{"id":2312,"date":"2013-07-13T01:40:46","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:40:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=2312"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:40:46","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:40:46","slug":"17-expanded-version-of-canto-1-and-part-of-canto-2-vol-05-translations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/03-cwsa\/05-translations\/17-expanded-version-of-canto-1-and-part-of-canto-2-vol-05-translations","title":{"rendered":"-17_Expanded Version of Canto 1 and Part of Canto 2.html"},"content":{"rendered":"
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 <\/td>\n

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\nThe Birth of the War-God <\/font> <\/span>
\n<\/b><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

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\nEXPANDED VERSION OF CANTO I <\/span>
\n<\/b><\/p>\n

\nAND PART OF CANTO II<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nA god concealed in mountain majesty,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nEmbodied to our cloudy physical sight<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIn dizzy summits and green-gloried slopes,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nMeasuring the earth in an enormous ease,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nImmense Himaloy dwells and in the moan<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOf western waters and in eastern floods<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPlunges his hidden spurs. Of such a strength<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHigh-piled, so thousand-crested is his look<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThat with the scaling greatness of his peaks<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHe seems to uplift to heaven our prostrate soil.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHe mounts from the green luxury of his vales<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAmbitious of the skies; naked and lost<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe virgin chill immensity of snow<\/span><\/p>\n

\nCovers the breathless spirit of his heights.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTo snows his savage pines aspire; the birch<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd all the hardy brotherhood which climb<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAgainst the angry muttering of the winds,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nChallenge the dangerous air in which they live.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHe is sated with the silence of the stars:<\/span><\/p>\n

\nLower he dips into life’s beauty, far<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBelow he hears the cascades, now he clothes<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHis rugged sides the gentle breezes kiss<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWith soft grass and the gold and silver fern.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHolding upon her breast the hill-god’s feet<\/span><\/p>\n

\nEarth in her tresses hides his giant knees.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOver lakes of mighty sleep, where fountains lapse,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nDreaming, and by the noise of waterfalls,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIn an unspoken solitary joy<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

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Page \u2013 271<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

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\nHe listens to her chant. The distant hills<\/span><\/p>\n

\nImagined him the calf to which she lows<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWhen the wideness milks her udders. Meru is near,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe heavenly unseen height; like visible hints<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOf his great subtle growths of peace and joy<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHer musing woods arise; gems brilliant-rayed<\/span><\/p>\n

\nShe bears and herbs on every mountain marge,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nGifts of the mother to her mighty child.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIn such warm infinite riches has she dressed<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHis fire of life, from his cold heights of thought<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe great snows cannot slay its opulence.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThough stark they chill the feet of heaven, her sons<\/span><\/p>\n

\nForgive the fault amid a throng of joys.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAs faints from our charmed sense in luminous floods<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe gloomy stain on the moon’s argent disk,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThey have forgot his chill severity<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIn sweetness which escapes from him on life.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nFor as from passion of some austere soul<\/span><\/p>\n

\nDelight and love have stolen to rapturous birth,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nFrom ice-born waters his delicious vales<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAre fed. Indulgent like a smile of God,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWhite grandeurs overlook wild green romance.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHe keeps his summits for immortal steps.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe life of man upon his happier slopes<\/span><\/p>\n

\nRoams wild and bare and free; the life of gods<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPronely from the unattainable summits climbs<\/span><\/p>\n

\nDown the rude greatness of his huge rock-park.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAs if rejecting glory of its veils<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIt leaps out from the subtle gleam of air,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nVisible to man by waterfall and glade,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd finds us in the hush of sleeping woods,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd meets us with dim whisperings in the night.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOf their surrounding presence unaware<\/span><\/p>\n

\nChasing the dreadful wanderers of the hill<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe hunter seeks for traces on his side;<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHe though soft-falling innocent snows weep off<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe cruelty of their red footprints, finds<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

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Page \u2013 272<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

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\nThe path his prey the mighty lions go.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nFor glittering pearls from the felled elephants<\/span><\/p>\n

