TRANSLATIONS

 

SRI AUROBINDO

 

Contents 

 

 

I. FROM SANSKRIT

   

 

 

 

BHAGAVAD GITA

 
 

Chapter One

 
 

Chapter Two

 
 

Chapter Three

 
 

Chapter Four

 
 

Chapter Five

 
 

Chapter Six

 

 

 

KALIDASA

 
 

The Birth of the War-God

 Canto One:

 
 

The Birth of the War-God, Canto Two

 
 

Malavica and the King

 
 

The Line of Raghu

 

 

 

 

Sankaracharya

 
 

Bhavani

 

 

 

 

III FROM TAMIL

 

 IV. FROM GREEK AND LATIN

 
 

The Kural

 

Odyssey

 
 

Nammalwar’s Hymn of the Golden Age

 

On A Satyr and Seeping Love

 
 

Love-Mad

 

A Rose of Women

 
 

Refuge

 

To Lesbia

 
 

To the Cuckoo

     
 

I Dreamed a Dream

     
 

Ye Others

     

 

 

 

BANDE MATARAM

   

TRANSLATOR’S NOTE

 

It is difficult to translate the National Anthem of Bengal into verse in another language owing to its unique union of sweetness, simple directness and high poetic force. All attempts in this direction have been failures. In order, therefore, to bring the reader unacquainted with Bengali nearer to the exact force of the original, I give the transla­tion in prose line by line. 

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Bande Mataram

 

I bow to thee, Mother,

richly-watered, richly-fruited,

cool with the winds of the south,

dark with the crops of the harvests,

the Mother!

 

Her nights rejoicing in the glory of the moonlight,

her lands clothed beautifully with her trees in flowering bloom,

sweet of laughter, sweet of speech,

the Mother, giver of boons, giver of bliss!

 

Terrible with the clamorous shout of seventy million throats,

And the sharpness of swords raised in twice seventy million hands,

Who sayeth to thee, Mother, that thou art weak ?

Holder of multitudinous strength,

 

I bow to her who saves,

to her who drives from her the armies of her foemen,

the Mother!

 

Thou art knowledge, thou art conduct,

thou art heart, thou art soul,

for thou art the life in our body.

In the arm thou art might, 0 Mother,

in the heart, 0 Mother, thou art love and faith,

it is thy image we raise in every temple.

 

For thou art Durga holding her ten weapons of war,

Kamala at play in the lotuses

and speech, the goddess, giver of all lore,

to thee I bow!                     .

I bow to thee, goddess of wealth

pure and peerless,

richly-watered, richly-fruited,

the Mother! 

Page– 313


I bow to thee. Mother,

dark-hued, candid,

sweetly smiling, jewelled and adorned,

the holder of wealth, the lady of plenty,

the Mother! 

Page– 314