{"id":3299,"date":"2013-07-13T01:47:18","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:47:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=3299"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:47:18","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:47:18","slug":"21-book-10-canto-1-the-dream-twilight-of-the-ideal-vol-02-savitri-1951","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/02-other-editions\/01-savitri\/02-savitri-1951\/21-book-10-canto-1-the-dream-twilight-of-the-ideal-vol-02-savitri-1951","title":{"rendered":"-21_Book 10 Canto 1 The Dream Twilight of The Ideal.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\nBOOK TEN<\/b><\/i><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nThe Book of the Double Twilight<\/b><\/i><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

CANTO ONE<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nTHE DREAM TWILIGHT OF THE IDEAL<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\t\t\t <\/td>\n\n

\nALL still was darkness dread and
\ndesolate; <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nThere was no change nor any hope of
\nchange.<\/P><\/p>\n

\nIn this black dream which was a house of Void,<\/p>\n

\nA walk to Nowhere in a land of Nought,<\/p>\n

\nEver they drifted without aim or goal; <\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nGloom led to worse gloom, death to
\nan emptier death,<\/P><\/p>\n

\nIn some positive Non-Being's purposeless Vast<\/p>\n

\nThrough formless wastes dumb and unknowable.<\/p>\n

\nAn ineffectual beam of suffering light<\/p>\n

\nThrough the despairing darkness dogged their steps<\/p>\n

\nLike the remembrance of a glory lost; <\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nEven while it grew, it seemed
\nunreal there, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nYet haunted Nihil's chill
\nstupendous realm, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nUnquenchable, perpetual, lonely,
\nnull, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nA pallid ghost of some dead
\neternity. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nIt was as if she must pay now her
\ndebt, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nHer vain presumption to exist and
\nthink, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nTo some brilliant Maya that
\nconceived her soul. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nThis most she must absolve with
\nendless pangs, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nHer deep original sin, the will to
\nbe <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nAnd the sin last, greatest, the
\nspiritual pride, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nThat, made of dust, equalled itself
\nwith heaven, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nIts scorn of the worm writhing in
\nthe mud, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nCondemned, ephemeral, born from
\nNature's dream, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nRefusal of the transient creature's
\nrole, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nThe claim to be a living fire of
\nGod, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nThe will to be immortal and divine. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nIn that tremendous darkness heavy
\nand bare <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nShe atoned for all since the first
\nact whence sprang <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nThe error of the consciousness of
\nTime, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n

Page  233<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nThe rending of the Inconscient's
\nseal of sleep,<\/P><\/p>\n

\nThe primal and unpardoned revolt that broke<\/p>\n

\nThe peace and silence of the Nothingness<\/p>\n

\nWhich was before a seeming universe<\/p>\n

\nAppeared in a vanity of imagined space<\/p>\n

\nAnd life arose engendering grief and pain: <\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nA great Negation was the Real's
\nface<\/P><\/p>\n

\nProhibiting the vain process of Time: <\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nAnd when there is no world, no
\ncreature more,<\/P><\/p>\n

\nWhen Time's intrusion has been blotted out,<\/p>\n

\nIt shall last, unbodied, saved from thought, at peace.<\/p>\n

\nAccursed in what had been her godhead source,<\/p>\n

\nCondemned to live for ever empty of bliss,<\/p>\n

\nHer immortality her chastisement,<\/p>\n

\nHer spirit, guilty of being, wandered doomed,<\/p>\n

\nMoving for ever through eternal Night.<\/p>\n

\nBut Maya is a veil of the Absolute; <\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nTruth occult has made this mighty
\nworld!-<\/P><\/p>\n

\nThe Eternal's wisdom and self-knowledge act<\/p>\n

\nIn ignorant Mind and in the body's steps.<\/p>\n

\nThe Inconscient is the Superconscient's sleep.<\/p>\n

\nAn unintelligible Intelligence<\/p>\n

\nInvents creation's paradox profound; <\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nSpiritual thought is crammed in
\nMatter's forms,<\/P><\/p>\n

