven sonnets were (in the order of Nolini’s typed copies): “Contrasts”,
“Man the Thinking Animal”, “Evolution [1]”, “Evolution [2]”, “The
Call of the Impossible”, “Man the Mediator”, and “The Infinitesimal
Infinite”. Sri Aurobindo later revised most of the seven, along with an
eighth, “The Silver Call”, which is related to “The Infinitesimal Infi-
915nite”. After further revision he published “The Infinitesimal Infinite”
as part of “Three Sonnets” in 1948 (see above).
Man the Thinking Animal. Circa 1934. Five handwritten manuscripts
and one typed manuscript, the earliest contemporaneous with close-
to-final drafts of “Transformation” and “The Other Earths”.
920Contrasts. Circa 1934. Five handwritten manuscripts and one typed
manuscript, the earliest contemporaneous with close-to-final drafts of
“Transformation” and “The Other Earths”.
The Silver Call. Written on or before 25 April 1934 (when Sri Auro-
bindo quoted five lines in a letter to Dilip Kumar Roy); revised 1944.
925Five handwritten manuscripts and one typed manuscript; the first
handwritten manuscript was written shortly after those of the two
preceding sonnets. The original poem went through several versions,
eventually becoming two, “The Silver Call” and “The Call of the
Impossible”. The final version of “The Silver Call” is dated “193–(?)
930/ 23.3.44”.
Evolution [1]. Circa 1934, revised 1944. Five handwritten manuscripts
and one typed manuscript, that is dated “193–(?) / 22.3.44”. This
poem and the one above were often worked on together, as were the
two that follow.
935The Call of the Impossible. 1934; revised subsequently. Four hand-
written manuscripts and one typed manuscript. This poem began as a
variant of “The Silver Call”: the first lines of the two poems were once
identical — “There is a godhead in unrealised things” — and the first
rhyming words remain the same even in the final versions.
940Evolution [2]. Circa 1934. Two handwritten manuscripts and one
typed manuscript. The handwritten drafts were written around the
same time as early drafts of “The Call of the Impossible”; the final
typed versions of the two poems are also contemporaneous. The
present sonnet has the same title as the one which forms a pair with
945“A Silver Call” (see “Evolution [1]” above). There is no textual
relation between it and its namesake, but there is some between it
and “The Silver Call”: its closing couplet was first used as the close
of “The Silver Call” and its second and fourth lines are similar to the
tenth and twelfth lines of “The Silver Call”.
950Man the Mediator. Circa 1934. Four handwritten manuscripts and
one typed manuscript.
Sri Aurobindo wrote the next five sonnets in 1934 or 1935, at around
Note on the Texts
the same time. He did not ask his secretary to make typed copies
955of any of the five, and gave titles to only three of them. The other
two (one of which began as a variant of one of the first three) were
found recently among the manuscripts of this group and recognised as
separate poems.
Discoveries of Science. Circa 1934–35. Three handwritten manu-
960scripts.
All here is Spirit. No title in the manuscript. Circa 1934–35. One
handwritten manuscript. Published here for the first time.
The Ways of the Spirit [1]. Circa 1934–35. Four handwritten manu-
scripts.
965The Ways of the Spirit [2]. No title in the manuscript. Circa 1934–35.
Three handwritten manuscripts.
Science and the Unknowable. Circa 1934–35. Three handwritten
manuscripts.
Sri Aurobindo wrote the next two sonnets in the early part of 1936.
970The Yogi on the Whirlpool. 1936. Two handwritten manuscripts, nei-
ther of them dated, but certainly written just before “The Kingdom
Within”.
The Kingdom Within. 14 March 1936. Two handwritten manuscripts.
Sri Aurobindo wrote the next three sonnets in the early part of 1938.
975Now I have borne. No title in the manuscript. 2 February 1938. Two
handwritten manuscripts.
Electron. 15 July 1938. Two handwritten manuscripts.
The Indwelling Universal. 15 July 1938. Two handwritten manu-
scripts.
980Sri Aurobindo wrote the next nine sonnets in July and August 1938
and revised them in March 1944.
