Sri Aurobindo

Letters of Sri Aurobindo

Volume 2. 1937

Letter ID: 1996

Sri Aurobindo — Nirodbaran Talukdar

July 13, 1937

Shall I pass on your observation about K to X (“It is a pity he could not go to K.”)?

What’s the use – since he has to remain in Calcutta.

Yes, from the description it seems to be the nose and not the ear. But in a previous letter he spoke of the ear. Doesn’t know what he is talking about? Ear-trouble, nose-trouble?

Perhaps he had both.

[The following two questions were asked by J:] Is your “Love and Death” a narrative poem?

Certainly.

Narratives then can be made or written very poetically, not like a mere fact-to-fact story-telling?

But what do you mean by poetically? A fact to fact story telling can be very poetic. Poetry is poetic whether it is put in simple language or freely adorned with images and rich phrases. The latter kind is not the only “poetic” poetry nor is necessarily the best. Homer is very direct and simple; Virgil less so but still is restrained in his diction; Keats tends always to richness; but one cannot say that Keats is poetic and Homer and Virgil are not. The rich style has this danger that it may drown the narration so that its outlines are no longer clear. This is what has happened with Shakespeare’s Venus and Adonis and Lucrece; so that Shakespeare cannot be called a great narrative poet.

How did you find Monomohon Ghosh’s poems on Love and Death?

I don’t remember anything about them and am not sure that I have read.

S says that he feels very hungry now, especially in the evening. Only milk not enough. I fear to give him anything else at night.

But why is it so bad with him? T gets on very well with her ptosis, keeping only a few rules like not moving about for some time after meals.