{"id":2986,"date":"2013-07-13T01:45:08","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:45:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=2986"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:45:08","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:45:08","slug":"36-two-poems-in-quantitative-hexameters-contd-vol-02-collected-poems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/03-cwsa\/02-collected-poems\/36-two-poems-in-quantitative-hexameters-contd-vol-02-collected-poems","title":{"rendered":"-36_Two Poems in Quantitative Hexameters – CONTD.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n
\n

 <\/td>\n

\n<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tBOOK VIII<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tThe Book of the Gods<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nSo on the earth the seed that was sown of the centuries ripened;<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tEurope and Asia, met on their borders, clashed in the Troad.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAll over earth men wept and bled and laboured, world-wide<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSowing Fate with their deeds and had other fruit than they hoped for,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOut of desires and their passionate griefs and fleeting enjoyments<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWeaving a tapestry fit for the gods to admire, who in silence<\/span><\/p>\n

\nJoy, by the cloud and the sunbeam veiled, and men know not their movers.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThey in the glens of Olympus, they by the waters of Ida<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOr in their temples worshipped in vain or with heart-strings of mortals<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSated their vast desire and enjoying the world and each other<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSported free and unscourged; for the earth was their prey and their playground.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBut from his luminous deep domain, from his estate of azure<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tZeus looked forth; he beheld the earth in its flowering greenness<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSpread like an emerald dream that the eyes have enthroned in the sunlight,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHeard the symphonies old of the ocean recalling the ages<\/span><\/p>\n

\nLost and dead from its marches salt and unharvested furrows,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFelt in the pregnant hour the unborn hearts of the future.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTroubled kingdoms of men he beheld, the hind in the furrow,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tLords of the glebe and the serf subdued to the yoke of his fortunes,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSlavegirls tending the fire and herdsmen driving the cattle,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tArtisans labouring long for a little hire in men’s cities,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nLabour long and the meagre reward for a toil that is priceless.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tKings in their seats august or marching swift with their armies<\/span><\/p>\n

\nFounded ruthlessly brittle empires. Merchant and toiler<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPatiently heaped up our transient wealth like the ants in their hillock.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd to preserve it all, to protect this dust that must perish,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHurting the eternal soul and maiming heaven for some metal<\/span><\/p>\n

\nJudges condemned their brothers to chains and to death and to torment,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tCriminals scourgers of crime, 
\n\t\t\t\u2014  for so are these ant-heaps founded,  \u2014 <\/span> <\/p>\n

\nPunishing sin by a worse affront to our crucified natures.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAll the uncertainty, all the mistaking, all the delusion<\/span><\/p>\n

\nNaked were to his gaze; in the moonlit orchards there wandered<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tLovers dreaming of love that endures 
\n\t\t\t\u2014  till the moment of treason;<\/span><\/p>\n

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\nHelped by the anxious joy of their kindred supported their anguish<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWomen with travail racked for the child who shall rack them with sorrow.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHopes that were confident, fates that sprang dire from the seed of a moment,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tYearning that claimed all time for its date and all life for its fuel,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAll that we wonder at gazing back when the passion has fallen,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tLabour blind and vain expense and sacrifice wasted,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThese he beheld with a heart unshaken; to each side he studied<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSeas of confused attempt and the strife and the din and the crying.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAll things he pierced in us gazing down with his eyelids immortal,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tLids on which sleep dare not settle, the Father of men on his creatures;<\/span><\/p>\n

\nNor by the cloud and the mist was obscured which baffles our eyeballs,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBut he distinguished our source and saw to the end of our labour.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHe in the animal racked knew the god that is slowly delivered;<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tTherefore his heart rejoiced. Not alone the mind in its trouble<\/span><\/p>\n

\nGod beholds, but the spirit behind that has joy of the torture.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tMight not our human gaze on the smoke of a furnace, the burning<\/span><\/p>\n

