-56_Note on the Texts.htm

certainly was done using an edition of Chandidasa’s works published in 1897. On 17 October 1898, Sri Aurobindo’s brother Manmohan wrote in a letter to Rabindranath Tagore: “My brother . . . has just published a volume of poems at Baroda.” This book evidently is Songs to Myrtilla. In another letter Manmohan tells Tagore: “Aurobinda is anxious to know what you think of his book of verses.” This second letter is dated 24 October 1894, but the year clearly is wrong. Manmohan had not even returned to India from England by that date. When the two letters are read together and when other documentary evidence is evaluated, it becomes clear that the second letter also was written in1898, and that this was the year of publication of the first edition of Songs to Myrtilla.¹ The “second edition” apparently appeared a year or two later.

A new edition of the book, entitled simply Songs to Myrtilla, was published by the Arya Publishing House, Calcutta, in April 1923.

When a biographer suggested during the 1940s that all the poems in Songs to Myrtilla were written in Baroda, except for five that were written in England, Sri Aurobindo corrected him as follows: “It is the other way round; all the poems in the book were written in England except five later ones which were written after his return to India. "The following poems certainly were written in Baroda after his return to India in 1893: “Lines on Ireland” (dated 1896), “Saraswati with the Lotus” and “Bankim Chandra Chatterji” (both written after the death of Bankim in 1894), and “To the Cuckoo” (originally subtitled" A Spring morning in India”). “Madhusudan Dutt” was probably also written in Baroda, as were the two adaptations of poems by Chandidasa. This makes seven poems. The number five, proposed by the biographer and not by Sri Aurobindo, was probably not meant by Sri Aurobindo to be taken as an exact figure.

The handwritten manuscript of Songs to Myrtilla contains one poem, “The Just Man”, that was not printed in any edition of the book. (It is reproduced here in the third section of Part One.) The manuscript and the second edition contain a dedication and a Latin epigraph, which Sri Aurobindo later deleted. They are reproduced here

1 Manmohan Ghose’s letters to Tagore are reproduced and discussed in Sri Aurobindo: Archives and Research, volume 12 (1988), pp. 86 ­ 87, 89 ­ 91.

Page – 693

from the manuscript:

To my brother

Manmohan Ghose

these poems

are dedicated.

Tale tuum nobis carmen, divine poeta,

Quale sopor fessis in gramine, quale per aestum

Dulcis aquae saliente sitim restinguere rivo.

***

Quae tibi, quae tali reddam pro carmine dona?

The Latin lines are from Virgil’s fifth Eclogue, lines 45 ­ 47 and 81.They may be translated as follows:

So is thy song to me, poet divine,

As slumber on the grass to weary limbs,

Or to slake thirst from some sweet-bubbling rill

In summer’s heat . . .

How, how repay thee for a song so rare?

Four of the poems in Songs to Myrtilla are adaptations of works written in other languages: two in ancient Greek and two in mediaeval Bengali. These adaptations are published here in their original context. They are also published in Translations, volume 5 of THE COMPLETE WORKS OF SRI AUROBINDO.

Songs to Myrtilla. Circa 1890 ­ 98. This, the title-poem of the collection, is headed in the manuscript “Sweet is the night”.

O Coïl, Coïl. Circa 1890 ­ 98. The coïl is the koyel or Indian cuckoo.

Goethe. Circa 1890 ­ 98.

The Lost Deliverer. Circa 1890 ­ 98. In the manuscript and the Baroda edition, this epigram is entitled “Ferdinand Lassalle”. Lassalle (1825 ­64), a German socialist leader, was killed in a duel over a woman. Charles Stewart Parnell. Dated 1891, the year of the Irish nationalist leader’s death.

Hic Jacet. Dated 1891 in the manuscript; subtitled in the manuscript

Page – 694

and in all printed editions: “Glasnevin Cemetery”. This is the cemetery in Dublin where Parnell is buried.

Lines on Ireland. Dated 1896 in the manuscript and all printed editions.

On a Satyr and Sleeping Love. Circa 1890 ­ 98. This is a translation of a Greek epigram attributed to Plato.

A Rose of Women. Circa 1890 ­ 98. This is a translation of a Greek epigram by Meleager (first century B.C.)

Saraswati with the Lotus. 1894 or later. Written after the death of the

Bengali novelist Bankim Chandra Chatterji (1838 ­ 94)

Night by the Sea. Circa 1890 ­ 98.

The Lover’s Complaint. Circa 1890 ­ 98.

Love in Sorrow. Circa 1890 ­ 98.

The Island Grave. Circa 1890 ­ 98.

Estelle. Circa 1890 ­ 98.

