Sri Aurobindo

Collected Poems

CWSA.- Volume 2

Baroda and Pondicherry, c. 1902 – 1936
Poems Past and Present

Kamadeva

When in the heart of the valleys and hid by the roses

The sweet Love lies,

Has he wings to rise to his heavens or in the closes

Lives and dies?

On the peaks of the radiant mountains if we should meet him

Proud and free,

Will he not frown on the valleys? Would it befit him

Chained to be?

Will you then speak of the one as a slave and a wanton,

The other too bare?

But God is the only slave and the only monarch

We declare.

It is God who is Love and a boy and a slave for our passion

He was made to serve;

It is God who is free and proud and the limitless tyrant

Our souls deserve.

Earlier edition of this work: Sri Aurobindo Birth Century Library: Set in 30 volumes.- Volume 5.- Collected Poems.- Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Asram, 1972.- 625 p.