{"id":3434,"date":"2013-07-13T01:48:26","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:48:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=3434"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:48:26","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:48:26","slug":"44-book-nine-canto-two-vol-03-savitri-1954","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/02-other-editions\/01-savitri\/03-savitri-1954\/44-book-nine-canto-two-vol-03-savitri-1954","title":{"rendered":"-44_Book_Nine_Canto_Two.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n
 <\/td>\n\n

\n

<\/p>\n

CANTO TWO<\/font> <\/font>
\n<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

\nTHE JOURNEY IN ETERNAL NIGHT AND<\/font><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\nTHE VOICE OF THE DARKNESS<\/font><\/b><\/span><\/font>
\n<\/font><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

A<\/font> WHILE<\/font><\/b><\/span> on the chill dreadful edge of Night<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAll stood as if a world were doomed to die<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd waited on the eternal silence’ brink.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHeaven leaned towards them like a cloudy brow<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOf menace through the dim and voiceless hush.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAs thoughts stand mute on a despairing verge<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWhere the last depths plunge into nothingness<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd the last dreams must end, they paused; in their front<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWere glooms like shadowy wings, behind them pale<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe lifeless evening was a dead man’s gaze.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHungry beyond, the night desired her soul.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBut still in its lone niche of templed strength<\/span><\/p>\n

\nMotionless, her flame-bright spirit, mute, erect,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBurned like a torch-fire from a windowed room<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPointing against the darkness’ sombre breast.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe Woman first affronted the Abyss<\/span><\/p>\n

\nDaring to journey through the eternal Night.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nArmoured with light she advanced her foot to plunge<\/span><\/p>\n

\nInto the dread and hueless vacancy;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Immortal, unappalled her spirit faced<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

The danger of the ruthless eyeless waste.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Against night’s inky ground they stirred, moulding <\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/font>
\nPage \u2013 657<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

Mysterious motion on her human tread,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA swimming action and a drifting march<\/span><\/p>\n

\nLike figures moving before eyelids closed:<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

All as in dreams went slipping, gliding on.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe rock-gate’s heavy walls were left behind;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

As if through passages of receding time<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe present and past into the Timeless lapsed;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Arrested upon dim adventure’s brink,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe future ended drowned in nothingness.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAmid collapsing shapes they wound obscure;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

The fading vestibules of a tenebrous world<\/span><\/p>\n

\nReceived them, where they seemed to move and yet<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBe still, nowhere advancing yet to pass,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA dumb procession a dim picture bounds,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nNot conscious forms threading a real scene.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA mystery of terror’s boundlessness,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nGathering its hungry strength the huge pitiless void<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSurrounded slowly with its soundless depths,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd monstrous, cavernous, a shapeless throat<\/span><\/p>\n

\nDevoured her into its shadowy strangling mass,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe fierce spiritual agony of a dream.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA curtain of unpenetrable dread,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe darkness hung around her cage of sense<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAs when the trees have turned to blotted shades<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd the last friendly glimmer fades away,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAround a bullock in the forest tied<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBy hunters closes in no empty night.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe thought that strives in the world was here unmade;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Its effort it renounced to live and know,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nConvinced at last that it had never been;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

It perished, all its dream of action done:<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

This clotted cypher was its dark result.<\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

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

\nPage \u2013 658<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

<\/p>\n

In the smothering stress of this
\nstupendous Nought<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Mind could not think, breath could not breathe, the sold<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Could not remember or feel itself; it seemed<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

A hollow gulf of sterile emptiness,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

A zero oblivious of the sum it closed,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

An abnegation of the Maker’s joy<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Saved by no wide repose, no depth of peace.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

On all that claims here to be Truth and God<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

And conscious self and the revealing Word<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

And the creative rapture of the Mind<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

And Love and Knowledge and heart’s delight, there fell<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

The immense refusal of the eternal No.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

As disappears a golden lamp in gloom<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Borne into distance from the eye’s desire,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Into the shadows vanished Savitri.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

There was no course, no path, no end or goal:<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Visionless she moved amid insensible gulfs,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Or drove through some great black unknowing Waste<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Or whirled in a dumb eddy of meeting winds<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Assembled by the titan hands of Chance.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

There was none with her in the dreadful Vast:<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

She saw no more the vague tremendous god,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Her eyes had lost their luminous Satyavan.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Yet not for this her spirit failed, but held<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

More deeply than the bounded senses can<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Which grasp externally and find to lose<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Its object loved. So when on earth they lived<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

She had felt him straying through the glades, the glades<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

