Sri Aurobindo

Letters of Sri Aurobindo

Volume 3

Letter ID: 872

Sri Aurobindo — Roy, Dilip Kumar

December 2, 1936

It is very nice indeed after your wonderful corrections. Bottom is now translated indeed! Only read once more. What do you think in the last verse of “my neck engarland with the music of Thy starry throng” you have made “the starry”. See and adjudge.

It can be “Thy”.

Potent spell and arabesque are marvellous!

I append a letter of a rising poet with his hymn on yourself; he has a fine command of language (Nishikanta and Nirod too have praised his poem on you) and chhanda; his only defect is the defect of all – it is too Tagorian. Still his thought substance and easy flow and kallol and fine mastery of felicitous chhanda (his only defect here is that it flows a little too correctly with little variations of pauses, etc.) surely deserves sincere praise. It is just a wee bit heavy in a few lines – but seldom so heavy as to tend to be prosaic. For the rest I think it is a fine poem all told in spite of its evident limitations. It is a poem certainly demanding notice.

I like the poem very well, and there are very fine lines in it.

I enclose also my poem they praise so highly.

It is not surprising that they should have liked it – as a truly beautiful poem “Philosophical” – what!

l am so glad – because his praise sounds genuine and he being a poet himself I must set store by his being so moved by the poem I wrote when I myself was moved to tears. Also note this chhanda was invented by my father and till now had received practically no notice. Of course I have now developed it and Nishikanta too is taking to it. By the way, he has written a magnificent paean on you (entitled “Chobbishay November” – 24th November) in my new invented prabahaman matra-vritta (flowing metre). It is superb. He has caught it at last – the flow I mean. Till now he had not achieved this, he was complaining himself and had thought it rather difficult. But now all is moving like a well-oiled limousine. This you will be glad to note when you read this poem of his – his longest (18 pages). But all that in good time. I am correcting his spelling and punctuation.

I shall await it then. Eighteen pages will be a job for me in my present circumstances, but your description of the well-oiled limousine is promising and gives me hope I shall be able to go through like another Sir Malcolm Campbell at two hundred miles an hour.