Radha’s Complaint in Absence. Circa 1890 ­ 98, probably towards the end of this period. This is an adaptation of a poem by the Bengali poet and mystic Chandidasa (late fourteenth to early fifteenth century)

Radha’s Appeal. Circa 1890 ­ 98, probably towards the end of this period. Another adaptation of a poem by Chandidasa.

Bankim Chandra Chatterji. Circa 1894 ­ 98. Certainly written after Bankim’s death in 1894. The poem is entitled in the manuscript “Lines written after reading a novel of Bunkim Chundra Chatterji”.

Madhusudan Dutt. Circa 1893 ­ 98.

To the Cuckoo. Circa 1893 ­ 98. Subtitled in the manuscript “A Spring morning in India”. The subtitle may have been deleted from the Baroda edition simply for lack of space.

Envoi. Circa 1890 ­ 98, probably closer to 1898. Entitled “Vale” in the manuscript. No title was printed in the Baroda edition, perhaps for lack of space. The title "Envoi" was given when a new edition of Songs to Myrtilla was brought out in 1923. The Latin epigraph is from the Appendix Vergiliana (poems once ascribed to Virgil, but more likely by a contemporary), Catalepton, Carmen 5, lines 8 ­ 11.The following translation of these lines is by Joseph J. Mooney (The Minor Poems of Vergil [Birmingham, 1916]):

O Muses, off with you, be gone with all the rest!

Ye charming Muses, for the truth shall be confessed

Page – 695

Ye charming were, and modestly and rarely still

Ye must revisit pages that I then shall fill.

Poems from Manuscripts, circa 1891 ­ 1898

All but one of the pieces in this section and the next are taken from a notebook Sri Aurobindo used at Cambridge between 1890 and 1892.

To a Hero-Worshipper. September 1891. From the Cambridge note-book.

Phaethon. Circa 1891 ­ 92. From the Cambridge notebook.

The Just Man. Circa 1891 ­ 98. This poem forms part of the manu-script of Songs to Myrtilla but was not included by Sri Aurobindo in the printed book.

Incomplete Poems from Manuscripts, circa 1891 ­ 1892

Thou bright choregus. No title in the manuscript. Circa 1891 ­ 92.These two stanzas are from the Cambridge notebook. Published here for the first time.

Like a white statue. No title in the manuscript. Circa 1891 ­ 92. This incomplete prose poem is from the Cambridge notebook. In the manu-script, there is a comma at the end of the last line.

The Vigil of Thaliard. 1891 ­ 92. Sri Aurobindo wrote this incomplete ballad in the Cambridge notebook. He dated certain passages of it August and September 1891 and March and April 1892.

PART TWO: BARODA, CIRCA 1898 ­ 1902

Complete Narrative Poems

Urvasie. Circa 1898. This poem first appeared in a small book printed for private circulation by the Vani Vilas Press, Baroda. (A deluxe edition was printed later by the Caxton Works, Bombay.) In 1942, Sri Aurobindo informed the editors of Collected Poems and Plays that Urvasie was printed “sometime before I wrote Love and Death’", that is, before 1899. He also indicated that Urvasie was subsequent

Page – 696

to Songs to Myrtilla, which was published in 1898. Taking these data together, one is obliged to assign Urvasie to 1898 ­ 99.

Love and Death. The handwritten manuscript of this poem is dated" June. July 1899". The poem first appeared in print in the review Shama’a in January 1921, and was reprinted the same year by Mrinalini Chattopadhyay, Aghore Mandir, Madras.

A Note on Love and Death Circa 1921. This is the longest of three handwritten drafts of a note Sri Aurobindo thought of adding to Love and Death when it was published in 1921. In the event, the poem was published without a note.

Incomplete Narrative Poems, circa 1899 ­ 1902

Khaled of the Sea. 1899. The handwritten manuscript of this poem is dated in three places: "Jan 1899" at the end of the Prologue, "Feb.1899" in the middle of Canto I, and "March, 1899" at the end.

Uloupie. Circa 1901 ­ 2. A portion of the rough draft of this poem was written below some notes that may be dated to May 1901. The poem was never completed, but was drawn upon in the writing of Chitrangada (see below, Part Four).

Sonnets from Manuscripts, circa 1900 ­ 1901

Sri Aurobindo wrote the twelve sonnets in this section, as well as the fourteen poems in the next section, in a notebook that contains the fair copy of Uloupie, which was written in 1901 ­ 2. The other contents of the notebook may have been drafted sometime earlier; "The Spring Child" certainly was. The notebook was seized by the British police when Sri Aurobindo was arrested in 1908. This made it impossible for him to revise or publish these poems after his release from jail in 1909.In the manuscript, the first four sonnets are grouped together under the heading: "Four Sonnets". None of the twelve have titles.