\nLain clotted, dropping from the hollow claws<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBetray their dangerous passage. When he sits<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTired of the hunt on a slain poplar’s base<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd bares to winds the weariness of his brow,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThey come, fay-breezes dancing on the slopes,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nScattering the peacock’s gorgeous-plumed attire.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nShaking the cedars on Himaloy’s breast,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWith spray from Ganges’ cascades on their wings,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThey have kissed the wind-blown tangles of his hair,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSprinkling their coolness on his soul. He has made<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe grottoed glens his chambers of desire,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHe has packed their dumbness with his passionate bliss;<\/span><\/p>\n

\nStone witnesses of ecstasy they sleep.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd wonderful luminous herbs from night’s dim banks<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWhen the strong forest-wanderer is lain<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTwined with his love, marrying with hers his sighs,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nGive light to see her joy those thrilled rocks keep<\/span><\/p>\n

\nMoved to desire in their stony dreams.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nNor only human footsteps tread the grass<\/span><\/p>\n

\nUpon his slopes, nor only mortal love<\/span><\/p>\n

\nFinds there the lovely setting of the hills<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAmid the broken caverns and the trees,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIn the weird moonlight pouring from the clouds<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd the clear sunlight glancing from the pines:<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA wandering choir, a flash of unseen forms,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nGo sweeping sometimes by and leave our hearts<\/span><\/p>\n

\nStartled with hintings of a greater life.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe Kinnar passes singing in his glades.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThen stirred to keep some sweetness of their voice,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHe fills the hollows of his bamboo stems<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWith the wind sobbing from the deep ravines<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd in a moaning and melodious sound<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBreathes from his rocky mouths, as if he meant<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTo flute, tune-giver to wild minstrelsies.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe delicate heels of the maned Kinnari<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

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Page \u2013 73<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

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\nAre with his frosted slabs of snow distressed.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBut by the large load of her breasts and hips<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTo escape the biting pathway’s chill unease<\/span><\/p>\n

\nShe is forbidden: she must not break the grace<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOf her slow motion’s tardy rich appeal.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nShe too in grottoed caverns lies embraced.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nForced from the shamefast sweetness of her limbs<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe subtle raiment leaves her fainting hands<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTo give her striving beauty to the gaze<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOf her eternal lover. But thick clouds<\/span><\/p>\n

\nStoop hastily bowed to the rocky doors<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd hang chance curtains against mortal eyes,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nShielding the naked goddess from our sight.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe birch-leaves of his hills love-pages are.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIn ink of liquid metals letters strange<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWe see make crimson signs. They lie in wait<\/span><\/p>\n

\nUpon the slopes, pages where passion burns,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe flushed epistles of enamoured gods<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWhere divine Circes pen heart-moving things.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe Apsaras rhyme out their wayward dance<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIn glen and valley; or upon brown banks<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThey lie close-bosomed of colour amorous.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe smooth gold of their limbs by harder hues<\/span><\/p>\n

\nStained curiously makes contrasts bright, to seize<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe straying look of some world-lover’s eyes,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAs when Himaloy’s metals flinging back<\/span><\/p>\n

\nUpon the hangings of the tawny heavens<\/span><\/p>\n

\nFrom glistened rocks their brilliant colourings<\/span><\/p>\n

\nLike an untimely sunset’s glories sleep.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nFar down the clouds droop to his girdle-waist<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHolding the tearful burden of their hearts,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nDrifting grey melancholy through the air;<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThere on the low-hung plateaus’ wideness lain<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe Siddhas in soft shade repose, or up<\/span><\/p>\n

\nChased by wild driving rain for refuge flee<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTo summits splendid in the veilless sun.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nEarth’s mighty animal life has reached his woods.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

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\nThe lion on Himaloy keeps his lair,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe elephant herds there wander. Oozing trees<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWounded by stormy rubbings of the tuskers’ brows<\/span><\/p>\n

\nLoose down their odorous tears in creamy drops,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd winds upon the plateau burdened pant<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWeaving the air into a scented dream.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe yaks are there; they lift their bushy tails<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTo lash the breezes and white gleamings leap:<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSuch candours casting snares for heart and eye,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe moonbeams lie upon the sleeping hills.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nLike souls divine who in a sweet excess<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAll-clasping draw their fallen enemies<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTo the impartial refuge of their love<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOut of the ordered cruelties of life,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHe takes to his cavern bosom hunted night.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAfraid of heaven’s radiant eyes, crouched up<\/span><\/p>\n

