Sri Aurobindo

Letters of Sri Aurobindo

Volume 2. 1938

Letter ID: 2233

Sri Aurobindo — Nirodbaran Talukdar

November 11, 1938

[Sri Aurobindo and the Mother]

Honey? [8.11.38]

[Mother:] Ask from Pavitra – He must have forgotten – I have told him the very same day to send a bottle to you.

Guru, not at all satisfied! nothing flashing!

Well, well, you are difficult to satisfy – It may not flash but it gleams all right.

Besides, you broke my power of judgment on yesterday’s poem which I thought was a triumph!

Well, perhaps I shall consider it a triumph if I read it again after six months. I won’t insist on Horace’s rule that in order to judge poetry rightly that has been newly written, you must keep it in your desk unseen for ten years and then read it again and see what you then think of it!

I give you the lines which you have called “damn fine”, Sir!

“While the whole universe seems to be a cry

To the apocalypt-vision of thy Name.”

Mm, yes, I can’t deny the fineness – but perhaps I ought not to have damned it without proper regard to Shakespeare.

I know your enthusiasm will abate now, and perhaps you will only say, “Yes, they are very satisfying!”

Why do you object to a poem being called satisfying? It is high praise.

Or you will say that yesterday’s “damn fine” can’t be equal to today’s, what? I find your remarks exceedingly mysterious, which justifies your being a “Mystery-Man”!

Which remarks? On Shakespeare? They were logical, not mystic.

What about the poem I requested you to write? No head or tail?

Which poem?