Translation: Practice   Remarks on Some Translations   I do not think it is the ideas that make the distinction between European and Indian tongues ―it is the turn of the language. By taking over the English turn of language into Bengali one may very well fail to produce the effect of the original because this turn will seem outlandish in the new tongue, but one can always by giving a right turn of language more easily acceptable to the Bengali mind and ear make the idea as natural and effective as in the original; or even if the idea is strange to the Bengali mind one can by the turn of language acclimatise it, make it acceptable. The

The Poet and the Poem    Power of Expression and Spiritual Experience   All depends on the power of expression of the poet. A poet like Shakespeare or Shelley or Wordsworth though without spiritual experience may in an inspired moment become the medium of an expression of spiritual Truth which is beyond him and the expression, as it is not that of his own mind, may be very powerful and living, not merely aesthetically agreeable. On the other hand a poet with spiritual experience may be hampered by his medium or by his transcribing brain or by an insufficient mastery of language and rhythm and give an expression which may mean much to him but not

Overhead Poetry    Higher Mind and Poetic Intelligence   I mean by the Higher Mind a first plane of spiritual [consciousness] where one becomes constantly and closely aware of the Self, the One everywhere and knows and sees things habitually with that awareness; but it is still very much on the mind level although highly spiritual in its essential substance; and its instrumentation is through an elevated thought-power and comprehensive mental sight ―not illumined by any of the intenser upper lights but as if in a large strong and clear daylight. It acts as an intermediate state between the Truth-Light above and the human mind; c

Section Three   Beauty and Its Appreciation       General Remarks on Beauty   Beauty   Beauty is the way in which the physical expresses the Divine ― but the principle and law of Beauty is something inward and spiritual which expresses itself through the form. 23 August 1933 *   What is the meaning of Supramental Beauty? Is it the perception of the Divine as the All-Beautiful and All-Delight?   No, that you can get on any plane, and it becomes easy as soon as one is in contact with the higher Mind. Beauty is the special divine Manifestation in the physical as Truth

Guidance in Writing Prose Guidance in Writing Prose   Suggestions for Writing Good English   I wonder what to do in order to bring my essay up to the mark. Could you please make some suggestions?   I am afraid I can't make suggestions. Just now I am too busy with other and more strenuous things to be very fit for literary suggestions. I can only say generally avoid over-writing; let all your sentences be the vehicle of something worth saying and say it with a vivid precision neither defective nor excessive. Don't let either thought or speech trail or drag or circumvolute. Don't let the language be more abundant than the sense. Don't indulge

APPENDIX III   Remarks on a Review2   [A]   Marginal Comments   The writer justly contends that Quantitative Verse has, hitherto, been misunderstood by English poets who have used it, because the constituent elements of such verse have not been correctly appreciated. These elements are accent, stress, and quantity. Accent is voice-weightage on a syllable; stress is voice-weightage on a one-syllable word (which may or may not be accented by itself) considered hic et nunc as a component part of a phrase, clause or sentence;   Not in my theory; stress occurs in English words of all lengths, not

On Some Poems Written during the 1930s   [The first five letters were published together as an appendix to Six Poems of Sri Aurobindo in 1934]   The Bird of Fire and Trance   These two poems are in the nature of metrical experiments. The first is a kind of compromise between the stress system and the foot measure. The stanza is of four lines, alternately of twelve and ten stresses. The second and fourth line in each stanza can be read as a ten-foot line of mixed iambs and anapaests, the first and third, though a similar system subject to replacement of a foot anywhere by a single-syllab

Poets of the Ashram   Some General Remarks   I fear I don't approve of any article on the "Ashram poets" ―least of all a dithyramb of this too splendiferous kind. I shall give my reasons when I have had time to look at it again ―at present I am slowly recovering from the electric shock it gave me. 11 September 1934 *   Prithwi Singh was telling me that cultivation of literature here hasn't much sense, since none will be able to get first class, or outclass Tagore. He must always remain the only brilliant star in literature. Others won't even get a chance to shine by his side, not to speak of o

Remarks on Individual Poets   The Author of the Bhagavad Gita   Sri Krishna is not supposed to have written anything. The Gita is part of the Mahabharata which is attributed to the sage Vyasa, the contemporary of Krishna. But in its present form the Mahabharata seems to be of later origin and many scholars say that the Gita was composed afterwards by someone and put into the Mahabharata. In any case whoever wrote it was a great Yogi and certainly received his inspiration from Krishna. Catullus and Horace You prefer Catullus [to Horace] because he was a philosopher? You have certainly rolled Lucretius here into Cat

Appreciation of Music   On Music   Written words are pale and lifeless things when one has to express the feelings raised by superb music and seem hardly to mean anything ―not being able to convey what is beyond word and mere mental form ―that is, at least, what I have felt and why I always find it a little difficult to write anything about music. 20 March 1933   Musical Excellence and General Culture   I have not seen the remarks in question. I don't suppose all-round general culture has much to do with excelling in music. Music is a gift independent of any such thing and it can hardly be