Ground, sir, not grave. A ground need not be a grave.Sri Aurobindo
Letters of Sri Aurobindo
Volume 2. 1937
Letter ID: 1825
Sri Aurobindo — Nirodbaran Talukdar
January 16, 1937
I have used the word প্রমীলা1 in a new sense, meaning fatigue, drowse, slumber. D objected to কৃষ্ণিমা2 saying it wouldn’t do... Funny thing – this word coinage! Sometimes people accept it, sometimes they reject.
After all when one coins a new word, one has to take the chance. If the word is properly formed and not ugly or unintelligible, it seems to me all right to venture.
If it is not accepted it will remain a blot in the poem. Tagore coined the word তৃণাঞ্চিত3 but he laments that people have not accepted it.
– Why a blot? There are many words in Greek poetry which occur only once in the whole literature, but that is not considered a defect in the poem. It is called a “hapax legomenon”, “a once-spoken word” and that’s all. তৃণাঞ্চিত for instance is a fine word and can adorn, not blot Tagore’s poetry even if no one else uses it. I think Shakespeare has many words coined by him or at least some that do not occur elsewhere.
Any opinion, Guru, and does your intuition say anything on প্রমীলা?
I really can’t say what প্রমীলা it is. I think, a rare Sanskrit word. Most people wouldn’t understand it, perhaps.
In your letter of day before yesterday I could not make out a word. Is it: “he wallows in the grave –”? Gracious!
Ground, sir, not grave. A ground need not be a grave.
J is still upset. Please, open your tap a little.
She is terribly unreasonable, and she feels herself too easily “tapped” on the head or otherwise.
If God wills, please will or shall something in this fully blank page.
Nothing to write. You have got the essentials, and I have a damned lot of letters to write.
1 pramīlā.
2 kṛṣṇimā.
3 tṛṇāñcita: covered with grass.