O face that I have loved. Circa 1900 ­ 1901.

I cannot equal. Circa 1900 ­ 1901.

O letter dull and cold. Circa 1900 ­ 1901.

My life is wasted. Circa 1900 ­ 1901.

Because thy flame is spent. Circa 1900 ­ 1901.698

Page – 697

Thou didst mistake. Circa 1900 ­ 1901.

Rose, I have loved. Circa 1900 ­ 1901.

I have a hundred lives. Circa 1900 ­ 1901.

Still there is something. Circa 1900 ­ 1901.

I have a doubt. Circa 1900 ­ 1901.

To weep because a glorious sun. Circa 1900 ­ 1901.

What is this talk. Circa 1900 ­ 1901.

Short Poems from Manuscripts, circa 1900 ­ 1901

Sri Aurobindo wrote these fourteen poems in the notebook he used also for Uloupie and the above sonnets. He wrote the heading "Miscellaneous" above the poems. They are arranged here in the order in which they appear in Sri Aurobindo’s notebook.

The Spring Child. 1900. As recorded in the subtitle, this poem was written for Sri Aurobindo’s cousin Basanti Mitra, who was born on9 Jyestha 1292 (22 May 1886). The title and opening of the poem involve a play on the Bengali word bāsantī, which means "vernal", "of the spring".

A Doubt. Circa 1900 ­ 1901.

The Nightingale. Circa 1900 ­ 1901.

Euphrosyne. Circa 1900 ­ 1901. The Greek word euphrosunē means "cheerfulness, mirth, merriment". In Greek mythology, Euphrosyne was one of the three Graces.

A Thing Seen. Circa 1900 ­ 1901.

Epitaph. Circa 1900 ­ 1901.

To the Modern Priam. Circa 1900 ­ 1901.

Song. Circa 1900 ­ 1901.

Epigram. Circa 1900 ­ 1901.

The Three Cries of Deiphobus. Circa 1900 ­ 1901.

Perigone Prologuises. Circa 1900 ­ 1901.

Since I have seen your face. No title in the manuscript. Circa 1900 ­1901.

So that was why. No title in the manuscript. Circa 1900 ­ 1901. Sri Aurobindo wrote this passage at the bottom of several pages of the notebook that contains the above poems. Dramatic in style, it may

Page – 698

have been intended for a play.

World’s delight. No title in the manuscript. Circa 1900 ­ 1901.

PART THREE: BARODA AND BENGAL, CIRCA 1900 ­ 1909

Poems from Ahana and Other Poems

Ahana and Other Poems was published in 1915. It consists of the long poem Ahana, written in Pondicherry, and twenty-four shorter poems, most of which were written in Baroda. Sometime after 1915,Sri Aurobindo wrote in his copy of the book, "Written mostly between 1895 and 1908, first published at Pondicherry in 1915." This inscription shows a degree of uncertainty: "1895" was written over"1900", while "1908" was written over "1907". Neither of the dates, written more than a decade after the poems, need be considered exact. Surviving manuscript drafts of these poems do not appear to be earlier than 1900. Near-final drafts of many of them are found in a typed manuscript that may be dated to 1904 ­ 6. When Sri Aurobindo looked over these poems in 1942 while his Collected Poems and Plays was being arranged, he commented: "I find that most of the poems are quite early in Baroda, others later on and others in the second period [of poems in the book, i.e. 1906 ­ 9]. It would be a pity to break-up these poems, as they form a natural group by themselves." In the present volume, these twenty-four poems are published in a single group, while "Ahana" is published along with other works written in Pondicherry. Two of the poems in this section, "Karma" and "Appeal", are adaptations of mediaeval Indian lyrics. They are published herein their original context, and also in Translations, volume 5 of THE COMPLETE WORKS OF SRI AUROBINDO.

Invitation. 1908 ­ 9. This poem was published in Sri Aurobindo’s weekly newspaper Karmayogin on 6 November 1909, under the inscription: "(Composed in the Alipur Jail)". Sri Aurobindo was a prisoner in Alipore Jail between 5 May 1908 and 6 May 1909.Who. Circa 1908 ­ 9. Published in the Karmayogin on 13 November1909.

Miracles. Circa 1900 ­ 1906.

Reminiscence. Circa 1900 ­ 1906. A typewritten copy of this poem was an exhibit in the Alipore Bomb Case in 1908 (see Bande Mataram weekly, 5 July 1908, p. 13).

A Vision of Science. Circa 1900 ­ 1906.

Immortal Love. Circa 1900 ­ 1906.

