{"id":1484,"date":"2013-07-13T01:35:07","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:35:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=1484"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:35:07","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:35:07","slug":"74-uloupie-vol-05-collected-poems-volume-05","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/01-sabcl\/05-collected-poems-volume-05\/74-uloupie-vol-05-collected-poems-volume-05","title":{"rendered":"-74_Uloupie.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
\n


\n\tUloupie<\/font><\/span>
\n <\/font>
\n <\/span><\/b>C<\/font>ANTO<\/font> I<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n
 <\/td>\n\n
\n

\n\t Under the high and gloomy eastern hills
\n The portals of Patala are and there
\n The Bhogavathie with her sinuous waves
\n Rises, a river alien to the sun,
\n And often to its strange and gleaming sands
\n Uloupie came, weary of those dim shades
\n And great disastrous caverns neighbouring Hell,
\n Avid of sunlight. Through the grasses long
\n She glided and her fierce and gorgeous hood
\n Gleamed with a perilous beauty and a light
\n Above the green spikes of the grass; often
\n In the slow sinuous waters she was spied
\n Swimming, with mystic dusky hair and cheeks
\n That had no rose, – one shoulder’s dipping glow
\n Through water and one white breast hardly seen.
\n But as she swam she looked towards the west
\n Dreaming of daily sunlight and of flowers
\n That need soft rain and ,of the night with stars,
\n A friendly darkness and the season’s change
\n In beautiful Aryavertha far away,
\n The country of the Gods, and yet sometimes
\n Vaguely expectant to the southward gazed.<\/p>\n

But in her city Monipur mid the eastern hills
\n (Then
\n into heaven dim-featured twilight came
\n And in her city mid the eastern hills)
\n Chitrangada awoke and saw the dawn
\n Presaged in bleakness. From Urjoona’s arms
\n Unclasping her rose-white smooth limbs, she looked
\n Into the opening world; but all was grey
\n And formless. Then into her mood there passed
\n The spirit of the gloomy northern hills
\n Burdening her breasts with terror and her heart
\n Was bared to insight, and now it heard the moan
\n Of waters and remembered pain. The sad<\/font> <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 325<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nProphecies
\nof the pale astrologers
\nHaunted her with aflliction, and she found
\nPale hints of absence from the twilight drawn.
\nBut now the hero felt his clasp a void
\nAnd on one arm half-rising searched the grey
\nUnlidded darkness for the face; then spoke
\nSlowly her name, "How has the unborn day
\nCalled thee, beloved, that thou standest dumb
\nIn the grey light like one whose joy is far?
\nCome hither." Silently she came and knelt
\nAnd laid her quiet cheek upon his breast.
\nHe felt her tears, wondering; and she replied,
\n"Ah dost thou love me and a moment brief
\nOf absence troubles even in sleep thy heart
\nWaking to emptiness? And yet, ah God,
\nHow easily that void will soon be filled!
\nFor thou wilt like a glorious burning move
\nThrough cities and through regions like a star,
\nCareless in thy heroic strength o’er all
\nThe beautiful country Aryavertha. Women
\nWill see thy face and strangely, swiftly drawn
\nThy masculine attraction feel and bow
\nOver thy feet. For thou wilt come to them
\nA careless glory taking women’s hearts
\nAs one breaks from a tree the wayside flowers,
\nAnd smile sunnily kind even as a god
\nMight draw a mortal maiden to his arms
\nAnd marry his immortal mouth to hers.
\nThen will thy destiny seize thee, thou wilt pass
\nLike some great light in heaven, leaving behind
\nA splendid memory of force and fire.
\nAnd thou wilt fill thy soul with battle, august
\nMisfortunes and tremendous harms embrace,
\nExperience mighty raptures and at last
\nUpon some world-renowned far-rumoured field
\nEmpire for ever win or lose, nor all
\nThe while think once of my forgotten face."
\nShe ceased and wept; he said, touching her hair,
\n"What wast thou musing, 0 Chitrangada,
\nLonely beside the window and thine eyes<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 326<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

\nLooked out
\non the half-formed aspect of things
\nTwixt light and darkness? Do not so again.
\nFor bleak and dreadful is the hour ere dawn
\nAnd one who gazes out then from his sweet,
\nWarm, happy, bounded human room, is touched
\nWith awful memories that he cannot grasp
\nAnd mighty sorrows without form, the sense
\nOf an original vastness desolate,
\nBleak labour and a sad unfinished worId.
\nDwell not with these again, but when thou wakest
\nAnd seest the unholy hour pallid gaze
\nInto thy room, draw closer to my bosom
\nWaking with kisses and with joy surround
\nThy soul until God rises with the sun.
\nFriendly to mortals is the living sun’s
\nGreat brilliant light; but this pale hour was made
\nFor slowly-dying men whose lone chilled souls
\nGrow near to that greyness and dumb mourners
\nUnfriended." But Chitrangada replied,
\n\u201cI looked into the dawn and had a dream
\nThou wast gone far from me; too well I knew
\nThat sound of trampling horse-hooves in the north
\nAnd victor rumours of thy chariot shook
\nThe hearts of distant things. I sat alone
\nAt this pale window and about me saw
\nMy city and our low familiar hills.
\nYet these were but as objects painted in
\nUpon the eye, and round me I beheld
\nThe gloomy northern mountains with their mists
\nAnd sorrowful embracing rains and heard
\nWith melancholy voices rolling down
\nThe waters of a dull, ill-omened stream
\nSinuous and eddies alien to the sun.
\nThat thou wilt pass from me I know, nor would
\nI stay thee, had I power; for if today
\nI held thy feet, yet as the seasons passed,
\nThe impulse of thy mighty life would come
\nUpon thee like a wind and drive thee forth
\nTo love and battle and disastrous deeds
\nAnd all the giant anguish that preserves<\/font> <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 327<\/font><\/span>   <\/font> <\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