A scene in her, its clefts her being’s vistas<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Opening their secrets to his search and joy,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Because to jealous sweetness in her heart<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Whatever happy space his cherished feet<\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

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

\nPage \u2013 659<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nPreferred, must be at once her soul embracing<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

His body, passioning dumbly to his tread.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

But now a silent gulf between them came<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

And to abysmal loneliness she fell,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nEven from herself cast out, from love remote.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Long hours, since long it seems when sluggish time<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Is measured by the throbs of the soul’s pain,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

In an unreal darkness empty and drear<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

She travelled treading on the corpse of life,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Lost in a blindness of extinguished souls.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Solitary in the anguish of the void<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nShe lived in spite of death, she conquered still;<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

In vain her puissant being was oppressed:<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Her heavy long monotony of pain<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTardily of its fierce self-torture tired.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAt first a faint inextinguishable gleam,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPale but immortal, flickered in the gloom<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAs if a memory came to spirits dead,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA memory that wished to live again,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nDissolved from mind in Nature’s natal sleep.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIt wandered like a lost ray of the moon<\/span><\/p>\n

\nRevealing to the night her soul of dread;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Serpentine in the gleam the darkness lolled,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIts black hoods jewelled with the mystic glow;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Its dull sleek folds shrank back and coiled and slid,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAs though they felt all light a cruel pain<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd suffered from the pale approach of hope.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nNight felt assailed her heavy sombre reign;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

The splendour of some bright eternity<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThreatened with this faint beam of wandering Truth<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHer empire of the everlasting Nought.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nImplacable in her intolerant strength<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

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

\nPage \u2013 660<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

And confident that she alone was true,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nShe strove to stifle the frail dangerous ray;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Aware of an all-negating immensity<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

She reared her giant head of Nothingness,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Her mouth of darkness swallowing all that is;<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

She saw in herself the tenebrous Absolute.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBut still the light prevailed and still it grew,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd Savitri to her lost self awoke;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Her limbs refused the cold embrace of death,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHer heart-beats triumphed in the grasp of pain;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Her soul persisted claiming for its joy<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

The soul of the beloved now seen no more.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Before her in the stillness of the world<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Once more she heard the treading of a god,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

And out of the dumb darkness Satyavan,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Her husband, grew into a luminous shade.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Then a sound pealed through that dead monstrous realm:<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Vast like the surge in a tired swimmer’s ears,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Clamouring, a fatal iron-hearted roar,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Death missioned to the night his lethal call.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

"This is my silent dark immensity,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

This is the home of everlasting Night,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

This is the secrecy of Nothingness<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Entombing the vanity of life’s desires.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Hast thou beheld thy source, O transient heart,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

And known from what the dream thou art was made?<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

In this stark sincerity of nude emptiness<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Hopest thou still always to last and love?"<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

The Woman answered not. Her spirit refused<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

The voice of the Night that knew and Death that thought.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

In her beginningless infinity<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Through her soul’s reaches unconfined she gazed; .<\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

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

\nPage \u2013 661<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

She saw the undying fountains of her life,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nShe knew herself eternal without birth.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBut still opposing her with endless night<\/span><\/p>\n

\nDeath, the dire god, inflicted on her eyes<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe immortal calm of his tremendous gaze:<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

"Although thou hast survived the unborn void<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nWhich never shall forgive, while Time endures,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nThe primal violence that fashioned thought,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nForcing the immobile Vast to suffer and live<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

This sorrowful victory only hast thou won<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

To live for a little without Satyavan.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

What shall the ancient goddess give to thee<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nWho helps thy heart-beats? Only she prolongs<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

The nothing dreamed existence and delays<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

With the labour of living thy eternal sleep.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

A fragile miracle of thinking clay,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nArmed with illusions walks the child of Time.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

To fill the void around he feels and dreads,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nThe void he came from and to which he goes,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

He magnifies his self and names it God.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nHe calls the heavens to help his suffering hopes.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

He sees above him with a longing heart<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Bare spaces more unconscious than himself<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

That have not even his privilege of mind<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

And empty of all but their unreal blue<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

And peoples them with bright and merciful powers.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nFor the sea roars around him and earth quakes<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Beneath his steps, and fire is at his doors,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

And death prowls baying through the woods of life.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nMoved by the Presences with which he yearns,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

He offers in implacable shrines his soul<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nAnd clothes all with the beauty of his dreams.<\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

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

\nPage \u2013 662<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

The gods who watch the earth with sleepless eyes<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd guide its giant stumblings through the void,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHave given to man the burden of his mind;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

In his unwilling heart they have lit their fires<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

And sown in it incurable unrest.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