A Tree. Circa 1900 ­ 1906.

To the Sea. Circa 1900 ­ 1906. A version of the poem was published in the Modern Review in June 1909.

Revelation. Circa 1900 ­ 1906. A draft of this poem, entitled "The Vision", is found in the manuscript notebook that contains "Uloupie" and other poems included in Part Two. This draft differs considerably from the version found in the typed manuscript of 1904 ­ 6, which was used as the basis of the text published in Ahana and Other Poems.

Karma. Circa 1900 ­ 1906 or later. This is a free rendering of a poem by the mediaeval Bengali poet Chandidasa.

Appeal. Circa 1900 ­ 1906 or later. This poem is based in part on a song by the mediaeval Maithili poet Vidyapati. The first stanza follows Vidyapati’s text fairly closely; the next two stanzas are Sri Aurobindo’s own invention.

A Child’s Imagination. Circa 1900 ­ 1906.

The Sea at Night. Circa 1900 ­ 1906.

The Vedantin’s Prayer. Circa 1900 ­ 1906.

Rebirth. Circa 1900 ­ 1906.

The Triumph-Song of Trishuncou. Circa 1900 ­ 1906.

Life and Death. Circa 1900 ­ 1906.

Evening. Circa 1900 ­ 1906.

Parabrahman. Circa 1900 ­ 1906.

God. Circa 1900 ­ 1906.

The Fear of Death. Circa 1900 ­ 1906.

Seasons. Circa 1900 ­ 1906.

The Rishi. Circa 1900 ­ 1908. Sheets containing draft passages of this poem were seized by the British police when Sri Aurobindo was arrested in 1908. Sometime after the poem was published in Ahana and Other Poems, Sri Aurobindo wrote under it in his copy of the book"(1907 ­ 1911)"  —  but see the note under the section title above.

In the Moonlight. Circa 1900 ­ 1906.

Page – 700

Poems from Manuscripts, circa 1900 ­ 1906

Sri Aurobindo wrote these poems around the same time that he wrote those making up the previous section. Many of them form part of a typed manuscript that contains poems included in Ahana and Other Poems. Sri Aurobindo chose not to include the poems in the present section in that book when it was published in 1915. They first appeared in print posthumously.

To the Boers. Circa 1900 ­ 1902. According to the subtitle, this poem was written "during the progress of the Boer War". The Boer War began in 1899 and ended in 1902.

Vision. Circa 1900 ­ 1906.

To the Ganges. Circa 1900 ­ 1906.

Suddenly out from the wonderful East. No title in the manuscript. Circa 1900 ­ 1902. This poem is Sri Aurobindo’s earliest surviving attempt to write a poem in dactylic hexameters. A fair copy is found on the same sheet as a fair copy of "To the Boers", which was written around 1900 ­ 1902. This and another draft of the poem were seized by the British police when Sri Aurobindo was arrested in 1908. Several years later, in Pondicherry, Sri Aurobindo began what appears to be anew or revised version of this poem, but wrote only three lines:

Where in a lapse of the hills leaps lightly down with laughter

White with her rustle of raiment upon the spray strewn boulders,

Cold in her virgin childhood the river resonant Ganges.

On the Mountains. Circa 1900 ­ 1906.

PART FOUR: CALCUTTA AND CHANDERNAGORE, 1907 ­ 1910

Sri Aurobindo left his teaching position in Baroda in February 1906and went to Calcutta to join the national movement. Between and May 1908 he was the editor of the daily newspaper Bande Mataram, and had little occasion to write poetry. In May 1908he was arrested and imprisoned in Alipore Jail. During the year of his detention he managed to compose a few poems that were published after his release in May 1909. Between June 1909 and February 1910,

Page – 701

he was the editor of the weekly journal Karmayogin, in which several of his poems appeared. In February 1910 he went from Calcutta to Chandernagore, and six weeks later to Pondicherry, where he spent the rest of his life.

Satirical Poem Published in 1907

Reflections of Srinath Paul, Rai Bahadoor, on the Present Discontents. This poem was published on 5 April 1907 in the daily Bande Mataram. This political newspaper, edited by Sri Aurobindo and others, carried a number of satirical poems, most of which were the work of Sri Aurobindo’s colleague Shyam Sundar Chakravarti. This piece is the exception. Sri Aurobindo remembered writing it in 1942 when his poems were being collected for publication in Collected Poems and Plays. (It was not published in that collection because the file of the daily Bande Mataram was not then available.) Later the poem was independently ascribed to Sri Aurobindo by Hemendra Prasad Ghose, another Bande Mataram editor and writer, who was in a way responsible for its composition. In his report on the session of the Bengal Provincial Conference held in Behrampore in 1907, Hemendra Prasad wrote that the chairman of the Reception Committee, a loyalist named Srinath Paul (who bore the honourary British title Rai Bahadoor), finished his address "perspiring and short of breath" (Bande Mataram, 2 April1907). This phrase moved Sri Aurobindo to write this amusing piece of political satire. It was published under the heading "By the Way", which was the headline he used for his occasional column in Bande Mataram. The same words were used in place of a signature at the end.