\nUnseen it throws out a dumb energy<\/p>\n

\nAnd works a miracle by a machine.<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/font><\/p>\n

\nAll<\/font>
\nhere is a mystery of contraries: <\/p>\n

\nDarkness a magic of self-hidden light,<\/p>\n

\nSuffering some secret rapture's tragic mask<\/p>\n

\nAnd death an instrument of perpetual life<\/p>\n

\nAlthough Death walks beside us on Life's road,<\/p>\n

\nA dim bystander at the body's start<\/p>\n

\nAnd a last Judgment on man's futile works,<\/p>\n

\nOther is the riddle of its ambiguous face: <\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nDeath is a stair, a door, a
\nstumbling stride<\/P><\/p>\n

\nThe soul must take to cross from birth to birth,<\/p>\n

\nA grey defeat pregnant with victory,<\/p>\n

\nA whip to lash us towards our deathless state.<\/p>\n

\nThe inconscient world is the spirit's self-made room,<\/p>\n

\n"Eternal Night shadow of eternal Day. <\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nPage  234<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nNight is not our beginning nor our
\nend; <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nShe is the dark Mother in whose
\nwomb we have hid<\/P><\/p>\n

\nSafe from too swift a waking to world-pain.<\/p>\n

\nWe came to her from a supernal Light,<\/p>\n

<\/P> <\/p>\n

\nBy Light we live and to the Light we go<\/p>\n

<\/P> <\/font><\/p>\n

\nHere in this seat of Darkness mute
\nand lone,<\/p>\n

\nIn the heart of everlasting Nothingness<\/p>\n

\nLight conquered now even by that feeble beam: <\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nIts faint infiltration drilled the
\nblind deaf mass; <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nAlmost it changed into a glimmering
\nsight<\/P><\/p>\n

\nThat housed the phantom of an aureate Sun<\/p>\n

\nWhose orb pupilled the eye of Nothingness.<\/p>\n

\nA golden fire came in and burnt Night's heart; <\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nHer dusky mindlessness began to
\ndream; <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nThe Inconscient conscious grew.
\nNight felt and thought. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nAssailed in the sovereign emptiness
\nof its reign <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nThe intolerant Darkness paled and
\ndrew apart <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nTill only a few black remnants
\nstained that Ray. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nBut on a failing edge of dumb lost
\nspace <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nStill a great dragon body sullenly
\nloomed; <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nAdversary of the slow struggling
\nDawn<\/P><\/p>\n

\nDefending its ground of tortured mystery,<\/p>\n

\nIt trailed its coils through the dead martyred air<\/p>\n

\nAnd curving fled down a grey slope of Time. <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n     There is a
\nmorning twilight of the gods; <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nMiraculous from sleep their forms
\narise<\/P><\/p>\n

\nAnd God's long nights are justified by dawn,<\/p>\n

\nThere breaks a passion and splendour of new birth<\/p>\n

\nAnd hue-winged visions stray across the lids,<\/p>\n

\nThe dreaming deities look beyond the seen<\/p>\n

\nAnd fashion in their thoughts the ideal worlds<\/p>\n

\nSprung from a limitless moment of desire<\/p>\n

\nThat once had lodged in some abysmal heart.<\/p>\n

\nPassed was the heaviness of the eyeless dark<\/p>\n

\nAnd all the sorrow of the night was dead: <\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nSurprised by a blind joy with
\ngroping hands<\/P><\/p>\n

\nLike one who wakes to find his dreams were true,<\/p>\n

\nInto a happy misty twilit world<\/p>\n

\nWhere all ran after light and joy and love <\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nPage  235<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nShe slipped; there far-off raptures
\ndrew more close <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nAnd deep anticipations of delight <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nFor ever eager to be grasped and
\nheld, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nWere never grasped, yet breathed
\nstrange ecstasy. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nA pearl-winged indistinctness
\nfleeting swam, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nAn air that dared not suffer too
\nmuch light. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nVague fields were there, vague
\npastures gleaned, vague trees, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nVague scenes dim-hearted in a
\ndrifting haze; <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nVague cattle white roamed
\nglimmering through the mist; <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nVague spirits wandered with a
\nbodiless cry,<\/P><\/p>\n