His mind is a hunter upon tracks unknown;<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Amusing Time with vain discovery,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHe deepens with thought the mystery of his fate<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd turns to song his laughter and his tears.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHis mortality vexing with the immortal’s dreams,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTroubling his transience with the infinite’s breath<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThey gave him hungers which no food can fill;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

He is the cattle of the shepherd gods.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHis body the tether with which he is tied,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThey cast for fodder grief and hope and joy:<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

His pasture ground they have fenced with Ignorance.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Into his fragile undefended breast<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

They have breathed a courage that is met by death,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

They have given a wisdom that is mocked by night,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

They have traced a journey that foresees no goal.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Aimless man toils in an uncertain world<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Lulled by inconstant pauses of his pain,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Scourged like a beast by the infinite desire,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Bound to the chariot of the dreadful gods.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

But if thou still canst hope and still wouldst love,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Return to thy body’s shell they tie to earth,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

And with thy heart’s little remnants try to live.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Hope not to win back to thee Satyavan.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Yet since thy strength deserves no trivial crown,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Gifts I can give to soothe thy wounded life.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

The pacts which transient beings make with fate,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

And the wayside sweetness earth-bound hearts would pluck,<\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

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

\nPage \u2013 663<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

These if thy will accepts make freely thine.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nChoose a life’s hopes for thy deceiving prize."<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAs ceased the ruthless and tremendous Voice,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nUnendingly there rose in Savitri<\/span><\/p>\n

\nLike moonlit ridges on a shuddering flood<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA stir of thoughts out of some silence born<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAcross the sea of her dumb fathomless heart.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAt last she spoke; her voice was heard by Night:<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

"I bow not to thee,
\nO huge mask of Death,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBlack lie of night to the cowed soul of man,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nUnreal, inescapable end of things,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThou grim jest played with the immortal spirit.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nConscious of immortality I walk.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA victor spirit conscious of my force,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nNot as a suppliant to thy gates I came:<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Unslain I have survived the clutch of Night.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nMy first strong grief moves not my seated mind;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

My unwept tears have turned to pearls of strength:<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

I have transformed my ill-shaped brittle clay ,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nInto the hardness of a statued soul.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nNow in the wrestling of the splendid gods<\/span><\/p>\n

\nMy spirit shall be obstinate and strong<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAgainst the vast refusals of the world.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nI stoop not with the subject mob of minds<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWho run to glean with eager satisfied hands<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd pick from its mire mid many trampling feet<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIts scornful small concessions to the weak.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nMine is the labour of the battling gods:<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Imposing on the slow reluctant years<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe flaming will that reigns beyond the stars,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThey lay the law of Mind on Matter’s works<\/span><\/p>\n

\n– And win the soul’s wish from earth’s inconscient force.<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/font>
\nPage \u2013 664<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

First I demand whatever Satyavan,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nMy husband, waking in the forest’s charm<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOut of his long pure childhood’s lonely dreams,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nDesired and had not for his beautiful life.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nGive, if thou must, or if thou canst, refuse."<\/span><\/p>\n

\nDeath bowed his head in scornful cold assent,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe builder of this dreamlike earth for man<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWho has mocked with vanity all gifts he gave.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nUplifting his disastrous voice he spoke:<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

"Indulgent to the dreams my touch shall break,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nI yield to his blind father’s longing heart<\/span><\/p>\n

\nKingdom and power and friends and greatness lost<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd royal trappings for his peaceful age,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe pallid pomps of man’s declining days,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe silvered decadent glories of life’s fall.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTo one who wiser grew by adverse fate,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nGoods I restore the deluded soul prefers<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTo impersonal nothingness’s bare sublime.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe sensuous solace of the light I give<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTo eyes which could have found a larger realm,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA deeper vision in their fathomless night.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nFor that this man desired and asked in vain<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWhile still he lived on earth and cherished hope.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBack from the grandeur of my perilous realms<\/span><\/p>\n

\nGo, mortal, to thy small permitted sphere!<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHasten swift-footed, lest to slay thy life<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe great laws thou hast violated, moved,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOpen at last on thee their marble eyes."<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBut Savitri answered the disdainful Shade:<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

"World-spirit, I was thy equal spirit born.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

I am immortal in my mortality.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

I tremble not before the immobile gaze<\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

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

\nPage \u2013 665<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Of the unchanging marble hierarchies<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nThat look with the stone eyes of Law and Fate.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

My soul can meet them with its living fire.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Out of thy shadow give me back again<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Into earth’s flowering spaces Satyavan<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

In the sweet transiency of human limbs<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

To do with him my spirit’s burning will.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nI will bear with him the ancient Mother’s load,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