Short Poems Published in 1909 and 1910

The Mother of Dreams. 1908 ­ 9. Published in the Modern Review in July 1909, two months after Sri Aurobindo’s release from the Alipore Jail. The following note was appended to the text: "This poem was composed by Mr. Aurobindo Ghose in the Alipore Jail, of course with-out the aid of any writing materials. He committed it to memory and wrote it down after his release. There are several other poems of his, composed in jail."

Page – 702

An Image. Circa 1909. Published in the Karmayogin on 20 November1909. (This was the third poem by Sri Aurobindo that he published in the Karmayogin. The first two, "Invitation" and "Who", were included in Ahana and Other Poems in 1915, and so are included in Part Three of the present volume.) "An Image", Sri Aurobindo’s first published lines in quantitative hexameters, may be related in some way to Ilion, his epic poem in that metre, which he began to write in Alipore Jail (see below, Part Five).

The Birth of Sin. Circa 1909. Published in the Karmayogin on 11December 1909. A fragmentary draft of a related piece is found in one of Sri Aurobindo’s notebooks in handwriting of the 1909 ­ 10 period. That piece, which is more in the nature of a play than a poem, is published in Collected Plays and Stories, volume 4 of THE COMPLETE WORKS OF SRI AUROBINDO.

Epiphany. Circa 1909. Published in the Karmayogin on 18 December1909. Around 1913, Sri Aurobindo copied the Karmayogin text into a notebook, making a few deliberate changes as he did so. Later he revised the opening and close of this version. Three decades later, when Collected Poems and Plays was being compiled, the editors, not knowing about the 1913 version, sent the Karmayogin text to Sri Aurobindo, who made a few revisions to it. This version was used in Collected Poems and Plays (1942) and reproduced in Collected Poems in 1972. The editors of the present volume have selected the more extensively revised version of 1913 for the text reproduced here. The1942 version is reproduced in the Reference Volume.

To R. 1909. Published in the Modern Review in April 1910 under the title "To R  —  " and dated 19 July 1909. "R" stands for Ratna, which was the pet name of Sri Aurobindo’s cousin Kumudini Mitra, who was born on 3 Sraban 1289 (18 July 1882). In the Modern Review, the poem was signed "Auro Dada" (big brother Auro).

Transiit, Non Periit. 1909 or earlier. This sonnet to Rajnarain Bose, Sri Aurobindo’s maternal grandfather and a well-known writer and speaker, was first published at the beginning of Atmacharit, Rajnarain’s memoirs, in 1909. As mentioned in the note beneath the title, Rajnarain died in September 1899. Sri Aurobindo may have written the poem anytime between 1899 and 1909; but since there are no drafts among his Baroda manuscripts, and since the poem belongs stylistically with

Page – 703

those of 1909, it seems likely that it was written close to the date of the publication of that book. Quite possibly it was written especially for the book in 1909. The Latin title means: "He has gone beyond, he has not perished."

Poems from Manuscripts, circa 1909 ­ 1910

Perfect thy motion. No title in the manuscript. Circa 1909. The single manuscript text of this poem is found in a notebook that Sri Aurobindo used for the dramatic version of "The Birth of Sin" (see the previous section) and for the dialogue that follows. All these poems are in the handwriting of the 1909 ­ 10 period.

A Dialogue. No title in the manuscript. Circa 1909. Written in the same notebook and in the same handwriting as "Perfect thy motion" and the dramatic version of "The Birth of Sin". Unlike that piece, it is not structured as a play, and so has been printed here as a dramatic poem.