\nRed, intolerable, anguish of ore that is fused in the hell-heat,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tShrink and yearn for coolness and peace and condemn all the labour?<\/span><\/p>\n

\nRather look to the purity coming, the steel in its beauty,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tRather rejoice with the master who stands in his gladness accepting<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHeat of the glorious god and the fruitful pain of the iron.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tLast the eternal gaze was fixed on Troy and the armies<\/span><\/p>\n

\nMarching swift to the shock. It beheld the might of Achilles<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHelmed and armed, knew all the craft in the brain of Odysseus,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSaw Deiphobus stern in his car and the fates of Aeneas,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tGreece of her heroes empty, Troy enringed by her slayers,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nParis a setting star and the beauty of Penthesilea.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThese things he saw delighted; the heart that contains all our ages<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBlessed our toil and grew full of its fruits, as the Artist eternal<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWatched his vehement drama staged twixt the sea and the mountains,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPhrased in the clamour and glitter of arms and closed by the firebrand,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAct itself out in blood and in passions fierce on the Troad.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nYet as a father his children, who sits in the peace of his study<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHearing the noise of his brood and pleased with their play and their quarrels,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSo he beheld our mortal race. Then, turned from the armies,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tInto his mind he gazed where Time is reflected and, conscient,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nKnew the iron knot of our human fates in their warfare.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 443<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

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\nCalm he arose and left our earth for his limitless kingdoms.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFar from this lower blue and high in the death-scorning spaces<\/span><\/p>\n

\nLifted o’er mortal mind where Time and Space are but figures<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tLightly imagined by Thought divine in her luminous stillness,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nZeus has his palace high and there he has stabled his war-car.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThence he descends to our mortal realms; where the heights of our
\nmountains<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tMeet with the divine air, he touches and enters our regions.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nNow he ascended back to his natural realms and their rapture,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThere where all life is bliss and each feeling an ecstasy mastered.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThence his eagle Thought with its flashing pinions extended<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWinged through the world to the gods, and they came at the call, they
\nascended<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tUp from their play and their calm and their works through the infinite azure.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSome from our mortal domains in grove or by far-flowing river<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tCool from the winds of the earth or quivering with perishable fragrance<\/span><\/p>\n

\nCame, or our laughter they bore and the song of the sea in their paces.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSome from the heavens above us arrived, our vital dominions<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWhence we draw breath; for there all things have life, the stone like the ilex,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tClay of those realms like the children of men and the brood of the giants.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThere Enceladus groans oppressed and draws strength from his anguish<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tUnder a living Aetna and flames that have joy of his entrails.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nFiercely he groans and rejoices expecting the end of his foemen<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHastened by every pang and counts long Time by his writhings.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThere in the champaigns unending battle the gods and the giants,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThere in eternal groves the lovers have pleasure for ever,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThere are the faery climes and there are the wonderful pastures.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSome from a marvellous Paradise hundred-realmed in its musings,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nMillion-ecstasied, climbed like flames that in silence aspire<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWindless, erect in a motionless dream, yet ascending for ever.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAll grew aware of the will divine and were drawn to the Father.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tGrandiose, calm in her gait, imperious, awing the regions,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHera came in her pride, the spouse of Zeus and his sister.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAs at her birth from the foam of the spaces white Aphrodite<\/span><\/p>\n

\nRose in the cloud of her golden hair like the moon in its halo.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAegis-bearing Athene, shielded and helmeted, answered<\/span><\/p>\n

\nRushing the call and the heavens thrilled with the joy of her footsteps<\/span><\/p>\n

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\nPage \u2013 444<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

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\nDumbly repeating her name, as insulted and trampled by beauty<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThrill might the soul of a lover and cry out the name of its tyrant.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOthers there were as mighty; for Artemis, archeress ancient,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tCame on her sandals lightning-tasselled. Up the vast incline<\/span><\/p>\n

\nShaking the world with the force of his advent thundered Poseidon;<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSpace grew full of his stride and his cry. Immortal Apollo<\/span><\/p>\n

