A Song, Translated from Bengali by Sri Aurobindo on 13.2.1941
Since thou hast called me, see that I
Go not from thee, — surrounding me stand.
In thy own love’s diviner way
Make me too love thee without end.
My fathomless blackness hast thou cleft
With thy infinity of light,
Then waken in my mortal voice
Thy music of illumined sight.
Make me thy eternal journey’s mate
Tying my life around thy feet.
Let thy own hand my boat unmoor,
Sailing the world thyself to meet.
Fill full of thee my day and night,
Let all my being mingle with thine
And every tremor of my soul
Echo thy flute of flutes divine.
Come in thy chariot, Charioteer,
And drive me whither thou wouldst go.
All within me and all my acts
Make luminous with surrender’s glow.
[published as a part of Fourty Years Ago]
Two Early Poems in English,
Corrected and Recast by Sri Aurobindo
Mother! deep in my heart I find
A jewel glimmering in the night,
When every mortal sense is blind
It speaks to stars of unknown height
Mother! a love-flame swift and sweet
Swaying along the path of gold,
It rises to your heavenly feet
Where sun and moon and stars you mould.
Mother! the flower of eternity
Unfolds its petals in my soul,
I sing to its light that unveils to me
A crystal tower, your shining gold.
Mother! in a lonely secret spot
I am cradled on your breast alone
When all of me is gathered, brought
Into your dream of opening Dawn.
* * *
An emerald soul of peaks within
Travels from height to height unseen;
The shadow of the Infinite falls on earth’s pain
A golden desire, a heavenly rain!
Transcendent of Time’s moment’s power
Come encircling the eternal hour.
The sun above the moon below
Unheard footfalls come soft and slow,
A bell rings from Eternity.
Whirling the Almighty’s power, She
Creates a land of blue and white
Within the smoke and doze of night:
She comes in her golden robe of fire
To release God-music from earth’s lyre.
[published as a part of Fourty Years Ago]
The first tremor of the Light
The first tremor of the Light, lo the dream-journey
Night’s desire is now appeased, she feels the Sun within her,
The Mother of Infinity holds in her bosom her first guest:
The call awakes in the lotus-scented senses!
On the far shore where moves the Fiery Wheel
Rose, unheeded, the cry of the Spaces —
It spread and enveloped even our shadowy horizons:
A golden vision flutters on earth’s eyelids,
As the flaming spider weaves his luminous web around himself!
The Bard wheels onward in his sweeping march:
He gathers in perfect rhythm the soul’s obeissances,
Urges secreted in the heart of the sun-flower,
Hymns limned in her petalled gold!
[translation from original Bengali by Nolini Kanta Gupta]
Make this body sanctified and pure
Make this my body sanctified pure
Speckless, like a temple.
Set alight in its every atom
The sacrificial flame, tireless.
On the altar of this body-temple, taking your stand
O my Lord, light me up.
The lotus of my worship at your glowing feet
Keep ever, day and night.
Like plumbless love’s pearl
Cool, pure, make this heart.
With that may I weave my garland of refuge
This my one wish, O Mother.
Illuminating thee, O divine Master
Inside and out, may that lamp burn.
In every instant of that lighting
May a new life gain birth
[translation from original Bengali by Debashish Banerji]