Bliss of Identity. 25 July 1938, revised 21 March 1944. Two handwrit-
ten manuscripts, the first entitled “Identity”.
The Witness Spirit. 26 July 1938, revised 21 March 1944. Two hand-
985written manuscripts.
The Hidden Plan. 26 July 1938, revised 18 and 21 March 1944. Two
handwritten manuscripts.
The Pilgrim of the Night. 26 July 1938, revised 18 March 1944. Three
handwritten manuscripts, the first entitled “In the Night”.
990Cosmic Consciousness. 26 July 1938, revised apparently on 21 March
1944. Two handwritten manuscripts, the first entitled “The Cosmic
Man”.
Liberation [1]. 27 July 1938, revised 22 March 1944. Two handwritten
manuscripts.
995The Inconscient. 27 July 1938, revised 21 March 1944. Two hand-
written manuscripts.
Life-Unity. 8 August 1938, revised 22 March 1944. Two handwritten
manuscripts.
The Golden Light. 8 August 1938, revised 22 March 1944. Two
1000handwritten manuscripts.
Sri Aurobindo wrote the next thirty-nine sonnets between 11 Septem-
ber and 16 November 1939. He wrote two other sonnets, “Man the
Enigma” and “The Cosmic Dance” during the same period (see above
under “Three Sonnets”).
1005The Infinite Adventure. 11 September 1939. Three handwritten manu-
scripts.
The Greater Plan. 12 September 1939. Three handwritten manuscripts.
The Universal Incarnation. 13 September 1939. Four handwritten
manuscripts.
1010The Godhead. 13 September 1939. Three handwritten manuscripts.
This sonnet is about an experience Sri Aurobindo had during the first
year of his stay in Baroda (1893).
The Stone Goddess. 13 September 1939. Three handwritten manu-
scripts. This sonnet is about an experience Sri Aurobindo had at a
1015temple in Karnali, on the banks of the Narmada, near the end of his
stay in Baroda (c. 1904–6).
Krishna. 15 September 1939. Three handwritten manuscripts.
Shiva. 16 September 1939. Three handwritten manuscripts.
The Word of the Silence. 18–19 September 1939. Three handwritten
1020manuscripts.
The Self’s Infinity. 18–19 September 1939. Three handwritten manu-
scripts, the second entitled “Self-Infinity”.
Note on the Texts
The Dual Being. 19 September 1939. Three handwritten manuscripts.
1025Lila. 20 September 1939. Three handwritten manuscripts, the second
entitled “The Thousandfold One”.
Surrender. 20 September 1939. Three handwritten manuscripts.
The Divine Worker. 20 September 1939. Three handwritten manu-
scripts.
1030The Guest. 21 September 1939. Three handwritten manuscripts, the
first entitled “The Guest of Nature”.
The Inner Sovereign. 22 September 1939, revised 27 September. Three
handwritten manuscripts, the first entitled “The Sovereign Tenant”.
Creation. 24 September 1939, revised 28 September. Three handwrit-
1035ten manuscripts, the first entitled “The Conscious Inconscient”.
A Dream of Surreal Science. 25 September 1939. Three handwritten
manuscripts.
In the Battle. 25 September 1939. Two handwritten manuscripts.
The Little Ego. 26 September 1939, revised 29 September. Two hand-
1040written manuscripts.
The Miracle of Birth. 27 September 1939, revised 29 September. Six
handwritten manuscripts, the second entitled “The Divine Mystery”,
the third “The Divine Miracle-Play”, and the fourth and fifth “The
Miracle-Play”.
1045The Bliss of Brahman. 29 September 1939, revised 21 October. Five
handwritten manuscripts; the first has the epigraph: “He who has
found the bliss of Brahman, has no fear from any quarter. / Upanishad
[Taittiriya Upanishad 2.4]”.
Moments. 29 September 1939, revised 2 October. Two handwritten
1050manuscripts.
The Body. 2 October 1939. Three handwritten manuscripts.
Liberation [2]. 2–3 October 1939, revised 5 November. Three hand-
written manuscripts.
Light. 3–4 October 1939. Three handwritten manuscripts.