\nShone and his silver clang was heard with alarm in our kingdoms.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAres’ impetuous eyes looked forth from a cloud-drift of splendour;<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThemis’ steps appeared and Ananke, the mystic Erinnys;<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tNor was Hephaestus’ flaming strength from his father divided.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nEven the ancient Dis to arrive dim-featured, eternal,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSeemed; but his rays are the shades and his voice is the call of the silence.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nInto the courts divine they crowded, radiant, burning,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPerfect in utter grace and light. The joy of their spirits<\/span><\/p>\n

\nCalls to eternal Time and the glories of Space are his answer:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThence were these bright worlds born and persist by the throb of their
\nheart-beats.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tNot in the forms that mortals have seen when assisted they scatter<\/span><\/p>\n

\nMists of this earthly dust from their eyes in their moments of greatness<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tShone those unaging Powers; nor as in our centuries radiant<\/span><\/p>\n

\nMortal-seeming bodies they wore when they mixed with our nations.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThen the long youth of the world had not faded still out of our natures,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nFlowers and the sunlight were felt and the earth was glad like a mother.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThen for a human delight they were masked in this denser vesture<\/span><\/p>\n

\nEarth desires for her bliss,  \u2014  thin veils, for the god through them glimmered.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tQuick were men’s days with the throng of the brilliant presences near them:<\/span><\/p>\n

\nGods from the wood and the valley, gods from the obvious wayside,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tGods on the secret hills leaped out from their light on the mortal.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOft in the haunt and the grove they met with our kind and their touches<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSeized and subjected our clay to the greatness of passions supernal,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nGrasping the earthly virgin and forcing heaven on this death-dust.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tGlorifying human beauty Apollo roamed in our regions<\/span><\/p>\n

\nClymene when he pursued or yearned in vain for Marpessa;<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tGlorifying earth with a human-seeming face of the beauty<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBrought from her heavenly climes Aphrodite mixed with Anchises.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tGlimpsed in the wilds were the Satyrs, seen in the woodlands the Graces,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nDryad and Naiad in river and forest, Oreads haunting<\/span><\/p>\n

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\nGlens and the mountain-glades where they played with the manes of our lions<\/span><\/p>\n

\nGlimmered on death-claimed eyes; for the gods then were near us and clasped us,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHeaven leaned down in love with our clay and yearned to its transience.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBut we have coarsened in heart and in mood; we have turned in our natures<\/span><\/p>\n

\nNearer our poorer kindred; leaned to the ant and the ferret.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSight we have darkened with sense and power we have stifled with labour,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nLikened in mood to the things we gaze at and are in our vestures:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tTherefore we toil unhelped; we are left to our weakness and blindness.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nNot in those veils now they rose to their skies, but like loose-fitting mantles<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tDropped in the vestibules huge of their vigorous realms that besiege us<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAll that reminded of earth; then clothed with raiment of swiftness<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tStraight they went quivering up in a glory like fire or the storm-blast.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nEven those natural vestures of puissance they leave when they enter<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tMind’s more subtle fields and agree with its limitless regions<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPeopled by creatures of bliss and forms more true than earth’s shadows,  \u2014
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tMind that pure from this density, throned in her splendours immortal<\/span><\/p>\n

\nLooks up at Light and suffers bliss from ineffable kingdoms<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWhere beyond Mind and its rays is the gleam of a glory supernal:<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThere our sun cannot shine and our moon has no place for her lustres,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThere our lightnings flash not, nor fire of these spaces is suffered.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThey with bodies impalpable here to our touch and our seeing,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBut for a higher delight, to a brighter sense, with more sweetness<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPalpable there and visible, thrilled with a lordlier joyance,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tCame to the courts of Zeus and his heavens sang to their footsteps.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHarmonies flowed through the blissful coils of the kingdoms of rapture.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThen by his mighty equals surrounded the Thunderer regnant<\/span><\/p>\n

