{"id":2482,"date":"2013-07-13T01:41:55","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:41:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=2482"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:41:55","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:41:55","slug":"41-canto-three-death-in-the-forest-vol-33-34-savitri","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/03-cwsa\/33-34-savitri\/41-canto-three-death-in-the-forest-vol-33-34-savitri","title":{"rendered":"-41_Canto Three – Death in the Forest.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\n\n\n
 <\/td>\n\n<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBOOK EIGHT<\/b><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThe Book of Death<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nCanto Three <\/font><\/b>
\n\u00b9 <\/font><\/b><\/font><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tDeath in the Forest<\/b><\/i><\/p>\n

<\/font>  <\/font><\/p>\n

\n<\/font> N<\/font>OW<\/font><\/b> it was here in this great golden dawn.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBy her still sleeping husband lain she gazed<\/p>\n

Into her past as one about to die<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tLooks back upon the sunlit fields of life<\/p>\n

Where he too ran and sported with the rest,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tLifting his head above the huge dark stream<\/p>\n

Into whose depths he must for ever plunge.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAll she had been and done she lived again.<\/p>\n

The whole year in a swift and eddying race<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tOf memories swept through her and fled away<\/p>\n

Into the irrecoverable past.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThen silently she rose and, service done,<\/p>\n

Bowed down to the great goddess simply carved<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBy Satyavan upon a forest stone.<\/p>\n

What prayer she breathed her soul and Durga knew.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPerhaps she felt in the dim forest huge<\/p>\n

The infinite Mother watching over her child,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPerhaps the shrouded Voice spoke some still word.<\/p>\n

At last she came to the pale mother queen.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tShe spoke but with guarded lips and tranquil face<\/p>\n

Lest some stray word or some betraying look<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tShould let pass into the mother’s unknowing breast,<\/p>\n

Slaying all happiness and need to live,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tA dire foreknowledge of the grief to come.<\/p>\n

Only the needed utterance passage found:<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAll else she pressed back into her anguished heart<\/p>\n

And forced upon her speech an outward peace.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\u00b9<\/font>The Book of Death was taken from Canto Three of an early version of Savitri
\nwhich had
\n\t\t\tonly six cantos and an epilogue. It was slightly revised at a late stage and a number of new
\nlines were added, but it was never fully worked into the final version of the poem. Its original
\n\t\t\tdesignation, “Canto Three”, has been retained as a reminder of this.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 <\/font>561<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

“One year that I have lived with Satyavan<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHere on the emerald edge of the vast woods<\/p>\n

In the iron ring of the enormous peaks<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tUnder the blue rifts of the forest sky,<\/p>\n

I have not gone into the silences<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tOf this great woodland that enringed my thoughts<\/p>\n

With mystery, nor in its green miracles<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWandered, but this small clearing was my world.<\/p>\n

Now has a strong desire seized all my heart<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tTo go with Satyavan holding his hand<\/p>\n

Into the life that he has loved and touch<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHerbs he has trod and know the forest flowers<\/p>\n

And hear at ease the birds and the scurrying life<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThat starts and ceases, rich far rustle of boughs<\/p>\n

And all the mystic whispering of the woods.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tRelease me now and let my heart have rest.”<\/p>\n

She answered: “Do as thy wise mind desires,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tO calm child-sovereign with the eyes that rule.<\/p>\n

I hold thee for a strong goddess who has come<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPitying our barren days; so dost thou serve<\/p>\n

Even as a slave might, yet art thou beyond<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAll that thou doest, all our minds conceive,<\/p>\n

Like the strong sun that serves earth from above.”<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThen the doomed husband and the woman who knew<\/p>\n

Went with linked hands into that solemn world<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWhere beauty and grandeur and unspoken dream,<\/p>\n

Where Nature’s mystic silence could be felt<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tCommuning with the secrecy of God.<\/p>\n

Beside her Satyavan walked full of joy<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBecause she moved with him through his green haunts:<\/p>\n

He showed her all the forest’s riches, flowers<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tInnumerable of every odour and hue<\/p>\n

And soft thick clinging creepers red and green<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAnd strange rich-plumaged birds, to every cry<\/p>\n

That haunted sweetly distant boughs replied<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWith the shrill singer’s name more sweetly called.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 <\/font>562<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

He spoke of all the things he loved: they were<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHis boyhood’s comrades and his playfellows,<\/p>\n

Coevals and companions of his life<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHere in this world whose every mood he knew:<\/p>\n

Their thoughts which to the common mind are blank,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHe shared, to every wild emotion felt<\/p>\n

An answer. Deeply she listened, but to hear<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThe voice that soon would cease from tender words<\/p>\n

And treasure its sweet cadences beloved<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFor lonely memory when none by her walked<\/p>\n

And the beloved voice could speak no more.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBut little dwelt her mind upon their sense;<\/p>\n

Of death, not life she thought or life’s lone end.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tLove in her bosom hurt with the jagged edges<\/p>\n

Of anguish moaned at every step with pain<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tCrying, “Now, now perhaps his voice will cease<\/p>\n

For ever.” Even by some vague touch oppressed<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSometimes her eyes looked round as if their orbs<\/p>\n