\nShe cowers in Nature’s great subliminal gloom,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA trembling fugitive from the ardent day,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nLest one embrace should change her into light.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHimaloy’s peaks outpeer the circling sun.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHe with his upstretched brilliant hands awakes<\/span><\/p>\n

\nImmortal lilies in the unreached tarns.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nMorning has found miraculous blooms unculled<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBy the seven sages in their starry march.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSuch are the grandeurs of Himaloy’s soul,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSuch are his divine moods; moonlit he bears,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOf godward symbols the exalted source,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe mystic Soma-plant upon his heights.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHe by the Father of sacrifice climbs crowned,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHeadman and dynast of earth’s soaring hills.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nThese were the scenes in which the Lovers met.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThere lonely mused the silent Soul of all,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd to awake him from his boundless trance<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTook woman’s form the beauty of the world;<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThen infinite sweetness bore a living shape;<\/span><\/p>\n

\nShe made her body perfect for his arms.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

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\nWith equal rites he to his giant bed<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe mind-born child of the world-fathers bore.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nMena, a goddess of devising heart,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWhom for her wisdom brooding seers adored,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe shapers of all living images,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHe won to shape in her his stable race.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTheir joys of love were like themselves immense.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThen in the wide felicitous lapse of time<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe happy tumult of her being tossed<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIn long and puissant ecstasies bore fruit,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBearing the banner of her unchanged youth<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd beauty to charmed motherhood she crossed.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nMainac she bore, the guest of the deep seas,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nUpon whose peaks the serpent-women play,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nRace of a cavernous and monstrous world,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWith strange eyes gleaming past the glaucous wave,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd jewelled tresses glittering through the foam.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nNot that his natural air, who great had grown<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAmid the brilliant perils of the sun;<\/span><\/p>\n

\nFrom Indra tearing the great mountains’ wings<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWith which they soared against the threatened sky,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBelow the slippery fields the fugitive sank.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHis sheltered essence bore no cruel sign,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nNor felt the anguish of the heavenly scars.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThey disappointed of that proud desire<\/span><\/p>\n

\nMixed in a larger joy. It took not earth<\/span><\/p>\n

\nFor narrow base, but forced the heavens down<\/span><\/p>\n

\nInto their passion-trance clasped on the couch<\/span><\/p>\n

\nCalm and stupendous of the snow-cold heights.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThen to a nobler load her womb gave place.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nFor Daksha’s daughter, Shiva’s wife, had left<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHer body lifeless in her father’s halls<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIn that proud sacrifice and fatal, she<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe undivided mother infinite<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIndignant for his severing thought of God.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nNow in a trance profound of joy by her<\/span><\/p>\n

\nConceived, she sprang again to livelier birth<\/span><\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

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\nTo heal the sorrow and the dumb divorce.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOut of the unseen soul the splendid child<\/span><\/p>\n

\nCame like bright lightning from the invisible air,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWelcome she came as Fortune to a king<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWhen she is born with daring for her sire<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd for her mother policy sublime.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThen was their festival holiday in the world,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThen were the regions subtle with delight:<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHeaven’s shells blew sweetly through the stainless air<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd flowery rain came drifting down; earth thrilled<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBack ravished to the rapture of the skies,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd all her moving and unmoving life<\/span><\/p>\n

\nFelt happiness because the Bride was born.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSo that fair mother by this daughter shone,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSo her young beauty radiated its beams<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAs might a land of lapis lazuli<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTorn by the thunder’s voice. As from the earth<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTender and green an infant lance of life,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA jewelled sprouting from the mother slab,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe divine child lay on her mother’s breast.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThey called her Parvati, the mountain child,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWhen love to love cried answer in the house<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd to the sound she turned her lovely face.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA riper day the great maternal name<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOf Uma brought. Her father banqueted<\/span><\/p>\n

\nUpon her as she grew unsated eyes<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd saw his life like a large lamp by her<\/span><\/p>\n

