Sri Aurobindo

Letters of Sri Aurobindo

Fragment ID: 20266

There is a previous draft, the result of the many retouchings of which somebody told you; but in that form it would not have been a “magnum opus” at all. Besides, it would have been a legend and not a symbol. I therefore started recasting the whole thing; only the best passages and lines of the old draft will remain, altered so as to fit into the new frame.

No, I do not work at the poem once a week; I have other things to do. Once a month perhaps, I look at the new form of the first book and make such changes as inspiration points out to me – so that nothing shall fall below the minimum height which I have fixed for it.

1931