“SAVITRI” by Sri Aurobindo (Republished edition of the 1st edition 1950-51, draft approved by Sri Aurobindo before his death) Book Four—The Book of Birth and Quest (Contd. from yesterday August 29, 2013) Canto I THE BIRTH AND CHILDHOOD OF THE FLAME Armies of revolution crossed the time-field, The clouds’ unending march besieged the world, Tempests’ pronunciamentos claimed the sky And thunder drums announced the embattled gods, A traveller from unquiet neighbouring seas The dense maned monsoon rode neighing through earth’s hours: Thick now the emissary javelins: Enormous lightnings split the horizon’s rim And, hurled from the quarters as from contending camps, Married heaven’s edges steep and bare and blind: A surge and hiss and onset of huge rain, The long straight sleet-drift, clamours of winged storm-charge, Throngs of wind-faces, rushing of wind-feet Hurrying swept through the prone afflicted plains: Heaven’s waters trailed and dribbled through the drowned land. Then all was a swift stride, a sibilant race, Or all was tempest’s shout and water’s fall. A dimness sagged on the grey floor of day, Its dingy sprawling length joined morn to eve, Wallowing in sludge and shower it reached black dark. Day a half darkness wore as its dull dress. Light looked into dawn’s tarnished glass and met Its own face there, twin to a half-lit night’s: Downpour and drip and seeping mist swayed all And turned dry soil to bog and reeking mud: Earth was a quagmire, heaven a dismal block. None saw through dank drenched wicks the dungeon sun. Even when no turmoil vexed air’s sombre rest, Or a faint ray glimmered through weeping clouds As a sad smile gleams veiled by returning tears, All promised brightness failed at once denied Or, soon condemned, died like a brief-lived hope. Then a last massive deluge thrashed dead mire And a subsiding mutter left all still, Or only the muddy creep of sinking floods Or only a whisper and green toss of trees.
Posted on: Fri, 30 Aug 2013 12:14:50 +0000
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