\n\tThis world.
\nThou as resistlessly wast born
\nTo these things as the leopard sleek to strength
\nAnd beauty and fierceness, as resistlessly
\nAs women are to love; though well they know
\nPain for the end, yet knowing still must love.
\nAh swiftly pass. Why shouldst thou linger here
\nVainly? How will it serve God’s purpose in thee
\nTo tarry soothing for such brief while longer
\nMerely a woman’s heart; meanwhile perhaps
\nLose some great moment of thy life which once
\nNeglected never can return." She ceased
\nAnd strove to conquer overmastering tears.
\nHe was silent a little, then his eyes
\nStrained towards the dim-seen fairness of her face,
\nSaying, "0 little loving child, who once
\nWast simply glad to love and feel my kiss!
\nBut now thou mournest, art in one night changed.
\nThou wast not wont to leave my arms ere dawn
\nAnd dream of sorrow. Rather wast thou fain
\nOf all my bosom and the gazing light
\nHardly could force away thy obstinate clasp.
\nYet now thou speakst of absence easily.
\nIs my love faded? Dost thou feel my arms
\nLooser about thee, my beloved? Nay,
\nThou knowest that not less but more I love thee
\nThan when to eastern Monipura far
\nI came, a wandering prince companioned only
\nBy courage and my sword and found thee here,
\n0 sweet young sovereign, ruling with pure eyes
\nAnd little maiden hand, fragile and mild,
\nA strong and savage nation. At my call
\nUnquestioning thou camest, oh, meekly down
\nLeaving tremendous seat and austere powers,
\nContented at my feet to dwell and feel
\nMy kisses on thy hair, and couldst renounce
\nThy glorious girdle for my simple arms.
\n0 fair young soul, candid and meek and frank
\nThy love was, opening to me fragrantly
\nLike flowers to the sun, wide-orbed, and yielded
\nThy whole self up. Yet now thou speakest sadly<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 328<\/font><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

\n\tToo like a
\nmind matured by thought and pain."<\/p>\n

He ceased, covering her bosom with his hands,
\nAnd she trembled, and broke out faltering:
\n\u201cO endlessness of moments and the long
\nPain-haunted nights when thou art far! 0 me
\nAnd the pale dreadful dawn when I shall wake
\nIn the grey hour and feel myself alone
\nFor ever! Yet 0 my rapture and pride! 0 prince,
\nO hero, 0 strong protagonist of earth!
\nWorld-conqueror! and in heaven immortal lips
\nBurning have kissed thy feet, but I possessed.
\nGod knows that I have loved thee, not with grudging
\nPiecemeal reluctant cessions of the soul
\nAs ordinary women love, but greatly
\nWith one glad falling at my conqueror’s feet
\nAll suddenly and warmly like the spring.
\nAh God, thy beauty when it dawned on me
\nAnd I obeyed thy bright attraction! felt
\nThy face like the great moon that draws the tides!
\nFacing our armed senate, bow in hand
\nLeaned on a pillar with a banner’s pomp
\nSeeming to mingle in thy hair thou stoodst
\nExpectant, careless, and thy strong gracious face
\nWas brilliant like a sudden god’s. And half
\nI rose up as one called. But even then
\nThrough all the hushed assembly ran a murmur,
\nAn impulse and a movement and with cries
\nRound thee my strong barbarian nobles pressed
\nOffering fierce homage. But I sat alone,
\nAbandoned, with a wounded sad delight,
\nLoving thy glory, like a young warrior conquered
\nIn battle by the hero he admires.
\nThou tookst me by the hand and ledst me down
\nFrom the high dais and the ancient throne:
\nFaltering I went with meek submissive eyes."
\nThen strong Urjoona "Beloved, and was this not
\nDearer, a woman’s bliss in her one lord
\nThan ruling all those kings? Dost thou not choose
\nRather thy body by my kisses wakened<\/font> <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 329
\n<\/font> <\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