\nFulfilled in light; like heaven’s silent path<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBy Ganges voiceful grown his soul rejoiced;<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIt flowered like a great and shapeless thought<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSuddenly immortal in a perfect word.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWherever her bright laughing body rolled,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWherever faltered her sweet tumbling steps,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAll eyes were drawn to her like winging bees<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWhich sailing come upon the wanderer wind<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAmid the infinite sweets of honeyed spring<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTo choose the mango-flower’s delicious breast.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

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\nIncreasing to new curves of loveliness<\/span><\/p>\n

\nFast grew like the moon’s arc from day to day<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHer childish limbs. Along the wonderful glens<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAmong her fair companions of delight<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBounding she strayed, or stooped by murmurous waves<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTo build frail walls on Ganges’ heavenly sands,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOr ran to seize the tossing ball, or pleased<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWith puppet children her maternal mind.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd easily out of that earlier time<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAll sciences and wisdoms crowding came<\/span><\/p>\n

\nInto her growing thoughts like swans that haste<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIn autumn to a sacred river’s shores.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThey started from her soul as grow at night<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBorn from some luminous herb its glimmering rays.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHer mind, her limbs betrayed themselves divine.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThus she prepared her spirit for mighty life,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWandering at will in freedom like a deer<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOn Nature’s summits, in enchanted glens,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAbsorbed in play, the Mother of the world.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nThen youth a charm upon her body came<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAdorning every limb, a heady wine<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOf joy intoxicating to the heart,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nMaddened the eyes that gazed, from every limb<\/span><\/p>\n

\nShot the fine arrows of Love’s curving bow.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHer forms into a perfect roundness grew<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd opened up sweet colour, grace and light.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSo might a painting grow beneath the hand<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOf some great master, so a lotus opens<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIts bosom to the splendour of the sun.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAt every step on the enamoured earth<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHer feet threw a red rose, like magic flowers<\/span><\/p>\n

\nMoving from spot to spot their petalled bloom.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHer motion from the queenly swans had learned<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIts wanton swayings; musically it timed<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe sweet-voiced anklets’ murmuring refrain.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd falling to that amorous support<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

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\nFrom moulded knee to ankle the supreme<\/span><\/p>\n

\nDivinely lessening curve so lovely was<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIt looked as if on this alone were spent<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAll her Creator’s cunning. Well the rest<\/span><\/p>\n

\nMight tax his labour to build half such grace!<\/span><\/p>\n

\nYet was that miracle accomplished. Soft<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIn roundness, warm in their smooth sweep, her thighs<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWere without parallel in Nature’s work.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe greatness of her hips on which life’s girdle<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHad found its ample rest, deserved already<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe lap of divine love where she alone<\/span><\/p>\n

\nMight hope one day embosomed by God to lie.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nDeep was her hollowed navel where wound in<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAbove her raiment’s knot the tender line<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOf down slighter than that dark beam cast forth<\/span><\/p>\n

\nFrom the blue jewel central in her zone.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHer waist was like an altar’s middle and there<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA triple stair of love was softly built.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHer twin large breasts were pale with darkened paps,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThey would not let the slender lotus-thread<\/span><\/p>\n

\nFind passage; on their either side there waited<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTenderer than delicatest flowers the arms<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWhich Love would make, victorious in defeat,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHis chains to bow down the Eternal’s neck.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHer throat adorning all the pearls it wore,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWith sweep and undulation to the breast<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOutmatched the gleaming roundness of its gems.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nCrowning all this a marvellous face appeared<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIn which the lotus found its human bloom<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIn the soft lustres of the moon. Her smile<\/span><\/p>\n

\nParted the rosy sweetness of her lips<\/span><\/p>\n

\nLike candid pearls severing soft coral lines<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOr a white flower across a ruddy leaf.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHer speech dropped nectar from a liquid voice<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTo which the co\u00efl’s call seemed rude and harsh<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd sob of smitten lyres a tuneless sound.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe startled glance of her long lovely eyes<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

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\nStolen from her by the swift woodland deer<\/span><\/p>\n

\nFluttered like a blue lotus in the wind,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd the rich pencilled arching of her brows<\/span><\/p>\n

