SRI AUROBINDO

Translations

from Sanskrit and Other Languages

II. From Bengali

Chittaranjan Das

Songs of the Sea (Sagar Sangit)

XVIII

O high stark Death, ascetic proud and free,

Draw back thy trident of eternity:

Leave, leave my days their natural life and death

Reclined in the heart’s grove, lulled with music’s breath.

The lotus of creation, like a rhyme

Trembling with its own joy and sorrow, long

On the harmonious ocean of old Time

Has floated, heaven above the infinite song.

O great last death of all, leave yet to stay

Or pass, to fade or bloom my little day.