Narrative Poems Published in 1910

Baji Prabhou. Circa 1904 ­ 9. Sri Aurobindo wrote that this work was "conceived and written in Bengal during the period of political activity". This leaves the precise date of its composition unclear. Sri Aurobindo went to Bengal and openly joined the national movement in February 1906, but he had been active behind the scenes for some years before that. A partial draft of Baji Prabhou is found in a note-book he used from around 1902 to around 1910. The handwriting of this draft is that of the later years in Baroda (1904 ­ 6), and it is probable the poem was written during that period. (Sri Aurobindo spent a good deal of time in Bengal during these years.) Baji Prabhou was published for the first time in three issues of the Karmayogin: 19February, 26 February and 5 March 1910. At some point he revised the first instalment of the Karmayogin text, but did not make use of this revision subsequently. In 1922 he published the Karmayogin text (with new, very light, revision) at the Modern Press, Pondicherry. This text became the basis of a further revised version published in Collected Poems and Plays in 1942. This 1942 version is the basis of the present text. (In the version published in Collected Poems [1972],

Page – 704

the editors included readings from the revised Karmayogin text. In the present edition these readings have been ignored, but the 1922 and1942 revisions, both approved by Sri Aurobindo, have been included.) Chitrangada. 1909 ­ 10. This incomplete poem is related in theme and form to "Uloupie" (see above, Part Two), which Sri Aurobindo wrote around 1901 ­ 2. The manuscript of "Uloupie" was confiscated by the police in 1908 and never returned. There were, however, two draft passages of the poem in a notebook that Sri Aurobindo had with him in 1909 ­ 10, and he apparently drew on these to write Chitrangada. Many of the lines in the final version are identical or almost identical to those in the draft passages. Sometime before he left Bengal in February1910, he gave the manuscript of Chitrangada to the Karmayogin staff for publication. The poem appeared in that newspaper in the issues of26 March and 2 April 1910. "To be continued" was printed at the end of the second instalment, but the issue in which it appeared was the last to come out. The manuscript of the rest of the poem has been lost. Around 1930, one of Sri Aurobindo’s disciples typed the incomplete poem out from the Karmayogin and sent it to Sri Aurobindo, who expressed some dissatisfaction with it. In 1937 he indicated that the poem required some revision before it could be published, but that it was "not the moment" for that. More than a decade later, he revised Chitrangada for publication in the 1949 number of the Sri Aurobindo Circle annual. The following note was printed along with the Circle text: "Sri Aurobindo had completed this poem but the original has been lost, only this fragment remains. It has been revised for publication." The revision considerably enlarged the passage containing the speech of Chitrangada’s "dying sire". The new lines appear to be the last poetical lines Sri Aurobindo composed, with the exception of the final revisions and additions to Savitri.

Poems Written in 1910 and Published in 1920 ­ 1921

These three poems have an unusual history. They form part of a manu-script containing material apparently intended for three issues of the Karmayogin. This manuscript also contains articles on yoga, historical studies, satirical sketches, and pieces headed "Passing Thoughts", which was the name Sri Aurobindo gave to his weekly column in the706

Page – 705

Karmayogin early in 1910. (See the Note on the Texts to Early Cultural Writings, volume 1 of THE COMPLETE WORKS OF SRI AUROBINDO, for more information on this "Chandernagore Manuscript".) In the middle of February 1910, Sri Aurobindo left Calcutta for Chandernagore, where he remained for six weeks before departing for Pondicherry. It would appear that he left the manuscript containing these poems behind in Chandernagore, that someone there made copies of the poems and other contents of the manuscript, and that at some point the original manuscript was sent to him in Pondicherry. (See Arun Chandra Dutt, ed., Light to Superlight [Calcutta: Prabartak Publishers, 1972],p. 207.) In 1920 ­ 21 defective texts of the poems (as well as some of the other contents of the manuscript) were published in the Standard Bearer, a journal brought out from Chandernagore. Sometime after their publication, Sri Aurobindo revised the Standard Bearer texts. In 1942, the Standard Bearer versions were given to Sri Aurobindo for further revision before inclusion in Collected Poems and Plays. Evidently he and the editors of the volume had by this time forgotten about the existence of the original manuscripts. These manuscripts, however, are superior to the defective Standard Bearer texts and also to the 1942 version, which is based on those texts. The editors of the present volume have therefore based the texts printed here on the original manuscripts, incorporating the deliberate changes made by Sri Aurobindo in 1942. The texts printed in Collected Poems and Plays are included in the Reference Volume.

The Rákshasas. 1910. This poem was intended for the first issue of the Karmayogin to be printed from the manuscript described in the above note. A corrupt version was printed in the Standard Bearer on14 November 1920. This version was revised by Sri Aurobindo for inclusion in Collected Poems and Plays in 1942. The present version is based on the original manuscript.

Kama. 1910. This poem was intended for the second issue of the Karmayogin to be printed from the manuscript described in the above note. A corrupt version was printed in the Standard Bearer on 27March 1921. This version was revised by Sri Aurobindo for inclusion in Collected Poems and Plays in 1942. The present version is based on the original manuscript.