\nMade vain the beauty of love’s bow. Her hair’s<\/span><\/p>\n

\nDense masses put voluptuously to shame<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe mane of lions and the drift of clouds.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHe who created all this wondrous world<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWeary of scattering his marvels wide,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTo see all beauty in a little space<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHad fashioned only her. Called to her limbs<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAll possibilities of loveliness<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHad hastened to their fair attractive seats,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd now the artist eyes that scan all things<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSaw every symbol and sweet parallel<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOf beauty only realised in her.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThen was he satisfied and loved his work.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHis sages ranging at their will the stars<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSaw her and knew that this indeed was she<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWho must become by love the beautiful half<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOf the Almighty’s body and be all<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHis heart. This from earth’s seers of future things<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHimaloy heard and his proud hopes contemned<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAll other than the greatest for her spouse.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nYet dared he not provoke that dangerous boon<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnticipating its unwakened hour,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBut seated in the grandeur of his hills<\/span><\/p>\n

\nLike a great soul curbing its giant hopes,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA silent sentinel of destiny,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHe watched in mighty calm the wheeling years.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nShe like an offering waited for the fire,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPrepared by Time for her approaching lord.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nBut the great Spirit of the world forsaken<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBy that first body of the Mother of all,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nNot to her second birth yet come, abode<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIn crowded worlds unwed, ascetic, stern,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAlone and passionless and unespoused,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n

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\n

\nThe Master of the animal life absorbed<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIn dreamings, wandering with his demon hordes,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nDesireless in the blind desire of things.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAt length like sculptured marble still he paused,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTo meditation yoked. With ashes smeared,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nClothed in the skin of beasts [    ]<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHe sat a silent shape upon the hills.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBelow him curved Himadri’s slope; a soil<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWith fragrance of the musk-deer odorous<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWas round, and there the awful Splendour mused.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nMid cedars sprinkled with the sacred dew<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOf Ganges, softly murmuring their chants<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIn strains subdued the Kinnar-minstrels sang.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWhere oil-filled slabs were clothed in resinous herbs,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHis grisly hosts sat down, their bodies stained<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWith mineral unguents; bark their ill-shaped limbs<\/span><\/p>\n

\nClad [     ] and their tremendous hands<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAround their ears had wreathed the hillside’s flowers.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOn the white rocks compact of frozen snow<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHis great bull voicing low immortal pride<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPawed with his hoof the argent soil to dust.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAlarmed the bisons fled his gaze; he bellowed<\/span><\/p>\n

\nImpatient of the mountain lion’s roar.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nConcentrating his world-vast energies,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHe who gives all austerities their fruits<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBuilt daily his eternal shape of flame,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIn what impenetrable and deep desire?<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe worship even of gods he reckons not<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWho on no creature leans; yet worship still<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTo satisfy, his awe the mountain paused<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd gave his daughter the great Soul to serve.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nShe brought him daily offerings of flowers<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd holy water morn and noon and eve<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd swept the altar of the divine fire<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd plucking heaped the outspread sacred grass,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThen showering over his feet her falling locks<\/span><\/p>\n

\nDrowned all her soft fatigue of gentle toils<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n

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\n

\nIn the cool moonbeams from the Eternal’s head.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThough to austerity of trance a peril<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe touch of beauty, he repelled her not.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSurrounded by all sweetness in the world<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHe can be passionless in his large mind,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAustere, unmoved, creation’s silent king.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSo had they met on summits of the world<\/span><\/p>\n

\nLike the still Spirit and its unwakened force.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nNear were they now, yet to each other unknown,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHe meditating, she in service bowed.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nClosing awhile her vast and shadowy wings<\/span><\/p>\n

\nFate over them paused suspended on the hills.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

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\n

\n
\nCANTO II<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nBut now in spheres above whose motions fixed<\/span><\/p>\n

\nConfirm our cyclic steps, a cry arose<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnarchic. Strange disorders threatened Space.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThere was a tumult in the calm abodes,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA clash of arms, a thunder of defeat.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHearing that sound our smaller physical home<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTrembled in its pale circuits, fearing soon<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe ethereal revolt might touch its stars.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThen were these knots of our toy orbits torn<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd like a falling leaf this world might sink<\/span><\/p>\n