\nVeiled his thought in sound that was heard in their souls as they listened.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tVeiled are the high gods always lest there should dawn on the mortal<\/span><\/p>\n

\nLight too great from the skies and men to their destiny clear-eyed<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWalk unsustained like the gods; then Night and Dawn were defeated<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd of their masks the deities robbed would be slaves to their subjects.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t“Children of Immortality, gods who are joyous for ever,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nRapture is ours and eternity measures our lives by his aeons.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFor we desireless toil who have joy in the fall as the triumph,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nKnowledge eternal possessing we work for an end that is destined<\/span><\/p>\n

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\nLong already beyond by the Will of which Time is the courser.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tTherefore death cannot alter our lives nor pain our enjoyment.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBut in the world of mortals twilight is lord of its creatures.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tNothing they perfectly see, but all things seek and imagine,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOut of the clod who have come and would climb from their mire to our heavens.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nYet are the heavenly seats not easy even for the chosen:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tRough and remote is that path; that ascent is too hard for the death-bound.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHard are God’s terms and few can meet them of men who are mortal.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tMind resists; their breath is a clog; by their tools they are hampered,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBlindly mistaking the throb of their mortal desires for our guidance.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHow shall they win in their earth to our skies who are clay and a life-wind,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBut that their hearts we invade? Our shocks on their lives come incessant,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tEase discourage and penetrate coarseness; sternness celestial<\/span><\/p>\n

\nForces their souls towards the skies and their bodies by anguish are sifted.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWe in the mortal wake an immortal strength by our tortures<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd by the flame of our lightnings choose out the vessels of godhead.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThis is the nature of earth that to blows she responds and by scourgings<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTravails excited; pain is the bed of her blossoms of pleasure.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tEarth that was wakened by pain to life and by hunger to thinking<\/span><\/p>\n

\nLeft to her joys rests inert and content with her gains and her station.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBut for the unbearable whips of the gods back soon to her matter<\/span><\/p>\n

\nShe would go glad and the goal would be missed and the aeons be wasted.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBut for the god in their breasts unsatisfied, but for his spurrings<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSoon would the hero turn beast and the sage reel back to the savage;<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tMan from his difficult heights would recoil and be mud in the earth-mud.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThis by pain we prevent; we compel his feet to the journey.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBut in their minds to impression made subject, by forms of things captured<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBlind is the thought and presumptuous the hope and they swerve from our goading;<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBlinded are human hearts by desire and fear and possession,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tDarkened is knowledge on earth by hope the helper of mortals.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n“Now too from earth and her children voices of anger and weeping<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBeat at our thrones; ’tis the grief and the wrath of fate-stricken creatures,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nMortals struggling with destiny, hearts that are slaves to their sorrow.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWe unmoved by the cry will fulfil our unvarying purpose.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTroy shall fall at last and the ancient ages shall perish.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\nYou who are lovers of Ilion turn from the moans of her people,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tChase from your hearts their prayers, blow back from your nostrils the
\nincense.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tLet not one nation resist by its glory the good of the ages.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTwilight thickens over man and he moves to his winter of darkness.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tTroy that displaced with her force and her arms the luminous ancients,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSinks in her turn by the ruder strength of the half-savage Achaians.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThey to the Hellene shall yield and the Hellene fall by the Roman.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nRome too shall not endure, but by strengths ill-shaped shall be broken,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tNations formed in the ice and mist, confused and crude-hearted.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSo shall the darker and ruder always prevail o’er the brilliant<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tTill in its turn to a ruder and darker it falls and is shattered.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSo shall mankind make speed to destroy what ’twas mighty creating.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tEver since knowledge failed and the ancient ecstasy slackened,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nLight has been helper to death and darkness increases the victor.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSo shall it last till the fallen ages return to their greatness.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nFor if the twilight be helped not, night o’er the world cannot darken;<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tNight forbidden how shall a greater dawn be effected?<\/span><\/p>\n