1055The Unseen Infinite. 4 October 1939. Three handwritten manuscripts,
the first entitled “The Omnipresent”.
“I”. 15 October 1939, revised 5 November. Two handwritten manu-
scripts.
The Cosmic Spirit. 15 October 1939, revised 5 November. Two hand-
1060written manuscripts, the first entitled “Cosmic Consciousness”, revised
to “Cosmic Self”.
Self. 15 October 1939. Three handwritten manuscripts, the first enti-
tled “Liberty”.
Omnipresence. 17 October 1939. Three handwritten manuscripts, the
1065first two entitled “The Omnipresent”.
The Inconscient Foundation. 18 October 1939, revised 7 February
1940. Two handwritten manuscripts.
Adwaita. 19 October 1939. Three handwritten manuscripts. This son-
net was written about an experience Sri Aurobindo had while walking
1070on the Takht-i-Sulaiman (“Seat of Solomon”), near Srinagar, Kashmir,
in 1903.
The Hill-top Temple. 21 October 1939. Three handwritten manu-
scripts, the first two entitled “The Temple on the Hill-Top”. This
sonnet is about an experience Sri Aurobindo had at a shrine in the
1075temple-complex on Parvati Hill, near Poona, probably in 1902.
The Divine Hearing. 24 October 1939. Three handwritten manu-
scripts, one of which is entitled “Sounds”.
Because Thou art. 25 October 1939. Three handwritten manuscripts,
all untitled.
1080Divine Sight. 26 October 1939. Three handwritten manuscripts.
Divine Sense. 1 November 1939. Three handwritten manuscripts.
The Iron Dictators. 14 November 1939. Two handwritten manu-
scripts.
Form. 16 November 1939. Three handwritten manuscripts.
1085Sri Aurobindo wrote the next two sonnets in 1940.
Immortality. 8 February 1940. One handwritten manuscript.
Man, the Despot of Contraries. 29 July 1940. Two handwritten manu-
scripts, the first entitled “The Spirit of Man”.
Sri Aurobindo wrote the next two sonnets during the middle to late
10901940s.
The One Self. Circa 1945–47. One handwritten manuscript, undated,
but in the almost illegible handwriting of the late 1940s.
The Inner Fields. 14 March 1947. One handwritten manuscript, legible
only with difficulty, and another in the handwriting of Nirodbaran, Sri
1095Aurobindo’s scribe.
Note on the Texts
Lyrical Poems from Manuscripts, circa 1934–1947
Sri Aurobindo once wrote that he wanted his short poems published
in two separate books, one of sonnets and one of “(mainly) lyrical
1100poems”. In the present section are published all complete short poems,
sonnets excluded, that he wrote between 1934 and 1947. Parodies
written as amusements, poems written primarily as metrical experi-
ments, and incomplete poems have been placed in the sections that
follow. It sometimes is difficult to determine whether Sri Aurobindo
1105considered a given poem to be complete when he stopped work on it.
Symbol Moon. Circa 1934. Three handwritten and two typed manu-
scripts. On 7 August 1934, Sri Aurobindo asked his secretary to type
the first drafts of “Symbol Moon”, “The World Game”, “Transforma-
tion” and “The Other Earths” from the notebook in which he wrote
1110these and other poems.
The World Game. Circa 1934. Three handwritten and two typed
manuscripts.
Who art thou that camest. No title in the manuscript. Circa 1934–36.
One handwritten manuscript, written in a notebook used otherwise
1115for Savitri.
One. 14 March 1936. One handwritten manuscript, written on a sheet
of a small “Bloc-Memo” pad.
In a mounting as of sea-tides. No title in the manuscript. Circa 1936–
37. One handwritten manuscript.
1120Krishna. Circa 1936–37. One handwritten manuscript.
The Cosmic Man. 15 September 1938. One handwritten manuscript.
The Island Sun. 13 October 1939. Three handwritten manuscripts.
Despair on the Staircase. October 1939. Three handwritten manu-
scripts.
1125The Dwarf Napoleon. 16 October 1939. Three handwritten manu-
scripts.
The Children of Wotan. 30 August 1940. Two handwritten manu-
scripts.