\nVague melodies touched the soul and fled pursued<\/p>\n

\nInto harmonious distances unseized; <\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nForms subtly elusive and
\nhalf-luminous powers<\/P><\/p>\n

\nWishing no goal for their unearthly course<\/p>\n

\nStrayed happily through vague ideal lands<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/font><\/p>\n

\nOr floated without footing or their
\nwalk<\/p>\n

\nLeft steps of reverie on sweet memory's ground; <\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nOr they paced to the mighty measure
\nof their thoughts <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nLed by a low far chanting of the
\ngods. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nA ripple of gleaming wings crossed
\nthe far sky; <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nBirds like pale-bosomed
\nimaginations flew <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nWith low disturbing voices of
\ndesire, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nAnd half-heard lowings drew the
\nlistening ear, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nAs if the Sun-god's brilliant kine
\nwere there <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nHidden in mist and passing towards
\nthe sun. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nThese fugitive beings, these
\nelusive shapes <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nWere all that claimed the eye and
\nmet the soul, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nThe natural inhabitants of that
\nworld. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nBut nothing there was fixed or
\nstayed for long; <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nNo mortal feet could rest upon that
\nsoil,<\/P><\/p>\n

\nNo breath of life lingered embodied there.<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/font><\/p>\n

\nIn that fine chaos joy fled dancing
\npast<\/p>\n

\nAnd beauty evaded settled line and form<\/p>\n

\nAnd hid its sense in mysteries of hue; <\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nYet gladness ever repeated the same
\nnotes<\/P><\/p>\n

\nAnd gave the sense of an enduring world; <\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n There was a strange consistency of shapes,<\/P><\/p>\n

\nAnd the same thoughts were constant passers-by<\/p>\n

\nAnd all renewed unendingly its charm<\/p>\n

\nAlluring ever the expectant heart <\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

Page  236<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nLike music that one always waits to hear<\/p>\n

\nLike the recurrence of a haunting rhyme.<\/p>\n

\nOne touched incessantly things never seized,<\/p>\n

\nA skirt of worlds invisibly divine.<\/p>\n

\nAs if a trail of disappearing stars<\/p>\n

\nThere showered upon the floating atmosphere<\/p>\n

\nColours and lights and evanescent gleams<\/p>\n

\nThat called to follow into magic heaven,<\/p>\n

\nAnd in each cry that fainted on the ear<\/p>\n

\nThere was the voice of an unrealised bliss.<\/p>\n

\nAn adoration reigned in the yearning heart,<\/p>\n

\nA spirit of purity, an elusive presence<\/p>\n

\nOf faery beauty and ungrasped delight<\/p>\n

\nWhose momentary and escaping thrill,<\/p>\n

\nHowever unsubstantial to our flesh,<\/p>\n

\nAnd brief even in imperishableness,<\/p>\n

\nMuch sweeter seemed than any rapture known<\/p>\n

\nEarth or all-conquering heaven can ever give.<\/p>\n

\nHeaven ever young and earth too firm and old<\/p>\n

\nDelay the heart by immobility: <\/font><\/p>\n

\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

\n

\nTheir raptures of creation last too
\nlong,<\/P><\/p>\n

\nTheir bold formations are too absolute; <\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nCarved by an anguish of divine
\nendeavour<\/P><\/p>\n

\nThey stand up sculptured on the eternal hills,<\/p>\n

\nOr quarried from the living rocks of God<\/p>\n

\nWin immortality by perfect form.<\/p>\n

\nThey are too intimate with eternal things: <\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nVessels of infinite significances, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nThey are too clear, too great, too
\nmeaningful; <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nNo mist or shadow soothes the
\nvanquished sight,<\/P><\/p>\n