\nGods of the light who know and resist that the doomed may have succour,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAlways then shall desire and passion strive with Ananke?<\/span><\/p>\n

\nConquer the cry of your heart-strings that man too may conquer his sorrow,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tStilled in his yearnings. Cease, O ye gods, from the joy of rebellion.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOpen the eye of the soul, admit the voice of the Silence.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSo in the courts of Heaven august the Thunderer puissant<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSpoke to his sons in their souls and they heard him, mighty in silence.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThen to her brother divine the white-armed passionless Hera:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n“Zeus, we remember; thy sons forget, Apollo and Ares.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t“Hera, queen of the heavens, they forget not, but choose to be mindless.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThis is the greatness of gods that they know and can put back the knowledge;<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tDoing the work they have chosen they turn not for fruit nor for failure,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nGriefless they walk to their goal and strain not their eyes towards the ending.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tLight that they have they can lose with a smile, not as souls in the darkness<\/span><\/p>\n

\nClutch at every beam and mistake their one ray for all splendour.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAll things are by Time and the Will eternal that moves us,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd for each birth its hour is set in the night or the dawning.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThere is an hour for knowledge, an hour to forget and to labour.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\nGreat Cronion ceased and high in the heavenly silence<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 448<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

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\nRose in their midst the voice of the loud impetuous Ares<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSounding far in the luminous fields of his soul as with thunder.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n“Father, we know and we have not forgotten. This is our godhead,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tStill to strive and never to yield to the evil that conquers.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nI will not dwell with the Greeks nor aid them save forced by Ananke<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAnd because lives of the great and the blood of the strong are my portion.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThis too thou knowest, our nature enjoys in mankind its fulfilment.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWar is my nature and greatness and hardness, the necks of the vanquished;<\/span><\/p>\n

\nForce is my soul and strength is my bosom; I shout in the battle<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBreaking cities like toys and the nations are playthings of Ares:<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHither and thither I shove them and throw down or range on my table.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tConstancy most I love, nobility, virtue and courage;<\/span><\/p>\n

\nFugitive hearts I abhor and the nature fickle as sea-foam.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tNow if the ancient spirit of Titan battle is over,  \u2014
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nTros fights no more on the earth, nor now Heracles tramples and struggles,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBane of the hydra or slaying the Centaurs o’er Pelion driven, 
\n\t\t\t\u2014 <\/span> <\/p>\n

\nNow if the earth no more must be shaken by Titan horsehooves,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSince to a pettier framework all things are fitted consenting,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nYet will I dwell not in Greece nor favour the nurslings of Pallas.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tI will await the sons of my loins and the teats of the she-wolf,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nConsuls browed like the cliffs and plebeians stern of the wolf-brood,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSenates of kings and armies of granite that grow by disaster;<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSuch be the nation august that is fit for the favour of Ares!<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThey shall fulfil me and honour my mother, imperial Hera.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThen with an iron march they shall move to their world-wide dominion,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThrough the long centuries rule and at last because earth is impatient,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSlowly with haughtiness perish compelled by mortality’s transience<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tLeaving a Roman memory stamped on the ages of weakness.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBut to his son far-sounding the Father high of the Immortals:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t“So let it be since such is the will in thee, mightiest Ares;<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThou shalt till sunset prevail, O war-god, fighting for Troya.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSo he decreed and the soul of the Warrior sternly consented.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHe from his seats arose and down on the summits of Ida<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFlaming through Space in his cloud in a headlong glory descended,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nProne like a thunderbolt flaming down from the hand of the Father.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThence in his chariot drawn by living fire and by swiftness,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThundered down to earth’s plains the mighty impetuous Ares.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 449<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

