The Mother and the Editorial Process   Amal Kiran's reminiscences in Our Light and Delight are the main source of information about the Mother's connection with work on the early editions of Savitri. Her interaction with the disciples who prepared the second volume of the first edition is mentioned there in a brief but important passage. The longer account of her involvement with the 1954 edition is concerned for the most part with a proposed Publisher's Note, the inclusion of the letters on Savitri, and other matters not directly affecting the text of the poem itself. We learn from Our Light and Delight that the Mother approved of th

Summary of Conclusions   Recent questions about the Revised Edition of Savitri can be grouped under four headings. The explanations offered in this booklet are summarised below:   (1) The authority for the new edition. Some aspects of this question were discussed in the first booklet "On the New Edition of Savitri". In the present booklet, it has been shown more clearly that Sri Aurobindo and the Mother knew that errors could enter the text and approved of correcting these errors. The final decisions for the new edition have been made, after looking closely at the manuscripts, by disciples authorised by the Mother to make such decisions.

References 1. Savitri(1993),p.744. 2. Letters on Poetry, Literature and Art (1988), p. 78. 3. Savitri, p. 761. 4. Ibid., p. 760. 5. Letters on Yoga (1970), pp. 410-11. 6. Savitri, p. 745. 7. "On the New Edition of Savitri" (Part One), p. 5. 8. Our Light and Delight (1980), p. 24. 9. Ibid. p. 23. 10. Ibid., p. 209. 11. The Mother with Letters on the Mother (1972), p. 244. 12. "On the New Edition of Savitri” (Part One), p. 4. 13. The Mother with Letters on the Mother, pp. 33-34. 14. Ibid., p. 39. 15. Savitri: Passages traduits par la Mere (1988), p. 53. 16. Ibid., p. 13. 17. Ibid., p. 39

part- 2mother's french translation p 15- 54 .htm The Mother's French Translation   The Mother translated about two thousand lines of Savitri into French. She used the edition that was available in the 1960s, when she did this work. This was the 1954 edition. She usually translated according to what was printed in that edition. But sometimes, as we will see, her translation differs from the edition she used and agrees with the 1993 edition. The Mother's translation of the first three cantos of Book Ten is complete according to the edition from which she translated, except for one or two missing lines in each canto. The translation of Book Ten, Canto Four breaks off at the point where sh

Readings in the New Edition   Most differences between the new edition of Savitri and previous editions are easily explained by describing how the work on the new edition was done. Sri Aurobindo's manuscripts were compared line by line with the copies of those manuscripts. It was found that accidental changes had occurred sometimes when his lines were copied, typed and typeset. The divergences from what Sri Aurobindo wrote or dictated have now been corrected, restoring his original text where it was inadvertently altered. We have seen that the procedure followed in preparing this edition was approved in principle by the Mother, long before it was applied sys

Sri Aurobindo on Accidental Changes in Savitri   In a letter of 1946, Sri Aurobindo mentioned some changes in Savitri that had come about "due to inadvertence", resulting in lines he "found to be inferior to their original form and altered back to that form". When he noticed that a "slip" had accidentally replaced his original word, he changed it back to the "right word" he had written earlier.¹ Sri Aurobindo was referring here to his own handwritten versions. But the accidental changes that occurred when his lines were transcribed by others are far more numerous and serious than what he called his own "slips". Sri Aurob

Publisher's Note   The fourth edition of Sri Aurobindo's Savitri, called the Revised Edition, was published in 1993. Since then it has been reprinted several times. The edition is the outcome of years of study of the manuscripts of the poem. Differences between editions are listed and explained in the "Supplement to the Revised Edition of Savitri”. In spite of the explanations given in the Supplement, some misunderstandings about this edition have arisen. To clear them up, the Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust has issued a booklet, "On the New Edition of Savitri” (Part One). Questions raised after that booklet was published are answered in the present b