Farewell Flute   A flute of farewell calls and calls, Farewell to earthly things: But when shall I the message learn That high-voiced music sings? Earth's pleasures come like scented winds, Invite a mortal clasp: I seek to keep them in my clutch, Captives of a vain grasp! How shall thy nectar fill this cup, Brimming with passion's wine? Only when the turn of day is done Thy starry lamps can shine. Ever to the eager cry of hope Re-echoes the heart's lyre, Will it answer to thy Song of songs That climbs beyond desire? Arise now in my shadowy soul And let it sing farewell To the near glow, th

'Translations' by Sri Aurobindo - Page 1 of 30   Selected Poems of Nidhou   1   Eyes of the hind, you are my jailors, sweetest; My heart with the hind's frightened motion fleetest In terror strange would flee, But find no issue, sweet; for thy quick smiling, Thy tresses like a net with threads beguiling Detain it utterly.   I am afraid of thy great eyes and well-like, I am afraid of thy small ears and shell-like, And everything in thee. Comfort my fainting heart with soft assurance And soon it will grow tame and love its durance, Hearing such melody.     2   Line not with these dark rings thy bright eyes ever! Suc

  Faithful   Let leap, O Mother, Thy lightning-fire: The prisoned soul cries out for Thee. Let youth's blue dream in the Blue aspire To Thy crystal-song of eternity. The dungeon-walls that stifle the heart Throw down: oh, let Thy avalanche-dart Its thrill to our pilgrim life impart: Come with the voice of Thy hurtling sea. Open life's floodgates with Thy Fire: The soul, clay's hostage, cries for Thee.   Beloved, I know Thy summit-psalm — A fecund pledge of Deep to Deep: I know that Thy Beauty's beckoning calm Makes courage, answering, overleap Despond's abysmal gulf below, And stamp on its brow Thy golden

Ye Others   Ye others cannot conceive of the love that I bear to Krishna. And your warnings to me are vain like the pleadings of the deaf and mute. The Boy who left his mother's home and was reared by a different mother, — Oh, take me forth to his city of Mathura where He won the field without fighting the battle and leave me there.   Of no further avail is modesty. For all the neighbours have known of this fully. Would ye really heal me of this ailing and restore me to my pristine state? Then know ye this illness will go if I see Him, the maker of illusions, the youthful one who measured the world. Should you really wish to save me, then take me forth to his

  Opening of the Iliad   Sing to me, Muse, of the wrath of Achilles Pelidean, Murderous, bringing a million woes on the men of Achaea; Many the mighty souls whom it drove down headlong to Hades, Souls of heroes and made of their bodies booty for vultures, Dogs and all birds; so the will of Zeus was wholly accomplished Even from the moment when they two parted in strife and in anger, Peleus' glorious son and the monarch of men Agamemnon. Which of the gods was it set them to conflict and quarrel disastrous? Leto's son from the seed of Zeus; he wroth with their monarch Roused in the ranks an evil pest and the peoples perish

  A Beauty infinite   A Beauty infinite, an unborn Power On Time's vast forehead drew her mystic line, An unseen Radiance filled the primal hour, — First script, creation's early rapture-wine. Lightning in Night the eternal moment wrote. Her lone eyes bathed in hue of loveliness Saw on a flaming stream a single boat Follow through dawn some great Sun's orbit-trace. The Dawn-world flashed — torn was the heart of Night. Why came then Dawn here with her cloud and surge? Darkness erased the hint of new-born Light, — Till suddenly quivered above the pilgrim Urge, Its flower-car washed blood-red. Smile of the Moon,

  Aspiration   (THE NEW DAWN)   The rays of the sun clothe the blue heaven with beauty; the dark masses of the Night are driven far. There breaks from the lyre of the dawn a song of light and felicity, and the soul in its groves responds with quivering hope.   One whose hem trails over the dancing crests of the waters, and touches them to ripples of musical laughter, Comes chanted by the orient in hymns of worship, and twilight on its glimmering tambour beats dance-time to the note-play of the rays.   She whose absence kept Night starved and afraid in its shadows, a vibrant murmur now are her steps on the horizon:

    Tiruvalluvar   Opening of the Kural   1   1. Alpha of all letters the first, Of the worlds the original Godhead the beginning. 2. What fruit is by learning, if thou adore not The beautiful feet of the Master of luminous wisdom? 3. When man has reached the majestic feet of him whose walk is on flowers, Long upon earth is his living. 4. Not to the feet arriving of the one with whom none can compare, Hard from the heart to dislodge is its sorrow. 5. Not to the feet of the Seer, to the sea of righteousness coming, Hard to swim is this different ocean. 6. When man has come to the feet of him who has n

'Translations' by Sri Aurobindo - Page 1 of 30 VOLUME 5 THE COMPLETE WORKS OF SRI AUROBINDO © Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust 1999 Published by Sri Aurobindo Ashram Publication Department Printed at Sri Aurobindo Ashram Press, Pondicherry PRINTED IN INDIA Translations Publisher's Note   Translations comprises all of Sri Aurobindo's translations from Sanskrit, Bengali, Tamil, Greek and Latin into English, with the exception of his translations of Vedic and Upanishadic literature.