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\nFar where Deiphobus stern was labouring stark and outnumbered<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSmiting the Achaian myriads back on the right of the carnage,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOver the hosts in his car he stood and darkened the Argives.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBut in the courts divine the Thunderer spoke to his children:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n“Ares resisting a present Fate for the hope of the future,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tGods, has gone forth from us. Choose thou thy paths, O my daughter,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nMore than thy brother assailed by the night that darkens o’er creatures.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tChoose the silence in heaven or choose the struggle mid mortals,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nGolden joy of the worlds, O thou roseate white Aphrodite.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThen with her starry eyes and bosom of bliss from the immortals<\/span><\/p>\n

\nGlowing and rosy-limbed cried the wonderful white Aphrodite,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tDrawing her fingers like flowers through the flowing gold of her tresses,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nCalm, discontented, her perfect mouth like a rose of resistance<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tChidingly budded ‘gainst Fate, a charm to their senses enamoured.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n“Well do I know thou hast given my world to Hera and Pallas.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWhat though my temples shall stand in Paphos and island Cythera<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd though the Greek be a priest for my thoughts and a lyre for my singing,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBeauty pursuing and light through the figures of grace and of
\n\t\t\trhythm,  \u2014 <\/span> <\/p>\n

\nForms shall he mould for men’s eyes that the earth has forgotten and mourns for,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nMould even the workings of Pallas to commune with Paphia’s sweetness,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tMould Hephaestus’ craft in the gaze of the gold Aphrodite,  \u2014
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nOnly my form he pursues that I wear for a mortal enchantment,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHe to whom now thou givest the world, the Ionian, the Hellene,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBut for my might is unfit which Babylon worshipped and Sidon<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPalely received from the past in images faint of the gladness<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOnce that was known by the children of men when the thrill of their members<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWas but the immortal joy of the spirit overflowing their bodies,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWine-cups of God’s desire; but their clay from my natural greatness<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFalters betrayed to pain, their delight they have turned into ashes.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nNor to my peaks shall he rise and the perfect fruit of my promptings,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThere where the senses swoon but the heart is delivered by rapture:<\/span><\/p>\n

\nNever my touch can cling to his soul nor reply from his heart-strings.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tOnce could my godhead surprise all the stars with the seas of its rapture;<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOnce the world in its orbit danced to a marvellous rhythm.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tMen in their limits, gods in their amplitudes answered my calling;<\/span><\/p>\n

\nLife was moved by a chant of delight that sang from the spaces,<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 450<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

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\nSang from the Soul of the Vast, its rapture clasping its creatures.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSweetly agreed my fire with their soil and their hearts were as altars.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPure were its crests; ’twas not dulled with earth, ’twas not lost in the hazes<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThen when the sons of earth and the daughters of heaven together<\/span><\/p>\n

\nMet on lone mountain peaks or, linked on wild beach and green meadow,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tTwining embraced. For I danced on Taygetus’ peaks and o’er Ida<\/span><\/p>\n

\nNaked and loosing my golden hair like a nimbus of glory<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tO’er a deep-ecstasied earth that was drunk with my roses and whiteness.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThere was no shrinking nor veil in our old Saturnian kingdoms.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tEquals were heaven and earth, twin gods on the lap of Dione.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nNow shall my waning greatness perish and pass out of Nature.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFor though the Romans, my children, shall grasp at the strength of their
\nmother,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThey shall not hold the god, but lose in unsatisfied orgies<\/span><\/p>\n

\nYet what the earth has kept of my joy, my glory, my puissance,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWho shall but drink for a troubled hour in the dusk of the sunset<\/span><\/p>\n

\nDregs of my wine Pandemian missing the Uranian sweetness.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSo shall the night descend on the greatness and rapture of living;<\/span><\/p>\n

\nCreeds that refuse shall persuade the world to revolt from its mother.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPallas’ adorers shall loathe me and Hera’s scorn me for lowness;<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBeauty shall pass from men’s work and delight from their play and their labour;<\/span><\/p>\n