\nNo soft penumbra of incertitude.<\/p>\n

\nThese only touch a golden hem of bliss,<\/p>\n

\nThe gleaming shoulder of some godlike hope,<\/p>\n

\nThe flying feet of exquisite desires.<\/p>\n

\nOn a slow trembling brink between night and day<\/p>\n

\nThey shone like visitants from the morning star,<\/p>\n

\nSatisfied beginnings of perfection, first<\/p>\n

\nTremulous imaginings of a heavenly world: <\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nThey mingle in a passion of
\npursuit,<\/P><\/p>\n

\nThrilled with a spray of joy too slight to tire.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

Page 237<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nAll in this world was shadowed
\nforth, not limned, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nLike faces leaping on a fan of fire <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nOr shapes of wonder in a tinted
\nblur, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nLike fugitive landscapes painting
\nsilver mists. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nHere vision fled back from the
\nsight alarmed, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nAnd sound sought refuge from the
\near's surprise, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nAnd all experience was a hasty joy. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nThe joys here snatched were
\nhalf-forbidden things, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nTimorous soul-bridals delicately
\nveiled <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nAs when a goddess' bosom dimly
\nmoves <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nTo first desire and her white soul
\ntransfigured, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nA glimmering Eden crossed by fairy
\ngleams, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nTrembles to expectation's fiery
\nwand, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nBut nothing is familiar yet with
\nbliss. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nAll things in this fair realm were
\nheavenly strange <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nIn a fleeting gladness of untired
\ndelight, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nIn an insistency of magic change. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nPast vanishing hedges, hurrying
\nhints of fields, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nMid swift escaping lanes that fled
\nher feet <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nJourneying she wished no end: as
\none through clouds <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nTravels upon a mountain ridge and
\nhears <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nArising to him out of hidden depths <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nSound of invisible streams, she
\nwalked besieged <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nBy the illusion of a mystic space, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nA charm of bodiless touches felt
\nand heard <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nA sweetness as of voices high and
\ndim <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nCalling like travellers upon
\nseeking winds <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nMelodiously with an alluring cry. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nAs if a music old yet ever new, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nMoving suggestions on her
\nheart-strings dwelt, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nThoughts that no habitation found,
\nyet clung <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nWith passionate repetition to her
\nmind, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nDesires that hurt not, happy only
\nto live <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nAlways the same and always
\nunfulfilled <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nSang in the breast like a celestial
\nlyre. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nThus all could last, yet nothing
\never be. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nIn this beauty as of mind made
\nvisible, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nDressed in its rays of wonder
\nSatyavan <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nBefore her seemed the centre of its
\ncharm, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nHead of her loveliness of longing
\ndreams <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nPage 238<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nAnd captain of the fancies of her
\nsoul. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nEven the dreadful majesty of
\nDeath's face <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nAnd its sombre sadness could not
\ndarken nor slay <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nThe intangible lustre of those
\nfleeting skies. . <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nThe sombre Shadow sullen,
\nimplacable <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nMade beauty and laughter more
\nimperative; <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nEnhanced by his grey, joy grew more
\nbright and dear; <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nHis dark contrast edging ideal
\nsight<\/P><\/p>\n

\nDeepened unuttered meanings to the heart; <\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nPain grew a trembling undertone of
\nbliss <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nAnd transience immortality's
\nfloating hem, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nA moment's robe in which she looked
\nmore fair, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nIts antithesis sharpening her
\ndivinity.  <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nA comrade of the Ray and Mist and
\nFlame, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nBy a moon-bright face a brilliant
\nmoment drawn, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nAlmost she seemed a thought mid
\nfloating thoughts, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nSeen hardly by a visionary mind <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nAmid the white inward musings of
\nthe soul <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nHalf-vanquished by the
\ndream-happiness around, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nAwhile she moved on an
\nenchantment's soil, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nBut still remained possessor of her
\nsoul. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nAbove, her spirit in its mighty
\ntrance <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nSaw all, but lived for its
\ntranscendent task, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nImmutable like a fixed eternal
\nstar. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nPage 239<\/font><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BOOK TEN   The Book of the Double Twilight   CANTO ONE   THE DREAM TWILIGHT OF THE IDEAL     ALL still was darkness…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-02-savitri-1951","wpcat-73-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3299","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=3299"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3299\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}