Might see the dim and dreadful god’s approach.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBut Satyavan had paused. He meant to finish<\/p>\n

His labour here that happy, linked, uncaring<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThey two might wander free in the green deep<\/p>\n

Primaeval mystery of the forest’s heart.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tA tree that raised its tranquil head to heaven<\/p>\n

Luxuriating in verdure, summoning<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThe breeze with amorous wideness of its boughs,<\/p>\n

He chose and with his steel assailed the arm<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBrown, rough and strong hidden in its emerald dress.<\/p>\n

Wordless but near she watched, no turn to lose<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tOf the bright face and body which she loved.<\/p>\n

Her life was now in seconds, not in hours,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAnd every moment she economised<\/p>\n

Like a pale merchant leaned above his store,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThe miser of his poor remaining gold.<\/p>\n

But Satyavan wielded a joyous axe.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHe sang high snatches of a sage’s chant<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 <\/font>563<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

That pealed of conquered death and demons slain,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAnd sometimes paused to cry to her sweet speech<\/p>\n

Of love and mockery tenderer than love:<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tShe like a pantheress leaped upon his words<\/p>\n

And carried them into her cavern heart.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBut as he worked, his doom upon him came.<\/p>\n

The violent and hungry hounds of pain<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tTravelled through his body biting as they passed<\/p>\n

Silently, and all his suffering breath besieged<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tStrove to rend life’s strong heart-cords and be free.<\/p>\n

Then helped, as if a beast had left its prey,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tA moment in a wave of rich relief<\/p>\n

Reborn to strength and happy ease he stood<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tRejoicing and resumed his confident toil<\/p>\n

But with less seeing strokes. Now the great woodsman<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHewed at him and his labour ceased: lifting<\/p>\n

His arm he flung away the poignant axe<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFar from him like an instrument of pain.<\/p>\n

She came to him in silent anguish and clasped,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAnd he cried to her, “Savitri, a pang<\/p>\n

Cleaves through my head and breast as if the axe<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWere piercing it and not the living branch.<\/p>\n

Such agony rends me as the tree must feel<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWhen it is sundered and must lose its life.<\/p>\n

Awhile let me lay my head upon thy lap<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAnd guard me with thy hands from evil fate:<\/p>\n

Perhaps because thou touchest, death may pass.”<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThen Savitri sat under branches wide,<\/p>\n

Cool, green against the sun, not the hurt tree<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWhich his keen axe had cloven, \u2014 that she shunned;<\/p>\n

But leaned beneath a fortunate kingly trunk<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tShe guarded him in her bosom and strove to soothe<\/p>\n

His anguished brow and body with her hands.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAll grief and fear were dead within her now<\/p>\n

And a great calm had fallen. The wish to lessen<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHis suffering, the impulse that opposes pain<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 <\/font>564<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\tWere the one mortal feeling left. It passed:<\/p>\n

Griefless and strong she waited like the gods.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBut now his sweet familiar hue was changed<\/p>\n

Into a tarnished greyness and his eyes<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tDimmed over, forsaken of the clear light she loved.<\/p>\n

Only the dull and physical mind was left,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tVacant of the bright spirit’s luminous gaze.<\/p>\n

But once before it faded wholly back,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHe cried out in a clinging last despair,<\/p>\n

“Savitri, Savitri, O Savitri,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tLean down, my soul, and kiss me while I die.”<\/p>\n

And even as her pallid lips pressed his,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHis failed, losing last sweetness of response;<\/p>\n

His cheek pressed down her golden arm. She sought<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHis mouth still with her living mouth, as if<\/p>\n

She could persuade his soul back with her kiss;<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThen grew aware they were no more alone.<\/p>\n

Something had come there conscious, vast and dire.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tNear her she felt a silent shade immense<\/p>\n

Chilling the noon with darkness for its back.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAn awful hush had fallen upon the place:<\/p>\n

There was no cry of birds, no voice of beasts.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tA terror and an anguish filled the world,<\/p>\n

As if annihilation’s mystery<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHad taken a sensible form. A cosmic mind<\/p>\n

Looked out on all from formidable eyes<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tContemning all with its unbearable gaze<\/p>\n

And with immortal lids and a vast brow<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tIt saw in its immense destroying thought<\/p>\n

All things and beings as a pitiful dream,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tRejecting with calm disdain Nature’s delight,<\/p>\n

The wordless meaning of its deep regard<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tVoicing the unreality of things<\/p>\n

And life that would be for ever but never was<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAnd its brief and vain recurrence without cease,<\/p>\n

As if from a Silence without form or name<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 <\/font>565<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

The Shadow of a remote uncaring god<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tDoomed to his Nought the illusory universe,<\/p>\n

Cancelling its show of idea and act in Time<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAnd its imitation of eternity.<\/p>\n

She knew that visible Death was standing there<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAnd Satyavan had passed from her embrace.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

END OF<\/font>
\n\t\t\tBOOK<\/font> EIGHT<\/font><\/p>\n

END OF<\/font> PART<\/font> TWO<\/font><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 <\/font>566<\/font><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

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

    BOOK EIGHT   The Book of Death   Canto Three \u00b9   Death in the Forest   NOW it was here in this…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-33-34-savitri","wpcat-50-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2482","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=2482"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2482\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}