\nEarth restored to the Cyclops shall shrink from the gold Aphrodite.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSo shall I live diminished, owned but by beasts in the forest,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBirds of the air and the gods in their heavens, but disgraced in the mortal.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThen to the discontented rosy-mouthed Aphrodite<\/span><\/p>\n

\nZeus replied, the Father divine: “O goddess Astarte,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWhat are these thoughts thou hast suffered to wing from thy rose-mouth
\nimmortal?<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBees that sting and delight are the words from thy lips, Cytherea.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nArt thou not womb of the world and from thee are the thronging of creatures?<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd didst thou cease the worlds too would cease and the aeons be ended.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSuffer my Greeks; accept who accept thee, O gold Dionaean.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThey in the works of their craft and their dreams shall enthrone thee for ever,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBuilding thee temples in Paphos and Eryx and island Cythera,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBuilding the fane more enduring and bright of thy golden ideal.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 451<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

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\nEven if natures of men could renounce thee and God do without thee,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tRose of love and sea of delight, O my child Aphrodite,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nStill wouldst thou live in the worship they gave thee protected from fading,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSplendidly statued and shrined in men’s works and men’s thoughts,
\nCytherea.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPleased and blushing with bliss of her praise and the thought of her
\nempire<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAnswered, as cries a harp in heaven, the gold Aphrodite:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n“Father, I know and I spoke but to hear from another my praises.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tI am the womb of the world and the cause of this teeming of creatures,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd if discouraged I ceased, God’s world would lose heart and would perish.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHow will you do then without me your works of wisdom and greatness,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHera, queen of heaven, and thou, O my sister Athene?<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tYes, I shall reign and endure though the pride of my workings be conquered.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWhat though no second Helen find a second Paris,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tLost though their glories of form to the earth, though their confident gladness<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPass from a race misled and forgetting the sap that it sprang from,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThey are eternal in man in the worship of beauty and rapture.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nEver while earth is embraced by the sun and hot with his kisses<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAnd while a Will supernal works through the passions of Nature,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nMe shall men seek with my light or their darkness, sweetly or crudely,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tCold on the ice of the north or warm in the heats of the southland,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSlowly enduring my touch or with violence rapidly burning.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tI am the sweetness of living, I am the touch of the Master.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nLove shall die bound to my stake like a victim adorned as for bridal,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tLife shall be bathed in my flames and be purified gold or be ashes.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nI, Aphrodite, shall move the world for ever and ever.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tYet now since most to me, Father of all, the ages arriving,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHostile, rebuke my heart and turn from my joy and my sweetness,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tI will resist and not yield, nor care what I do, so I conquer.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOften I curbed my mood for your sakes and was gracious and kindly,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tOften I lay at Hera’s feet and obeyed her commandments<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTranquil and proud or o’ercome by a honeyed and ancient compulsion<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFawned on thy pureness and served thy behests, O my sister Pallas.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nDeep was the love that united us, happy the wrestle and clasping;<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tLove divided, Love united, Love was our mover.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBut since you now overbear and would scourge me and chain and control me,<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 452<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