I will follow with him earth’s path that leads to God.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Else shall the eternal spaces open to me<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

While round us strange horizons far recede,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Travelling together the immense unknown.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nFor I who have trod with him the tracts of Time,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Can meet behind his steps whatever night<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Or unimaginable stupendous dawn<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Breaks on our spirits in the untrod Beyond.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nWherever thou leadst his soul I shall pursue."<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

But to her claim opposed, implacable,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Insisting on the immutable Decree,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Insisting on the immitigable Law<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

And the insignificance of created things,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Out of the rolling wastes of night there came<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nBorn from the enigma of the unknowable depths<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

A voice of majesty and appalling scorn.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

As when the storm-haired Titan-striding sea<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Throws on a swimmer its tremendous laugh<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nRemembering all the joy its waves had drowned,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

So from the darkness of the sovereign night<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Against the Woman’s boundless heart arose<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

The almighty cry of universal Death:<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

"Hast thou god-wings or feet that tread my stars,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nFrail creature with the courage that aspires,<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

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

\nPage \u2013 666<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

Forgetting thy bounds of thought, thy mortal role?<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTheir orbs were coiled before thy soul was formed.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nI, Death, created them out of my void;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

All things I have built in them and I destroy.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

I made the worlds my net, each joy a mesh.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

A Hunger amorous of its suffering prey,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Life that devours, my image see in things.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Mortal, whose spirit is my wandering breath,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Whose transience was imagined by my smile,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Flee clutching thy poor gains to thy
\ntrembling breast<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Pierced by my pangs Time shall not soon appease.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Blind slave of my deaf force whom I compel<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

To sin that I may punish, to desire<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

That I may scourge thee with despair and grief<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

And thou come bleeding to me at the last,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Thy nothingness recognised, my greatness known,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Turn nor attempt forbidden happy fields<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Meant for the soul that can obey my law,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Lest in their sombre shrines thy tread awake<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

From their uneasy iron-hearted sleep<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

The Furies who avenge fulfilled desire.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Dread lest in skies where passion hoped to live,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

The Unknown’s lightnings start and terrified,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Lone, sobbing, hunted by the hounds of heaven,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

A wounded and forsaken soul, thou flee<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Through the long torture of the centuries,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Nor many lives exhaust the tireless Wrath<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Hell cannot slake nor heaven’s mercy assuage.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

I will take from thee the black eternal grip:<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Clasping in thy heart thy fate’s exiguous doles<\/span><\/p>\n

\nDepart in peace, if peace for man is just."<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBut Savitri answered meeting scorn with scorn,<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

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

\nPage \u2013 667<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

<\/p>\n

The mortal woman to the dreadful Lord:<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

"Who is this God imagined by thy night,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Contemptuously creating worlds disdained,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Who made for vanity the brilliant stars?<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nNot he who has reared his temple in my thoughts<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

And made his sacred floor my human heart.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

My God is Will and triumphs in his paths,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

My God is Love and sweetly suffers all.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

To him I have offered hope for sacrifice<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

And gave my longings as a sacrament.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Who shall prohibit or hedge in his course,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

The wonderful, the charioteer, the swift?<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

A traveller of the million roads of life,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

His steps familiar with the lights of heaven<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Tread without pain the sword-paved courts of hell;<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

There he descends to edge eternal joy.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nLove’s golden wings have power to fan thy void:<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

The eyes of love gaze starlike through death’s night,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe feet of love tread naked hardest worlds.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHe labours in the depths, exults on the heights;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

He shall remake thy universe,
\nO Death."<\/span><\/p>\n

\nShe spoke and for a while no voice replied,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWhile still they travelled through the trackless night<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd still that gleam was like a pallid eye<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTroubling the darkness with its doubtful gaze.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThen once more came a deep and perilous pause<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIn that unreal journey through blind Nought;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Once more a Thought, a Word in the void arose<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd Death made answer to the human soul:<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

"What is thy hope? to what dost thou aspire?<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThis is thy body’s sweetest lure of bliss,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAssailed by pain a frail precarious form,<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

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

\nPage \u2013 668<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

<\/p>\n

To please for a few years thy faltering sense<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

With honey of physical longings and the heart’s fire<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

And a vain oneness seeking to embrace<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

The brilliant idol of a fugitive hour.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

And thou, what art thou, soul, thou glorious dream<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Of brief emotions made and glittering thoughts,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

A thin dance of fireflies speeding through the night,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

A sparkling ferment in life’s sunlit mire?<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Wilt thou claim immortality, O heart,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Crying against the eternal witnesses<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