\nFrom the high tree mysterious where it hangs<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBetween that voiceful and this silent flood.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nFor long a mute indifference had seized<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe Soul of all; no more the Mother of forms<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBy the persuasion of her clinging arms<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBound him to bear the burden of her works.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTherefore with a slow dreadful confidence<\/span><\/p>\n

\nChaos had lifted his gigantic head.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHis movement stole, a shadow on the skies,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOut of the dark inconscience where he hides.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBreaking the tread of the eternal dance<\/span><\/p>\n

\nVoices were heard life’s music shudders at,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThoughts were abroad no living mind can bear,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nEnormous rhythms had disturbed the gods<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOf which they knew not the stupendous law,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd taking new amorphous giant shapes<\/span><\/p>\n

\nDesires the primal harmonies repel<\/span><\/p>\n

\nFixed dreadful eyes upon their coveted heavens.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAwhile they found no form could clothe their strength,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nNo spirit who could brook their feet of fire<\/span><\/p>\n

\nGave them his aspirations for their home.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOnly in the invisible heart of things<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA dread unease and expectation lived,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWhich felt immeasurable energies<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIn huge revolt against the established world.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

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\n

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\n

\nBut now awake to the fierce nether gods<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTarak the Titan rose, and the gods fled<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBefore him driven in a luminous rout.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nRumours of an unalterable defeat<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAstonished heaven. Like a throng of stars<\/span><\/p>\n

\nDrifting through night before the clouds of doom<\/span><\/p>\n

\nLike golden leaves hunted by dark-winged winds,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThey fled back to their old delightful seats,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nNor there found refuge. Bent to a Titan yoke<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThey suffered, till their scourged defeated thoughts<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTurned suppliants to a greater seat above.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThere the Self-born who weaves from his deep heart<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHarmonious spaces, sits concealed and watches<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe inviolable cycles of his soul.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThither ascending difficult roads of sleep<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThose colonists of heaven, the violent strength<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOf thunderous Indra flashing in their front,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nClimbed up with labour to their mighty source.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBut as they neared, but as their yearning reached,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBefore them from the eternal secrecy<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA Form grew manifest from all their forms.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA great brow seemed to face them everywhere,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nEyes which survey the threads of Space, looked forth,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe lips whose words are Nature’s ordinances,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWere visible. Then as at dawn the sun<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSmiles upon listless pools and at each smile<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA sleeping lotus wakes, so on them shone<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThat glory and awoke to bloom and life<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe drooping beauty of those tarnished gods.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThus with high voices echoing his word<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThey hymned their great Creator where he sits<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIn the mystic lotus, musing out his worlds.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n“Pure Spirit who wast before creation woke,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nCalm violence, destroyer, gulf of Soul,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOne, though divided in thy own conceit,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBrahma we see thee here, who from thy deeps<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOf memory rescuest forgotten Time. <\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n

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\n

\nWe see thee, Yogin, on the solemn snows,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nShiva, withdrawing into thy hush the Word<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWhich sang the fiat of the speeding stars.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThey pass like moths into thy flaming gaze.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWe adore thee, Vishnu, whose extended steps<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTo thee are casual footprints, thy small base<\/span><\/p>\n

\nFor luminous systems measureless to our mind,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWhose difficult toil thy light and happy smile<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSustains, O wide discoverer of Space.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTo thee our adoration, triune Form!<\/span><\/p>\n

\nImagining her triple mood thou gav’st<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTo thy illimitable Nature play.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWhen nothing was except thy lonely soul<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIn the ocean of thy being, then thou sowedst<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThy seed infallible, O Spirit unborn,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd from that seed a million unlike forms<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThou variously hast made. Thy world that moves<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd breathes, thy world inconscient and inert,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWhat are they but a corner of thy life?<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThou hast made them and preservest; if thou slayst<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIt is thy greatness, Lord. Mysterious source<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOf all, from thee we drew this light of mind,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThis mighty stirring and these failings dark.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIn thee we live, by thee we act thy thoughts.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThou gav’st thyself a Woman and divine,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThou grewest twain who wert the formless One,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIn one sole body thou wert Lord and Spouse<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTo found the bliss which by division joins,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThou bor’st thy being, a Spirit who is Man.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAll are thy creatures: in the meeting vast<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOf thy swift Nature with thy brilliant Mind,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThou mad’st thy children, man and beast and god.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThy days and nights are numberless aeons; when<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThou sleepest, all things sleep, O conscient God;<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThy waking is a birth of countless souls.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThou art the womb from which all life arose,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBut who begot thee? thou the ender of things,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n