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\nWar I declare on you all, O my Father and brothers and sisters.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHenceforth I do my will as the joy in me prompts or the anger.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nRanging the earth with my beauty and passion and golden enjoyments<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAll whom I can, I will bind; I will drive at the bliss of my workings,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWhether men’s hearts are seized by the joy or seized by the torture.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tMost I will plague your men, your worshippers and in my malice<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBreak up your works with confusion divine, O my mother and sister;<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThen shall you fume and resist and be helpless and pine with my torments.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nYet will I never relent but always be sweet and malignant,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tCruel and tyrannous, hurtful and subtle, a charm and a torture.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThou too, O father Zeus, shalt always be vexed with my doings;<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tCalled in each moment to judge thou shalt chafe at our cry and our quarrels,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOften grope for thy thunderbolt, often frown magisterial<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tJoining in vain thy awful brows o’er thy turbulent children.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nYet in thy wrath recall my might and my wickedness, Father;<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHurt me not then too much lest the world and thyself too should suffer.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSave, O my Father, life and grace and the charm of the senses;<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tLove preserve lest the heart of the world grow dulled and forsaken.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSmiling her smile immortal of love and of mirth and of malice<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWhite Aphrodite arose in her loveliness armed for the conflict.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nGolden and careless and joyous she went like a wild bird that winging<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFlits from bough to bough and resumes its chant interrupted.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nLove where her white feet trod bloomed up like a flower from the spaces;<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tMad round her touches billowed incessantly laughter and rapture.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThrilled with her feet was the bosom of Space, for her amorous motion<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFloated, a flower on the wave of her bliss or swayed like the lightning.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nRich as a summer fruit and fresh as Spring’s blossoms her body<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tGleaming and blushing, veiled and bare and with ecstasy smiting<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBurned out rosy and white through her happy ambrosial raiment,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tGolden-tressed and a charm, her bosom a fragrance and peril.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSo was she framed to the gaze as she came from the seats of the Mighty,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSo embodied she visits the hearts of men and their dwellings<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd in her breathing tenement laughs at the eyes that can see her.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSwift-footed down to the Troad she hastened thrilling the earth-gods.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThere with ambrosial secrecy veiled, admiring the heroes<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tStrong and beautiful, might of the warring and glory of armour,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOver her son Aeneas she stood, his guard in the battle.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\n
\nPage \u2013 453<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

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\nBut in the courts divine the Thunderer spoke mid his children:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t“Thou for a day and a night and another day and a nightfall,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWhite Aphrodite, prevail; o’er thee too the night is extended.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tShe has gone forth who made men like gods in their glory and gladness.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nNow in the darkness coming all beauty must wane or be tarnished;<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tJoy shall fade and mighty Love grow fickle and fretful;<\/span><\/p>\n

\nEven as a child that is scared in the night, he shall shake in his chambers.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tYet shall a portion be kept for these, Ares and white Aphrodite.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThou whom already thy Pythoness bears not, torn by thy advent,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tCaverned already who sittest in Delphi knowing thy future,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWhat wilt thou do with the veil and the night, O burning Apollo?”<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThen from the orb of his glory unbearable save to immortals<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBright and austere replied the beautiful mystic Apollo:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t“Zeus, I know that I fade; already the night is around me.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nDusk she extends her reign and obscures my lightnings with error.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tTherefore my prophets mislead men’s hearts to the ruin appointed,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTherefore Cassandra cries in vain to her sire and her brothers.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAll I endure I foresee and the strength in me waits for its coming;<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAll I foresee I approve; for I know what is willed, O Cronion.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tYet is the fierce strength wroth in my breast at the need of approval<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd for the human race fierce pity works in my bosom;<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWroth is my splendid heart with the cowering knowledge of mortals,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWroth are my burning eyes with the purblind vision of reason.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tI will go forth from your seats and descend to the night among mortals<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThere to guard the flame and the mystery; vast in my moments<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tRare and sublime to sound like a sea against Time and its limits,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nCry like a spirit in pain in the hearts of the priest and the poet,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tCry against limits set and disorder sanities bounded.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nJealous for truth to the end my might shall prevail and for ever<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tShatter the moulds that men make to imprison their limitless spirits.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nDire, overpowering the brain I shall speak out my oracles splendid.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThen in their ages of barren light or lucidity fruitful<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWhenso the clear gods think they have conquered earth and its mortals,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHidden God from all eyes, they shall wake from their dream and recoiling<\/span><\/p>\n

\nStill they shall find in their paths the fallen and darkened Apollo.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSo he spoke, repressing his dreadful might in his bosom,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd from their high seats passed, his soul august and resplendent<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 454<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/font>\n\t\t\t<\/td>\n

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

  BOOK VIII   The Book of the Gods   So on the earth the seed that was sown of the centuries ripened; Europe and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-02-collected-poems","wpcat-57-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2986","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=2986"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2986\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}