2) A poem by my humble self. I don’t like it much, and Amal says that it is rather jerky and rough.3Sri Aurobindo
Letters of Sri Aurobindo
Volume 1. 1936
Letter ID: 1591
Sri Aurobindo — Nirodbaran Talukdar
April 3, 1936
[I sent back the letter of April 2, 1936 to Sri Aurobindo.]
I could not read what you wrote yesterday, Sir. Absolutely unreadable! Not even by Nolini was it possible!
I repeat then from memory. “What a modest poet! Most think in their heart of hearts that they are superior to Homer, Virgil, Milton and Shakespeare all piled upon and fused into each other.”1
Tomorrow is 4th April!2 We are commemorating it thus:
1) Nishikanta sends a big poem – splendid, exquisite. By Jove, what a flow and what a poem! Do read it at once, Sir, and let the correspondence go to H – for one day!
Correspondence can’t be sent to H, either way, unless the light goes out – and then where will the poems go?
2) A poem by my humble self. I don’t like it much, and Amal says that it is rather jerky and rough.3
Yes, the rhythm is defective in many places.
Apart from it, what about the rhyme scheme and the conclusion?
The rhyme scheme all right. The conclusion is all right too.
Nishikanta suggests that I should add a few more lines. If that would enhance the beauty I shall try.
No, it would spoil the force of the contrast you have made by minimising it.
In the last line, is the idea clear?
No. But it is much better with the meaning I have now put into it.
Yes, I was almost going to tear my hair but your “delightful time” prevented me from doing it! But I hold J’s reply till Sunday after which I will tear my hair certainly.
Preserve it – preserve your precious hair. Be calm, be patient!
I don’t understand whether it is the yogic or accommodation trouble that stands in the way of putting them together.
Who is “them” – your hairs? What an abrupt Tacitean writer you are.
Well, you can put them separately, I am sure Jatin will agree so long as he and his wife are given rooms in the Ashram.
It is because we can’t put them together that it is impossible. There is no sufficient separate room for ladies.
I shall tell him the situation, unless you don’t want her at all to stay in the Ashram, in which case he will be compelled to stay outside.
It is not a question of wanting, but of space.
I don’t think he will object to staying out. So?
Then it is all right.
Sorry. Nishikanta was too vast for me. Very fine though. Shall send on next time.
I hear R.K. has walked off and one of the reasons is his eyes! Why are they not cured? etc. God knows – we have tried our best and he was practically all right. I don’t understand why there was the relapse suddenly, do you?
He was already wanting to go when they were all right and then turned round and said he had conquered the devil and would never leave – So the devil probably got into his eyes and made him blink towards the Panjab. His eyes were not the cause but an excuse. He had not much vocation for Yoga and the Mother had sent him off twice as unfit, but he came back as R.B.’s escort and sat down, and now he has got up and gone. But B.P. has no intention of going.
1 Although the notebook was sent back, Sri Aurobindo could not read his own handwriting. Hence his recourse to “memory”.
2 The date of Sri Aurobindo’s arrival in Pondicherry in 1910.
3 “One Moment”, Sun-Blossoms, p. 23.