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\n

\nBut who has known thy end? Beginningless,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAll our beginnings are thy infant powers,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThou governest their middle and their close,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBut over thee where is thy ruler, Lord?<\/span><\/p>\n

\nNone knoweth this; alone thou knowest thyself.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBy thy ineffable identity<\/span><\/p>\n

\nKnowledge approaches the unknown. We seek<\/span><\/p>\n

\nDiscoveries of ourselves in distant things.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWhen first desire stirred, the seed of mind,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd to existence from the plenary void<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThy seers built the golden bridge of thought,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOut of thy uncreated Ocean’s rest<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBy thy own energy thou sprangest forth.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThou art thy action’s path and thou its law;<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThou art thy own vast ending and its sleep.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe subtle and the dense, the flowing and firm,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe hammered close consistency of things,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe clingings of the atoms, lightness, load,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWhat are all these things but thy shapes? Things seen<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd sensible and things no thought has scanned,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThou grewest and each pole and contrary<\/span><\/p>\n

\nArt equally, O self-created God.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThou hast become all this at thy desire,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd nothing is impossible in thee;<\/span><\/p>\n

\nCreation is the grandeur of thy soul.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe chanting Veda and the threefold voice,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe sacrifice of works, the heavenly fruit,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe all-initiating OM, from thee,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nFrom thee they sprang; out of thy ocean heart<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe rhythms of our fathomless words are born.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThey name thee Nature, she the mystic law<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOf all things done and seen who drives us, mother<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd giver of our spirits’ seekings, won<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIn her enormous strength, though won from her.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThey know thee Spirit, far above thou dwellest<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPure of achievement, empty of her noise.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSilent spectator of thy infinite stage,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n

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\n

\nUnmoved in a serene tremendous calm<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThou viewst indifferently the grandiose scene.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nO Deity from whom all deities are,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nO Father of the sowers of the world,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nO Master of the godheads of the law,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWho so supreme but shall find thee above?<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThou art the enjoyer and the sweet enjoyed,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe hunter and the hunted in the worlds,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe food, the eater. O sole knower, sole known,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSole dreamer! this bright-imaged dream is thou,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWhich we pursue in our miraculous minds;<\/span><\/p>\n

\nNo other thinker is or other thought.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nO Lord, we bow, who from thy being came,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTo thee in prayer. Is it not thou who prayst,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSpirit transcendent and eternal All?”<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThen to the wise in heaven the original Seer,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nMaker and poet of the magic spheres,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nShedding a smile in whose benignancy<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSome sweet return like pleasant sunlight glowed,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSent chanting from his fourfold mouth a voice<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIn which were justified the powers of sound,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n“Welcome, you excellent mightinesses of heaven,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWho hold your right by self-supported strengths,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe centuries for your arms. How have you risen<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTogether in one movement of great Time?<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWherefore bring you your divine faces, robbed<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOf their old inborn light and beauty, pale<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAs stars in winter mists dim-rayed and cold<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSwimming through the dumb melancholy of heaven?<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWhy do I see your powers dejected, frail?<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe thunder in the Python-slayer’s hand<\/span><\/p>\n

\nFlames not exultant, wan its darings droop,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nQuelled is the iridescence of its dance.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIts dreadful beauty like a goddess shamed<\/span><\/p>\n

\nShrinks back into its violated pride.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nVaroona’s unescaped and awful noose<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHangs slack, impuissant, and its ruthless coils<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n

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\n

\nAre a charmed serpent’s folds; a child can smite<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe whirling lasso snare for Titan strengths.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIn Kuver’s face there is defeat and pain.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nLow as an opulent tree its broken branch<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIn an insulted sullen majesty<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHis golden arm hangs down the knotted mace.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nDeath’s lord is wan and his tremendous staff<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWrites idly on the soil, the infallible stroke<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIs an extinguished terror, a charred line<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe awful script no tears could ever erase.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nO you pale sun-gods chill and shorn of fire,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHow like the vanity of painted suns<\/span><\/p>\n