Page – 706

The Mahatmas. 1910. This poem was intended for the third issue of the Karmayogin to be printed from the manuscript described in the above note. In the manuscript, the poem is entitled "The Mahatmas: Kutthumi". A corrupt version was printed under the title "The Mahatma Kuthumi" in the Standard Bearer on 12 and 26 December 1920.This version was revised by Sri Aurobindo for inclusion in Collected Poems and Plays in 1942. The present version is based on the original manuscript.

PART FIVE: PONDICHERRY, CIRCA 1910 ­ 1920

Sri Aurobindo came to Pondicherry in 1910 and remained there until his passing in 1950. During this period he published four collections of short poems as well as Collected Poems and Plays (1942). He also published a number of short poems in journals, and wrote scores of poems, long and short, that were not brought out until after his passing.

Two Poems in Quantitative Hexameters

Ilion. Sri Aurobindo began work on this epic in quantitative hexameters in 1908 or 1909. The earliest surviving manuscript lines of the poem  —  then entitled "The Fall of Troy: An Epic"  —  were dated by the author as follows: "Commenced in jail, 1909, resumed and completed in Pondicherry, April and May 1910." Between then and 1914, he worked steadily on this "completed" poem, transforming it from a brief narrative into an epic made up of several books. During the first stage of this enlargement, between April 1910 and March 1913, he produced almost a dozen drafts of the first book and a smaller number of drafts of the second. In March 1913, a sudden fluency permitted him to complete and revise a version of the epic extending up to the end of what is now Book VIII. He wrote the fragmentary ninth book (untitled and not actually headed "Book IX" in the manuscript) in 1914. Probably before then, he copied out the first eight books into notebooks that bear the title Ilion. Subsequently he revised and recopied the completed books, or passages from them, several times. This work continued until around 1917. It would appear that two

Page – 707

factors  —  the writing-load of the monthly journal Arya (1914 ­ 21)and the attention demanded by his other epic, Savitri  —  caused him to stop work on Ilion before completing what presumably was intended to be a twelve-book epic.

During the twenties and thirties, Sri Aurobindo returned to Ilion from time to time. As late as 1935, he complained jocularly that if he could get an hour’s freedom from his correspondence every day, "in another three years Savitri and Ilion and I don’t know how much more would all be rewritten, finished, resplendently complete". He in fact never found time to complete Ilion, but in 1942 he revised the opening of the first book to serve as an illustration of the quantitative hexameter in "On Quantitative Metre", an essay that was published in Collected Poems and Plays in 1942 and also in a separate booklet issued the same year. This revised passage of 371 lines was the only portion of Ilion to appear in print during his lifetime. The full text was transcribed from his manuscripts and published in 1957. A new edition, corrected against the manuscripts and with the addition of the opening of the fragmentary ninth book, was brought out in 1989. The present text has been rechecked against the manuscripts. Ahana. This poem in rhymed hexametric couplets, grew out of "The Descent of Ahana" (see below), which took its final form around1912 ­ 13. "The Descent of Ahana" is divided into two parts. The first part consists of a long dialogue between Ahana and "Voices"; the second consists of a speech by Ahana, a speech by "A Voice", and a final speech by Ahana. In the final draft of "The Descent", the last two speeches of the second part comprise 160 lines. In or before 1915,Sri Aurobindo revised and enlarged these 160 lines into the 171-linepoem that was published in Ahana and Other Poems. In this version, Sri Aurobindo added a head-note setting the scene of the poem and a footnote glossing the term "Râs". Sometime after 1915, he revised the1915 text, but apparently forgot about this revision, which has never been published. In or before 1942, he again revised the 1915 text for publication in Collected Poems and Plays</i. This 1942 revision broughtthe poem to its present length of 518 lines.

Page – 708

Poems from Manuscripts, circa 1912 ­ 1913

The Descent of Ahana. Circa 1912 ­ 13. The earliest known draft of this poem is found among the papers that the police seized from Sri Aurobindo’s room when he was arrested in May 1908. A complete air copy is found in a manuscript notebook that may be dated circa1912 ­ 13. The second part of the fair copy was subsequently revised and published under the title "Ahana" in Ahana and Other Poems(1915). See the note to "Ahana" in the previous section.

The Meditations of Mandavya. 1913. Sri Aurobindo wrote the date "April 12, 1913" at the end of a draft of the first part of this poem. The incident of the scorpion-sting happened before 14 February 1911,when Sri Aurobindo mentioned it in Record of Yoga as something that had happened in the past. In the mid 1930s, when the book entitled Poems Past and Present was being prepared, a copy of "The Meditations of Mandavya" was typed for Sri Aurobindo, who revised it lightly. He chose however not to include the poem in that collection. The revisions done at that time are incorporated in the text for the first time in the present edition.