The Mother of God. One handwritten manuscript, undated, but in the
1130handwriting of the mid 1940s.
The End? 3 June 1945. One handwritten manuscript.
Silence is all. No title in the manuscript. 14 January 1947. (The manu-
script is dated “January 14, 1946”, but this is probably a slip, as the
rest of the contents of the notebook in which the poem is written are
1135from 1947.) One handwritten manuscript.
Poems Written as Metrical Experiments
Sri Aurobindo wrote most of these pieces in a somewhat playful effort
to match metrical models submitted to him by his disciple Dilip Kumar
Roy. As Dilip writes in Sri Aurobindo Came to Me, p. 233: “At the
1140time I was transposing some English modulations into our Bengali
verse which he [Sri Aurobindo] greatly appreciated in so much that,
to encourage me, he composed short poems now and then as English
counterparts to my Bengali bases.” One such experiment resulted in the
poem “Thought the Paraclete”, which Sri Aurobindo later revised and
1145included in the book Poems (see above). All but one of the others exist
in one or more drafts in Sri Aurobindo’s notebooks of the period. The
exception, “In some faint dawn”, is known only by the text published
by Dilip in Sri Aurobindo Came to Me. The nine poems published
in that book are reproduced here in the same order. Another poem
1150written in response to a letter from Dilip is placed before the rest,
while two others, also metrical experiments, have been placed at the
end of Dilip’s set. All the poems except the last seem to have been
written in 1934. All but one are untitled in the manuscripts.
O pall of black Night. No title in the manuscript. Circa 1934. Three
1155handwritten manuscripts. See Letters on Poetry and Art, pp. 236–37,
for a letter that shows the genesis of this poem.
To the hill-tops of silence. No title in the manuscript. 1934. One
handwritten transcript in Nolini Kanta Gupta’s hand.
Oh, but fair was her face. No title in the manuscript. 1934. One
1160handwritten transcript in Nolini Kanta Gupta’s hand.
In the ending of time. No title in the manuscript. 1934. One handwrit-
ten transcript in Nolini Kanta Gupta’s hand.
In some faint dawn. No title in the printed text in Sri Aurobindo Came
to Me. 1934.
1165In a flaming as of spaces. No title in the manuscript. 1934. One
Note on the Texts
handwritten manuscript.
O Life, thy breath is but a cry. 1934. Early typed copies of this poem
are dated 21 June 1934 and are entitled “Life and the Immortal”.
1170Sri Aurobindo took up this poem in 1942 while preparing poems to
be published in On Quantitative Metre. He gave the revised draft
the title “Life” and indicated the rhyme scheme as follows: “Iambics;
modulations, spondee, anapaest, pyrrhic, long monosyllable”. Even-
tually, however, he decided not to include the revised poem in On
1175Quantitative Metre. The editors have incorporated his final revisions
in the text, but used the first line as title as with the other poems in
this subsection. Two handwritten manuscripts.
Vast-winged the wind ran. No title in Sri Aurobindo Came to Me.
1934. No manuscripts. An early typed copy of this piece is dated 25
1180June 1934. Note that in Sri Aurobindo Came to Me this piece and
the two that follow are placed after the mention of “Thought the
Paraclete”.
Winged with dangerous deity. No title in the manuscript. 20 June 1934.
See Letters on Poetry and Art, pp. 234–35 for a letter that shows the
1185genesis of this poem. Two handwritten and two typed manuscripts.
Outspread a Wave burst. No title in the manuscript. 26 June 1934.
Two handwritten manuscripts, one in Nolini Kanta Gupta’s hand.
On the grey street. No title in the manuscript. Circa 1934. One hand-
written manuscript.
1190Cry of the ocean’s surges. No title in the manuscript. Circa 1940–41.
One handwritten manuscript.
Nonsense and “Surrealist” Verse
Sri Aurobindo wrote the first of these poems in isolation during the late
1920s or early 1930s. He wrote the other items as an amusement after
1195some of his disciples tried to interest him in the subject of surrealistic
poetry. See also the more serious sonnet “A Dream of Surreal Science”
in the section ”Lyrical Poems”.
