'Translations' by Sri Aurobindo - Page 1 of 30   Catullus to Lesbia   O my Lesbia, let us live for loving. Suns can set and return to light the morrow, We, when once has sunk down the light of living, — One long night we must sleep, and sleep for ever. Give me kisses a thousand and then a hundred, One more thousand again, again a hundred, Many thousands of kisses give and hundreds, Kisses numberless like to sands on sea-shores, Burning Libya's sands in far Cyrene. Close confound the thousands and mix the hundreds Lest some envious Fate or eye discover The long reckoning of our love and kisses.   Page – 610  

  The Birth of the War-God   EXPANDED VERSION OF CANTO I AND PART OF CANTO II   A god concealed in mountain majesty, Embodied to our cloudy physical sight In dizzy summits and green-gloried slopes, Measuring the earth in an enormous ease, Immense Himaloy dwells and in the moan Of western waters and in eastern floods Plunges his hidden spurs. Of such a strength High-piled, so thousand-crested is his look That with the scaling greatness of his peaks He seems to uplift to heaven our prostrate soil. He mounts from the green luxury of his vales Ambitious of the skies; naked and lost The virgin chill i

  Mahalakshmi   In lotus-groves Thy spirit roves: where shall I find a seat for Thee? To Thy feet's tread — feet dawn-rose red — opening, my heart Thy throne shall be. All things unlovely hurt Thy soul: I would become a stainless whole: O World's delight! All-beauty's might! unmoving house Thy grace in me. An arid heart Thou canst not bear: It is Thy will love's bonds to wear: Then by Thy sweetness' magic completeness make me Thy love's eternal sea.   ANILBARAN ROY   Page – 558  

'Translations' by Sri Aurobindo - Page 1 of 30   Act III   Scene I. — Hermitage of the Saint Bharat in Heaven. Galava and Pelava.   GALAVA Pelava, thee the Sage admitted, happier Chosen, to that great audience in the house Of highest Indra, — I meanwhile must watch The sacred flame; inform my absence. Was The divine session with the acting pleased?   PELAVA Of pleased I know not; this I well could see They sat all lost in that poetic piece Of Saraswatie, "Luxmie's Choice", — breathlessly Identified themselves with every mood. But —   GALAVA Ah, that but! It opens doors to censure.   PEL

An Aryan City   PROSE VERSION   Coshala named, a mighty country there was, swollen and glad; seated on the banks of the Sarayu it abounded in wealth & grain; and there was the city Ayodhya famed throughout the triple world, built by Manu himself, lord of men. Twelve leagues was the beautiful mighty city in its length, three in its breadth; large & clear-cut were its streets, and a vast clear-cut highroad adorned it that ever was sprinkled with water and strewn freely with flowers. Dasaratha increasing a mighty nation peopled that city, like a king of the gods in his heavens; a town of arched gateways he made it, and wide were the spaces between its shops; full w

  The Birth of the War-God   EDITORS' NOTE   In the first and third versions of this translation, Sri Aurobindo left some lines or parts of lines blank, apparently with the intention of returning to them later. Such incomplete portions are indicated by square brackets enclosing a blank of appropriate size.   The Birth of the War-God STANZAIC RENDERING OF THE OPENING OF CANTO I   1   A god mid hills northern Himaloy rears His snow-piled summits' dizzy majesties, And in the eastern and the western seas He bathes his giant sides; lain down appears Measuring the dreaming earth in an enormous ease.

'Translations' by Sri Aurobindo Page 1 of 10 Note on the Texts   Note on the Texts   Fluent in English from his childhood, Sri Aurobindo mastered five other languages — French, Latin, Greek, Sanskrit and Bengali — and learned something of seven others — Italian, German, Spanish, Hindi/ Hindustani, Gujarati, Marathi and Tamil. On numerous occasions over a period of half a century he translated works and passages written in several of these languages. The present volume contains all Sri Aurobindo's translations from Sanskrit, Bengali, Tamil, Greek and Latin into English, with the exception of his translations from the Rig Veda and the Upanishads. (His Vedic and Upanishadic t

  Section Four   Disciples and Others   Hymn to India   India, my India, where first human eyes awoke to heavenly light, All Asia's holy place of pilgrimage, great Motherland of might! World-mother, first giver to humankind of philosophy and sacred lore, Knowledge thou gav'st to man, God-love, works, art, religion's opened door.   India, my India, who dare call thee a thing for pity's grace today? Mother of wisdom, worship, works, nurse of the spirit's inward ray!   To thy race, O India, God himself once sang the Song of Songs divine, Upon thy dust Gouranga danced and drank God-love's mysterious wine,

  Mother India   1   Mother India, when Thou rosest from the depths of oceans hoary, Love and joy burst forth unbounded, life acclaimed Thee in Thy glory; Darkness fled before Thy splendour, light its radiant flag unfurled. All acclaimed Thee, "Hail, O Mother! Fosterer, Saviour of the world!" Earth became thrice-blessed by the rose of beauty of Thy feet; Blithe, she chanted: "Hail, World-Charmer! Hail, World-Mother! Thee I greet."   2   Damp from ocean's kiss Thy raiment, from its waves still drip Thy tresses. Greatness spans Thy brow, and flower-like lucent-pure Thy smiling face is. Sun and moon and stars go d

'Translations' by Sri Aurobindo - Page 1 of 30 APPENDIX   Prefatory Note on Bhartrihari   BHARTRIHARI'S Century of Morals (Nitishataka), a series of poetical epigrams or rather sentences upon human life and conduct grouped loosely round a few central ideas, stands as the first of three similar works by one Master. Another Century touches with a heavy hand Sringar, sexual attraction; the third expresses with admirable beauty of form and intensity of feeling the sentiment of Vairagya, World-disgust, which, before & since Buddha, has figured so largely in Indian life. In a striking but quite superficial manner these brief stanzas remind us of the Greek epigram in the most masterly