Bibliographical Data

SONGS TO MYRTILLA

     

A. Preliminary Pages

     

[Verbatim transcription of the preliminary pages of the MS. the Baroda Edition, and the Calcutta Edition (1923). The solidus (/) indicates the start of a new line.]

Title Page

     

MS: Poems

Baroda Edition: SONGS TO MYRTILLA, / AND / OTHER POEMS / by / AUROBIND GHOSE. / Second Edition.

Calcutta Edition: SONGS TO MYRTILLA / BY / SRI AUROBINDO GHOSE / ARYA PUBLISHING HOUSE / College Street Market, / CALCUTTA. / Re. 1/4.

     

Imprint Page

     

Baroda Edition: BARODA; / Printed at the "LAKSHMI VILAS" Printing Press, Co. Ld.

Calcutta Edition: Published by / SARAT CHANDRA GUHA, B.A. / College Street Market, Calcutta. / Only Authorised Edition / 2,000 COPIES / April, 1923. / Printer: S. C. MAJUMDAR / SRI GAURANGA PRESS / 7111, Mirzapur St., Calcutta. / 369/23.

     

Publisher's Note

     

Calcutta Edition: PUBLISHERS NOTE. / These early poems of Aurobindo Ghose, all except five written between his eighteenth and twentieth years (1890-92), were printed for private circulation at Baroda in 1895 and are now first given to the general public.

     

Dedication

     

[The following dedication appears in the MS and, with some changes in the typography and one typographical error in the Latin, in the Baroda edition:]

To my brother

Manmohan Ghose

these poems

are dedicated.

 

      Tale tuum nobis carmen, divine poeta,

      Quale sopor fessis in gramine, quale per aestum

      Dulcis aquae saliente sitim restinguere rivo.

      *     *     *

      Quae tibi, quae tali reddam pro carmine dona?


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[The lines are from Virgil (exact citation not known) and may be translated as follows:

Such is to us thy song, O divine poet, as is to tired men sleep in the grass; as is in the heat, by a leaping stream, quenching ones thirst with sweet water.... To thee what gifts for such a song, what in return?]

B. Contents

[In the following table the poems of Songs to Myrtilla are listed in the order in which they occur in the MS, the Baroda Edition, and the Calcutta Edition. Poems listed on one horizontal line are the same, even if the titles differ. The poems were numbered I-XXI in the MS and in the Baroda Edition. In the Calcutta Edition only the pages are numbered.]

MS

Baroda Edition

Calcutta Edition

I

Sweet is the night

SONGS TO MYRTILLA

SONGS TO MYRTILLA1

II

O coil, coil

O COIL, COIL

O COIL, COIL.

II!

Goethe

GOETHE.

GOETHE.

IV

Ferdinand Lassalle

FERDINAND LASSALLE,

THE LOST DELIVERER

V

Charles Stewart

CHARALES [sic] STEWART

Charles Stewart

Parnell / 1891

PARNELL / 1891

PARNELL. / 1891

VI

Hic Jacet. /

HIC JACET. /

HIC JACET. /

Glasnevin Cemetery.

GLASNEVIN CEMETERY.

Glasnevin Cemetery.

1891.

VII

Lines on Ireland /

LINES ON IRELAND. /

LINES ON IRELAND /

1896

1896

1896.

VIII

On a Satyr &

ON A SATYR AND

ON A SATYR AND

Sleeping Love

SLEEPING LOVE.

SLEEPING LOVE.

IX

A Rose of Women

A ROSE OF WOMEN.

A ROSE OF WOMEN.

X

Saraswati with the

SARASWATI WITH THE

SARASWATI WITH THE

Lotus2

LOTUS

LOTUS.

XI

Night by the Sea

NIGHT BY THE SEA.

NIGHT BY THE SEA

XII

The Lover's

THE LOVER'S

THE LOVER'S

Complaint

COMPLAINT.

COMPLAINT.

XIII

Love in Sadness

LOVE IN SORROW.

LOVE IN SORROW.

XIV

The Island Grave.

THE ISLAND GRAVE.

THE ISLAND GRAVE.

XV

Estelle

ESTELLE.

ESTELLE.

XVI

The Just Man.3

 

      1 Here this rubric appears to be the book-title and not the title of the first poem.

      2 In all three states the title is followed, on a separate line, by: "(Bankim [MS: Bunkim] Chandra Chatterji. Obiit [MS: April] 1894)".

      3 Not published in Baroda or Calcutta editions; first published in Archives and Research 1 (1977): 20-21.


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MS Baroda Edition Calcutta Edition
XVII Radha's Complaint [XVI] RADHA'S RADHA'S COMPLAINT
in Absence. COMPLAINT IN IN ABSENCE.
ABSENCE.4
[XVII] RADHA'S APPEAL.4 RADHA'S APPEAL.
XVIII Lines written after BUNKIM CHUNDRA BUNKIM CHANDRA
reading a novel of CHATTERJI. CHATTERJI.
Bunkim Chundra
Chatterji
XIX Modhu Soudan Dutt MODHOU SOUDAN DUTT. MADHUSUDAN DUTT.
XX To the Cuckoo5 TO THE CUKOO. [sic] TO THE CUCKOO.
XXI Vale. [no title]6 ENVOI.7

     

      4 In both known editions the title is followed by: "(Imitated from the Bengali of Chundidas)".

      5 Subtitled in MS: "A Spring Morning in India". This subtitle may have been deleted from the Baroda edition simply because of limitations of space.

      6 The omission of the title Vale may also have been due to the fact that the page of the Baroda edition on which this and the preceding poem were printed is completely packed with text.

      7 In all three states, four lines of Latin verse, which also are included in the Centenary edition (Collected Poems, p. 28), precede the English text. These lines, apparently by Sri Aurobindo, may be translated as follows:

Farewell, O Muses, go now you too from me. sweet Muses, indeed; for I am going to speak the truth: sweet were you — and yet visit again my papers (writings), although with shy discretion and rarely.


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