Incomplete Poems from Manuscripts, circa 1912 ­ 1920

Thou who controllest. No title in the manuscript. Circa 1912. Sri Aurobindo wrote these lines in dactylic hexameter inside the back cover of a notebook that he used sometime before November 1912.He was working on Ilion at this time, but these lines do not seem to belong to that poem. Neither do they appear to be a translation of lines from the Iliad, the Odyssey or any other classical text.

Sole in the meadows of Thebes. No title in the manuscript. 1913.Written on the same manuscript page as the following poem, at around the same time. It is almost certainly to this poem that Sri Aurobindo was referring when he wrote in Record of Yoga on 21 September 1913of beginning an "Eclogue in hexameter".

O Will of God. No title in the manuscript. 1913. Written on the same manuscript page as the previous poem.

The Tale of Nala [1]. Circa 1916 ­ 20. There are very few clues by710

Page – 709

which this incomplete poem might be dated. Judging from the hand-writing, it was composed towards the end of the second decade of the century. It obviously is based on the story of Nala, as recounted in the Mahabharata and later texts, but does not seem to be a translation of any known Sanskrit work. The passages separated by a blank line were written separately and not joined together.

The Tale of Nala [2]. Circa 1916 ­ 20. Sri Aurobindo seems to have written this rhymed version of the opening of his proposed poem on Nala after the blank verse version. He retained several lines from the earlier version unchanged or practically unchanged.

PART SIX: BARODA AND PONDICHERRY, CIRCA 1902 ­ 1936

Poems Past and Present

These eight poems were published as a booklet by the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in 1946. (Four of them  —  "Musa Spiritus", "Bride of the Fire", "The Blue Bird" and "A God’s Labour"  —  had appeared in journals connected with the Ashram earlier the same year.) All the poems were written at least a decade, one of them four and a half decades, before 1946. The first draft of "Hell and Heaven" dates back to around 1902, early drafts of "Kamadeva" and "Life" to around1913. A notebook containing these three early poems was uncovered by Sri Aurobindo’s secretary, Nolini Kanta Gupta, in April 1932. He typed out copies and sent them to Sri Aurobindo with this note: "I have copied these poems out of a notebook that was being hopelessly eaten away by insects. I do not know how far I have been able to recover the text." Sri Aurobindo revised these poems around that time, adding a fourth, "One Day", while he worked. Several years later these four poems were published along with four that had been written in 1935and 1936 under the title Poems Past and Present. The eight poems are reproduced here in the order in which they are printed in that book.

Musa Spiritus. 1935. An early draft of this poem occurs between drafts of "A God’s Labour" and "The Blue Bird" (see below). Sri Aurobindo wrote the date "31.7.35" at the end of a later draft. There are two

Page – 710

handwritten manuscripts and one typed manuscript of this poem. Bride of the Fire. 1935. The first draft of this poem is dated 11 November 1935. There are two handwritten and two typed manuscripts.

The Blue Bird. 1935. The first draft of this poem is dated 11 November1935. There are two handwritten and two typed manuscripts.

A God’s Labour. 1935 ­ 36. A late draft of this poem is dated as follows:"31.7.35 / Last 4 stanzas 1.1.36". There are four handwritten and two typed manuscripts.

Hell and Heaven. Circa 1902 ­ 30s. The earliest extant draft of this poem is found in the typed manuscript that contains drafts of "To the Ganges", "To the Boers", etc. (see above, Part Three). Around 1912 Sri Aurobindo copied the poem out by hand in a notebook. Twenty years later, his secretary Nolini Kanta Gupta typed this and the next two poems out from this notebook and presented them to Sri Aurobindo for revision. Fourteen years after that they were included in Poems Past and Present. There are one handwritten and two typed manuscripts.

Kamadeva. Circa 1913. The earliest surviving drafts of this poem and the next one are found in the notebook that contains "The Meditations of Mandavya" (see above, Part Five), the opening of which is dated1913. In 1932 they were typed out and fourteen years later included in Poems Past and Present. There is one handwritten and one typed manuscript.

Life. Circa 1913. The earliest surviving drafts of this poem and the previous one are found in the notebook that contains "The Meditations of Mandavya" (see above, Part Five), the opening of which is dated1913. In 1932 they were typed out and fourteen years later included in Poems Past and Present. There is one handwritten and one typed manuscript.

One Day. Circa 1932. Sri Aurobindo wrote the first draft of this poem in the notebook containing drafts of the previous three poems, which Nolini Kanta Gupta uncovered and sent to him in 1932. This draft was lightly revised and later included in Poems Past and Present. There is one handwritten and one typed manuscript.

Page – 711