That thou and he are endless powers and last?<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Death only lasts and the inconscient Void.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

I only am eternal and endure.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

I am the shapeless formidable Vast,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

I am the emptiness that men call Space,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

I am a timeless Nothingness carrying all,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

I am the Illimitable, the mute Alone.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

I, Death, am He; there is no other God.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

All from my depths are born, they live by death;<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

All to my depths return and are no more.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

I have made a world by my inconscient Force.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

My force is Nature that creates and slays<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

The hearts that hope, the limbs that long to live.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

I have made man her instrument and slave,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

His body I made my banquet, his life my food.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Man has no other help but only Death;<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

He comes to me at his end for rest and peace.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

I, Death, am the one refuge of thy soul.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

The gods to whom man prays can help not man;<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

They are my imaginations and my moods<\/span><\/p>\n

\nReflected in him by illusion’s power.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThat which thou seest as thy immortal self<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/font>
\nPage \u2013 669<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Is a shadowy icon of my infinite,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Is Death in thee dreaming of eternity.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nI am the Immobile in which all things move,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

I am the nude Inane in which they cease:<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

I have no body and no tongue to speak,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

I commune not with human eye and ear,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Only thy thought gave a figure to my void.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Because, 0 aspirant to divinity,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Thou calledst me to wrestle with thy soul,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

I have assumed a face, a form, a voice.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

But if there were a being witnessing all,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

How should he help thy passionate desire?<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Aloof he watches sole and absolute,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Indifferent to thy cry in nameless calm.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nHis being is pure, unwounded, motionless, one.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

One endless watches the inconscient scene<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nWhere all things perish, as the foam the stars.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nThe One lives for ever. There no Satyavan<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Changing was born and there no Savitri<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Claims from brief life her bribe of joy. There love<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Came never with his fretful eyes of tears,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nNor Time is there nor the vain vasts of Space.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

It wears no living face, it has no name,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nNo gaze, no heart that throbs, it asks no second<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

To aid its being or to share its joys.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

It is delight immortally alone.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

If thou desirest immortality,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Be then alone sufficient to thy soul:<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Live in thyself; forget the man thou lov’st.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nMy last grand death shall rescue thee from life,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThen shalt thou rise into thy unnamed source."<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBut Savitri replied to the dread Voice:<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

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

\nPage \u2013 670<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

"O Death, who reasonest, I reason not,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nReason that scans and breaks, but cannot build<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOr builds in vain because she doubts her work.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nI am, I love, I see, I act, I will."<\/span><\/p>\n

\nDeath answered her, one deep surrounding cry:<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

"Know also. Knowing, thou shalt cease to love<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd cease to will, delivered from thy heart,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSo shalt thou rest for ever and be still,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nConsenting to the impermanence of things."<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBut Savitri replied for man to Death:<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

"When I have loved for ever, I shall know.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nLove in me knows the truth all changings mask.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nI know that knowledge is a vast embrace:<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

I know that every being is myself,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

In every heart is hidden the myriad One.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

I know the calm Transcendent bears the world,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

The veiled Inhabitant, the silent Lord:<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

I feel his secret act, his intimate fire;<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

I hear the murmur of the cosmic Voice.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nI know my coming was a wave from God.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nFor all his suns were conscient in my birth,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd one who loves in us came veiled by death.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThen man was born among the monstrous stars<\/span><\/p>\n

\nDowered with a mind and heart to conquer thee."<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIn the eternity of his ruthless will<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSure of his empire and his armoured might,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nLike one disdaining violent helpless words<\/span><\/p>\n

\nFrom victim lips Death answered not again.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHe stood in silence and in darkness wrapped,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA figure motionless, a shadow vague,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nGirt with the terrors of his secret sword.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHalf-seen in clouds appeared a sombre face;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

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

\nPage \u2013 671<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

Night’s dusk tiara was his matted hair,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe ashes of the pyre his forehead’s sign.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOnce more a Wanderer in the unending Night,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBlindly forbidden by dead vacant eyes,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nShe travelled through the dumb unhoping vasts.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAround her rolled the shuddering waste of gloom,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIts swallowing emptiness and joyless death<\/span><\/p>\n

\nResentful of her thought and life and love.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThrough the long fading night by her compelled,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nGliding half-seen on their unearthly path,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPhantasmal in the dimness moved the three.<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 672<\/font><\/span><\/td>\n

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

  CANTO TWO   THE JOURNEY IN ETERNAL NIGHT AND THE VOICE OF THE DARKNESS   A WHILE on the chill dreadful edge of Night…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[78],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-03-savitri-1954","wpcat-78-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3434","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=3434"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3434\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}