\nYou glow, where eyes can set their mortal ray<\/span><\/p>\n

\nDaring eternal splendours with their sight.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nO fallen rapidities, you lords of speed,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWith the resisted torrents’ baffled roar<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBack on themselves recoil your stormy strengths.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWhy come you now like sad and stumbling souls,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWho bounded free and lionlike through heaven?<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd you, O Rudras, how the matted towers<\/span><\/p>\n

\nUpon your heads sink their dishevelled pride!<\/span><\/p>\n

\nDim hang your moons along the snaky twines,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nNo longer from your puissant throats your voice<\/span><\/p>\n

\nChallenges leonine the peaks of Night.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWho has put down the immortal gods? what foe<\/span><\/p>\n

\nStronger than strength could make eternal puissance vain,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAs if beyond imagination amidst<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe august immutability of law<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSome insolent exception unforeseen<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHad set in doubt the order of the stars?<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSpeak, children, wherefore have ye come to me?<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWhat prayer is silent on your lips? Did I<\/span><\/p>\n

\nNot make the circling suns and give to you<\/span><\/p>\n

\nMy grandiose thoughts to keep? Guardians of life,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nKeepers of the inviolable round,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWhy come you to me with defeated eyes?<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHelpers, stand you in need of help?” He ceased,
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

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\n

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\n

\nAnd like a rippling lotus lake whose flowers<\/span><\/p>\n

\nStir to a gentle wind, the Thunderer turned<\/span><\/p>\n

\nUpon the Seer his thousand eyes of thought,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe Seer who is his greater eye than these;<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHe is the teacher of the sons of light,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHis speech inspired outleaps the labouring mind<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd opens truth’s mysterious doors to gods.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n“Veiling by question thy all-knowing sense,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nLord, thou hast spoken,” Brihaspati began,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n“The symbol of our sad defeat and fall.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWhat soul can hide himself from his own source?<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThy vision looks through every eye and sees<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBeyond our seeings, thinks in every mind,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPassing our pale peripheries of light.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTarak the Titan growing in thy smile<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAs Ocean swells beneath the silent moon,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n[                                                             ]<\/span><\/p>\n

\nDiscouraged from the godhead of his rays<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIn Tarak’s town the Sun dares not to burn<\/span><\/p>\n

\nMore than can serve to unseal the lotus’ eyes<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIn rippling waters of his garden pools.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe mystic moon yields him its nectarous heart;<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOnly the crescent upon Shiva’s head<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIs safe from the desire of his soul.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe violent winds forget their mightier song.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTheir breezes through his gardens dare not rush<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAfraid to steal the flowers upon its boughs<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd only near him sobbingly can pant<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA flattering coolness, dreadful brows to fan.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe seasons are forbidden their cycling round;<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThey walk his garden-keepers and must fill<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe branches with chaotic wealth of flowers.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAutumn and spring and summer joining hands<\/span><\/p>\n

\n[             ] him with their multitudinous sweets,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTheir married fragrances surprise the air.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOcean his careful servant brings to birth<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe ripening jewels for his toys; his mine<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n

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\n

\nOf joy is the inexorable abyss.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe serpent-gods with blazing gems at night<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHold up their hoods to be his living lamps<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd even great Indra sends him messengers.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nFlowers from the Tree of bounty and of bliss<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThey bear; to the one fierce and sovereign mind<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAll his desires the boughs of heaven must give.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBut how can kindness win that violent heart?<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOnly by chastisement it is appeased.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA tyrant grandeur is the Titan soul<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd only by destruction and by pain<\/span><\/p>\n

\nFeels in the sobs and tears of suffering things<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA crude reality of [             ] force.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n

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\n

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

  The Birth of the War-God   EXPANDED VERSION OF CANTO I AND PART OF CANTO II   A god concealed in mountain majesty, Embodied…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-05-translations","wpcat-48-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2312","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=2312"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2312\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}