\n\tThan
\nthose free virgin and unconscious limbs?
\nAh wherefore shouldst thou dream of love cut short
\nAnd joy without its sequel? Rather think
\nThat thy young passion shall to matron bloom
\nLive warmly enriched and beautifully changed
\nWhen thou with the hushed wonder of motherhood
\nTouching thy sweet young eyes holdst up to me
\nReturning from high battle to thine arms
\nA creature of our own." And she answered
\nWith a low sob, "Would God that it might be!
\nBut though I loved thee I have known I was
\nNo real part of thy great days; only
\nA bosom on which thou hast lain ere riding
\nTo battle, a face which thou hast loved and passed.
\nHero, take up thy bow! Warrior, arise!
\nProceed with thy majestic mission. Thou
\nFrom many mighty spirits wast selected
\nAnd mayst not for a transient joy renounce
\nThe anguish and the crown. I shall witness
\nThy far-off pomps, not utterly alone;
\nAs herdsmen pausing under quiet leaves
\nWatch the stupendous passage of a host,
\nShrill neigh of horses, chariots swift and men
\nMarching, and hear great conch~shells blown, and look
\nInto the burning eyes of kings. Some wave
\nOf thy vast fate perhaps shall roll thee here
\nOr all is over; in the long round of things
\nWe shall touch hands in the old way, yet changed,
\nShall wonder in each other’s eyes to find
\nStrange kindlings and the buried deeps of love."<\/p>\n

She ended, and Urjoona for a moment
\nBeheld vast Aryavertha as if mapped
\nBefore him, rivers, and heaven-invading hills
\nAnd cities ancient as their skies; then turned
\nAnd drawing to his bosom Chitrangada
\nWith his calm strength surrounding her replied:
\n"This may be; yet, 0 woman, 0 delight,
\nRemember to rejoice! Flowers die, beloved,
\nTo live again; therefore hold fast to love,<\/font><\/span> <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 330<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nHold
\nfast the blooming of thy life in love.
\nThe soul’s majestic progress moulding doom
\nIs with the frailest flower helped that blows
\nIn frankness. Therefore is the woman’s part
\nNearest divine, who to one motion keeps
\nAnd like the fixed immortal planets’ round
\nIs constant to herself in him she loves.
\nNor though fate call me hence, have I in vain
\nLoved thee, young virgin of the hills, and snared
\nThy feet with kisses; though my soul from thee
\nAdventure journeying like a star the void, –
\nAs ’tis our spirit’s fate ever to roam
\nSeeking bright portions of ourself, which found,
\nThe strong heart cherishes until his close.
\nRelinquish nothing grasped, who yields to fate,
\nTo fate or weakness, misses the great goal; –
\nSo have I planted thee within my heart,
\nO tender beauty, and shall not lightly lose.
\nThough years divide us and the slow upgrowth
\nOf overlaying thoughts submerge the peace,
\nThe sweet and mutual self, yet the old joy
\nLives like Valmikie in his mound, the sage
\nBuried, forgot, yet murmuring the name.
\nLet us not lose then, 0 Chitrangada,
\nOne moment’s possibility of love
\nWhich being squandered, we shall then regret.
\nFate that united once, may when she will
\nDivorce, but cannot the sweet meaning spoil
\nOf these warm kisses." He embraced her wholly
\nConfounding her with bliss; so for that time
\nThe shadow fled and joy forgot his close.<\/p>\n

But one pale morn Chitrangada rose wan
\nAnd to the stable through the grey hushed place
\nDescending, with her little deft hands yoked
\nUrjoona’s coursers to the car, – persuading
\nThrust in their whinnying mouths the bit, fastened
\nThe traces, harmonised the reins, then led
\nInto the sad dim court, trampling, his steeds;
\nAnd with a strange deep look of love and hate<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 331 <\/font> <\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

\nCaressing said, faint with her unshed tears:
\n"You brought him here who now shall bear away,
\n0 horses yoked to fate. How often yet
\nWill you deceive us shaking wide your manes
\nAnd trampling over women’s hearts with hooves
\nThunderous towards battle? Yet your breed perhaps
\nShall bring him to my wrinkled age." And now
\nUrjoona came: his mailed and resonant tread
\nRang in her very heart, his corslet blazed
\nTowards the chill skies and his heroic form
\nSeemed to consent with the surrounding hills.
\nBut in the marble face and eyes august
\nThe light of his tremendous fate had dawned
\nLike a great sunrise. Calm her shuddering body
\nHe took into his bosom and with no word,
\nUnder the witnessing, unmoved heavens
\nKissed her pale lips; then to his car he rose,
\nAnd now she did not weep, but silently
\nTook and returned his kiss. So he went forth.
\nThundering the great wheels jarred upon the stones
\nOf the wide court and echoes filled the air
\nWith triumph of warlike sound. Outside,
\nThe city’s nobles, waiting, saw the car
\nEmerge, and bowed down to their king. They spoke
\nNo word, but stood austerely watching still,
\nA mist over their stern and savage eyes,
\nHis going, as men in darkness watch a light
\nCarried away that cheered them for an hour,
\nThen turned back homeward. But Chitrangada
\nWaited till the last thunders died away
\nAnd far off on a hill the warlike flag
\nWaved in the breeze and dipped below the edge;
\nThen to her chamber slowly went alone.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 332 <\/font> <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n

 <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Uloupie CANTO I     Under the high and gloomy eastern hills The portals of Patala are and there The Bhogavathie with her sinuous waves…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-05-collected-poems-volume-05","wpcat-32-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1484"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1484\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}