A Ballad of Doom. Late 1920s or early 1930s. There is one hand-
written manuscript of this piece, the writing of which has completely
1200faded away. A transcription made years ago was published in the
journal Mother India in April 1974. The editors have verified and
corrected this transcription using images made by means of infrared
photography, scanning and imaging software. Several words in the text
remain somewhat doubtful.
1205Surrealist. Circa 1936. One handwritten manuscript, written before
28 December 1936, when Sri Aurobindo mentioned it in a letter to a
disciple.
Surrealist Poems. Circa 1943. (The Moro River, mentioned in the sec-
ond poem, is a river in Italy that was the site of a battle between
1210Canadian and German forces in December 1943; the notebook in
which the poem is written was in use during the early 1940s.) One
handwritten manuscript, consisting of two pages of a “Bloc-Memo”
pad. Sri Aurobindo first wrote, in the upper left hand corner, “Parody”,
then, as title, “Surrealist Poems”. Beneath the first poem, he wrote a
1215tongue-in-cheek explanation within his own square brackets, then,
after “2”, the title and text of the second poem.
Incomplete Poems from Manuscripts, circa 1927–1947
Thou art myself. No title in the manuscript. 1927–29. One handwrit-
ten manuscript, jotted down in a notebook used otherwise for diary
1220entries, essays, etc. In the manuscript, the word “Or”, presumably the
beginning of an unwritten second stanza, comes after the fourth line.
Vain, they have said. No title in the manuscript. Circa 1927. Although
written, like “Ahana”, in rhymed dactylic hexameter couplets, these
lines do not seem to have been intended for inclusion in that poem. (The
1225phrase “to infinity calling” does occur both here and in “The Descent
of Ahana”, but in different contexts.) One handwritten manuscript.
Pururavus. Circa 1933. Several handwritten drafts in a single note-
book. It would appear from the manuscript that Sri Aurobindo began
this passage as a proposed revision to the opening of the narrative
1230poem “Urvasie”. The passage developed on different lines, however,
and Sri Aurobindo soon stopped work on it.
The Death of a God [1]. Circa 1933. Two handwritten manuscripts; a
third manuscript is published as “The Death of a God [2]”.
The Death of a God [2]. Circa 1933. One handwritten manuscript.
1235The Inconscient and the Traveller Fire. Circa 1934. Two handwritten
Note on the Texts
manuscripts, the first entitled “Death and the Traveller Fire”.
I walked beside the waters. No title in the manuscript. April 1934. Sri
Aurobindo wrote the first part of this poem (down to “gloried fields
1240of trance”) on 25 April 1934 after Dilip Kumar Roy asked him for
some lines in alexandrines (Sri Aurobindo Came to Me, pp. 226–29).
In an accompanying letter, he explained how the caesura dividing the
lines into two parts could come after different syllables. Dilip, noting
that in Sri Aurobindo’s passage there were examples of the caesura
1245falling after the second, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth and
tenth syllables, asked for an example of a line with the caesura coming
after the third syllable. Sri Aurobindo obliged by sending him the
couplet:
And in the silence of the mind life knows itself
1250Immortal, and immaculately grows divine.
On 28 April 1934, three days after Sri Aurobindo sent the first passage,
his secretary asked him: “Can your last poem (in Alexandrines, sent to
Dilip) be put into circulation?” Sri Aurobindo replied: “No. It is not
even half finished.” He wrote two more passages but never wove the
1255three together into a completed poem. The editors have reproduced
the passages as they are found in Sri Aurobindo’s notebooks and loose
sheets, separating the three passages by blank lines.
A strong son of lightning. No title in the manuscript. Circa 1934. Three
handwritten manuscripts.
1260I made danger my helper. No title in the manuscript. Circa 1934.
Two handwritten manuscripts. Sri Aurobindo wrote these four lines
on the back of a typed manuscript of “The World Game”. They do
not, however, appear to have been intended for inclusion in that poem.
The metre is not the same as, though possibly related to, the metre of
1265“The World Game”.
The Inconscient. Circa 1934. Four handwritten manuscripts.
