Two Sonnets of Shakespeare ON the occasion of the 400th birth anniversary of Shakespeare, I present to you today two of the great Shakespearean sonnets. The sonnets, as you know, are all about love. They are however characterised by an incredible intensity and perhaps an equally incredible complexity, for the Shakespearean feeling is of that category. Shakespeare has treated love in a novel way; he has given a new figure to that common familiar sentiment. And incidentally he has given a new sense and bearing to Death. From a human carnal base there is a struggle, an effort here to rise into something extracorporeal; that is, something outside and independent of the body and imperso

Two Mystic Poems in Modern Bengali Here is the first one as I translate it: BARITONE¹ Let us all move together, one and all, Together into the cavern of the ribs, Raise there a song of discordant sounds – Red and blue and white, kin or alien. Listen, the groan plays on: Dreams as if possessed Swing, like bats on branches; Page - 212 Is now the time for the dance? Come, let us all move together, one and all. Let the streams meet in the body, one -and all, Yes, let the bones brighten up still more; Let us all go around the fire And scrape and eat of the very Liver, the Muse's self – Let us go, let us

The Pact and its Sanction THE Pact if it is to be a success must be implemented at three levels. First of all, at the highest level, at the source itself, that is to say, between the Governments who initiated the move. The ministers and members at the top should themselves maintain an entente cordiale (in the literal and true sense of the phrase) and set an example by their word and deed, and what is more difficult and important, in their thought and feeling. They that are on either side of the fence should meet and talk and intermix as real friends and comrades, devise ways and means as to how best to carry out what they sincerely wish and desire. If they do not believ

Two Mystic Poems in Modern French Here is the first poem, I give only the text, followed by an explanatory paraphrase. (1) CHANSON DES ÉTAGES II fait jour chez la reine. C' est la nuit prés du roi Déjà chante la reine. A peine dart Ie roi. Les ombres qui I' enchaîtnent, Une à une, illes voit. Le regard de la reine Ne sy attache pas. Le destin qui les mène, Dont frissonne Ie roi, Ne trouble point la reine. Brillent la mer au bas, Et, rythme de ses veines, CelIe qui la brûla, sœur de la vague même. Ô minutes sereines, Vous n'êtes plus au roi! Le

Towards a New Ideology INDIA must evolve her own political and social ideology; she must discover and establish in this domain also, as in all others that concern her collective life, her own genius and rule. This is what Swaraj really means and demands. Russia has her Sovietic Communism, Germany, for the present at least, her Nazidom, Italy her totalitarian Fascism, old England her Parliamentarianism and France her Bureaucratism; each nation finds the norm and scheme of self-rule that suits its temperament and character and changes and modifies that also in its own characteristic manner. Even so India must find her own scheme of Swarajya. If she is to live and be great

The Language Problem and India ENGLISH and French are the two languages that hold and express today the culture of humanity at its best and at its largest. They are the two international languages recognised as such and indispensable for all international dealings: and although to be internationally minded one would do better to possess both, still as it stands at present, they appeal to two different groups, each :in its own way and each has its hemisphere where it is prevalent, almost as a second mother tongue. Geographically, America and the British Commonwealth (including India) belong to the English sphere, while the European continent, South America and

THE APPROACH TO MYSTICISM The Approach to Mysticism MYSTICISM is not only a science but also, and in a greater degree, an art. To approach it merely as a science, as the modern mind attempts to do, is to move towards futility, if not to land in positive disaster. Sufficient stress is not laid on this aspect of the matter, although the very crux of the situation lies here. The mystic domain has to be apprehended not merely by the true mind and understanding but by the right temperament and character. Mysticism is not merely an object of knowledge, a problem for inquiry and solution, it is an end, an ideal that has to be achieved, a life that has to be lived. Th

T. S. Eliot: “Four Quartets" IN these latest poems of his, Eliot has become outright a poet of the Dark Night of the Soul. The beginnings of the new avatar were already there certainly at the very beginning. The Waste Land is a good preparation and passage into the Night. Only, the negative element in it was stronger – the cynicism, the bleakness, the sereness of it all was almost overwhelming. The next stage was "The Hollow Men": it took us right up to the threshold, into the very entrance. It was gloomy and fore-boding enough, grim and serious – no glint or hint of the silver lining yet within reach. Now as we find ourselves into the very heart of the Night, things appear somew

Human Destiny ANTHROPOLOGISTS¹ speak of a very interesting, if not strange biological phenomenon. A baby monkey's face, it seems, is much nearer to the adult human face than to its own form when adult and grown-up. Also the characteristic accentuations that mark out the grown-up ape come in its case too soon, but the human being continues, generally and on the whole, the stamp of his early, i.e., immature animality through-out his life. The rough and gold blotches, the rude and crude structures that make up the adult simian face, meaning all the specialisation of its character are not inherited by man; man retains always something of the fragility and effeminacy of the child. Referen