In gleam Konarak. No title in the manuscript. Circa 1934–35. A
single handwritten manuscript on the back of a sheet used for a draft
of “Thought the Paraclete”, which is dated 31 December 1934. The
1270fragment consists of three stanzas, the second of which is incomplete.
Bugles of Light. Circa 1934–35. A single handwritten manuscript on
the back of a note written to Sri Aurobindo on 31 December 1934.
The Fire King and the Messenger. Circa 1934–35. A single manu-
script, written in a notebook near a draft of “Thought the Paraclete”.
1275God to thy greatness. No title in the manuscript. March 1936. A single
manuscript, written between drafts of “The Yogi on the Whirlpool”
and “The Kingdom Within”, both of which are dated 14 March 1936.
Silver foam. No title in the manuscript. March 1936. One handwritten
manuscript, written on a sheet of a “Bloc-Memo” pad between “The
1280Kingdom Within” and “One”, both of which are dated 14 March
1936. In the manuscript, there is no full stop at the end, suggesting
that the piece is incomplete.
Torn are the walls. No title in the manuscript. Circa 1936. Two
handwritten manuscripts.
1285O ye Powers. No title in the manuscript. Circa 1936. Three hand-
written manuscripts. In the final manuscript, the last line ends in a
comma, indicating that the piece is incomplete.
Hail to the fallen. No title in the manuscript. Circa 1936. Italy invaded
Abyssinia (Ethiopia) in October 1935. Britain and France stopped
1290trying to broker a peace in December, and in May 1936, after a heroic
resistance, Emperor Haile Selassie fled the country. “Lion of Judah”
was a title borne by the Emperors of Ethiopia. The star towards the
end was written by Sri Aurobindo. One handwritten manuscript.
Seer deep-hearted. No title in the manuscript. Circa 1936–37. One
1295handwritten manuscript.
Soul, my soul [1]. No title in the manuscript. Circa 1936–37. Two
handwritten manuscripts; a third is published as “Soul, my soul [2]”.
Soul, my soul [2]. No title in the manuscript. Circa 1936–37. This is
the most completely revised, but shortest, manuscript of this poem.
1300I am filled with the crash of war. No title in the manuscript. Circa 1938.
Compare the third and fourth line of this poem with the third line of
“The Cosmic Man” (see above); the two poems seem to be related.
“The Cosmic Man” is dated 15 September 1938. One handwritten
manuscript.
1305In the silence of the midnight. No title in the manuscript. Circa 1938.
One handwritten manuscript.
Here in the green of the forest. No title in the manuscript. Circa 1939.
One handwritten manuscript. The star before the last four lines was
written by Sri Aurobindo.
1310Note on the Texts
Voice of the Summits. Circa 1946–47. One handwritten manuscript.
The poem was probably written after “The Inner Fields”, which is
dated 14 March 1947.
APPENDIX: POEMS IN GREEK AND IN FRENCH
1315As a student in England Sri Aurobindo wrote many poems in Greek
and in Latin as school or college assignments. A typical assignment
would be to render an English poem into Greek or Latin verse of a
given metre. The Greek epigram below appears to be an example of
such an assignment. Sri Aurobindo also learned French in England,
1320and in later years wrote two poems in that language.
Greek Epigram. January 1892. Sri Aurobindo wrote this epigram in a
notebook he used at Cambridge. At the end he wrote “Jan. 1892 (Por-
son Schol)”. This refers to the Porson Scholarship examination, which
was held at Cambridge that month. In order to win this scholarship,
1325candidates had to take twelve papers over the course of a week. One
of the papers required contestants to provide a Greek translation of
the following poem by Richard Carlton (born circa 1558), an English
madrigal composer:
The witless boy that blind is to behold
1330Yet blinded sees what in our fancy lies
With smiling looks and hairs of curled gold
Hath oft entrapped and oft deceived the wise.
No wit can serve his fancy to remove,
For finest wits are soonest thralled to love.
1335Sir Edmund Leach, late provost of King’s College, Cambridge, who
provided the information on the scholarship examination, went on to
add:
It is possible that [Sri Aurobindo] Ghose was a candidate
for the Porson Scholarship; alternatively it is possible that
1340his King’s College supervisor set him the Porson Scholarship
paper as an exercise to provide practice for the Classical Tripos
examination which he was due to take in June 1892.
Sri Aurobindo’s epigram is not a literal translation of the English poem,
but an adaptation of it in Greek verse. Transliterated into the Latin
1345alphabet, the Greek text reads as follows:
M¯oros Er¯os alaos th’; ho d’hom¯os ha g’eni phresi keitai
H¯em¯on, ophthalmous ¯on alaos kathora.
Pai, su gar h¯edu gel¯on iobostrukhe kallipros¯ope,
Diktu¯o andra kal¯o kai sophon exapatas.
1350Oude sophos per an¯er se, doloploke, phuximos oudeis;
Kai proteros pant¯on doulos er¯oti sophos.
Lorsque rien n’existait. No title in the manuscript. Circa 1914–20. Sri
Aurobindo seems to have written this prose poem during a fairly early
period of his stay in Pondicherry. Published here for the first time.
1355Sur les grands sommets blancs. No title in the manuscript. Circa 1927.
Sri Aurobindo wrote this incomplete poem in a notebook he used
otherwise for the Record of Yoga of 1927.
PUBLICATION HISTORY
During his lifetime, Sri Aurobindo published poetry in a number of
1360periodicals: Fox’s Weekly (1883), Bande Mataram (1907), The Mod-
ern Review (1909, 1910), Karmayogin (1909, 1910), Shama’a (1921),
The Calcutta Review (1934), Sri Aurobindo Circle (1948, 1949), and
others. He also published poetry in twelve books: Songs to Myrtilla
and Other Poems (c. 1898), Urvasie (c. 1899), Ahana and Other Po-
1365ems (1915), Love and Death (1921), Baji Prabhou (1922), Six Poems
(1934), Poems (1941), Collected Poems and Plays (1942), On Quan-
titative Metre (1942), Poems Past and Present (1946), Chitrangada
(1949) and Savitri (1950–51). Details on the first editions of all these
books except the last two may be found in the above notes. Four of
1370the books had further editions during Sri Aurobindo’s lifetime: Songs
to Myrtilla (1923), Urvasie (c. 1905), Love and Death (1924, 1948),
and Baji Prabhou (1949).
Collected Poems and Plays was the first attempt to bring out a
comprehensive edition of Sri Aurobindo’s known poetic output. It was
1375planned by Nolini Kanta Gupta for release on 15 August 1942, Sri
Note on the Texts
Aurobindo’s seventieth birthday. Following Sri Aurobindo’s instruc-
tions that “only poems already published should be included in this
collection”, Nolini collected all poems, poetic translations and plays
1380that had been published until then, typed them and sent them to Sri
Aurobindo for revision. The book was published by the Sri Aurobindo
Ashram, Pondicherry, and printed at the Government Central Press,
Hyderabad. Work on the book extended from around February to
August 1942.
1385Between 1950 and 1971 a number of poems that had remained
unpublished at the time of Sri Aurobindo’s passing were printed in
various journals connected with the Sri Aurobindo Ashram and in
three books: Last Poems (1952), More Poems (1957) and Ilion (1957).
In 1971, all of Sri Aurobindo’s known poetical works were published
1390in Collected Poems: The Complete Poetical Works, volume 5 of the Sri
Aurobindo Birth Centenary Library. A few other poems were included
in the Supplement (volume 27) to the Centenary Library in 1973.
About a dozen poems discovered between then and 1985 were pub-
lished in the journal Sri Aurobindo: Archives and Research. The first
1395almost complete collection of Sri Aurobindo’s Sonnets was published
in 1980. Lyrical Poems 1930–1950 came out in 2002.
In the present volume are collected all previously published poems
and at least three that appear here for the first time in print: “Thou
bright choregus”, “All here is Spirit” and “Lorsque rien n’existait”.
1400The poems have been arranged chronologically. As far as possible,
books published during Sri Aurobindo’s lifetime have been presented
in their original form. The texts of all the poems have been checked
against the author’s manuscripts and printed editions.