Correspondence 1932, January (I)

1932

The German translation of your poem is very well done. As for Frau Füllöp Miller^[1] whose judgment on men is as unanswerable as yours on European women we will follow the profound Asquithian policy which is good throughout the ages: “Wait and see”.

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1932?

… P. S. Did you read Cromnur Byng’s compliments on my poems (I had sent him about a dozen of my latest) that he “greatly admired my beautiful poems?” What would Thomson say to that? If even my beginner’s poems are so appreciated (for I would not think he was insincere here — Englishmen are very chary of praise in such matters) how would he respond to the magnificent mature poems of Harin? By the way please send us a version of your Thomsonian letter to Nirod so that we may ponder over and grow wiser at leisure. I really need some polite version thereof. Also did you note Saratchandra’s high praise (on back of Dola) calling me a “great writer?” You are bound to note it — please.

I did not notice Saratchandra’s praise — as I only looked at the first and second pages and not at the back. I shall see now. I read Cromnur Byng’s letter in a hurry and did not quite seize about the beautiful poems. I should very much like to know which poems they were.

I have been too dreadfully busy to get together the new version of my random and violent remarks (it was not a letter but scattered comments) on the subject of English poetry by Indians. [?] wrote Thompson has pronounced I didn’t know English. Perhaps Cromnur Byng doesn’t know English either! That would explain everything.

Harin’s metres

(1) “Drowse Deeps”

This metre could be taken as iambic with occasional [?] lines such as the first or trochaic with an occasional excess syllable at the beginning. But the first seems to me obviously the right thing, since several of the “iambic” lines are plainly iambic in movement and can hardly be “excess syllable” trochaic, e.g.

Signs of | the day | break’s thirst |

which one could hardly see

Signs | ōf the | daybreak’s | thirst,

as the “of’ could not bear the stress.

(2) “Desert”

This seems to be a metre on that principle of eight stresses to a line, the part being merely iambic and anapaestic, but often there is a stress in the first syllable of the line which gives it a trochaic-dactylic air. But this may be explained away as a truncated iamb, e.g.

Wh′ile | I st′and | like a stra′ight | tall tree | in the centre

of Ti′me | a d′e|sert b′ore |.

The lines are sometimes cut into halves of four stresses each, sometimes the halves are run into each other, e.g.

Where ei|ther at noon | or night | I am con′scious ||

Of a deep|ful glow | which no cloud | has pleased ||

where there are evidently two halves, otherwise the last syllable of “conscious?” would not be admissible.

(3) “The Miracle”

There is no paean I think: Harin must have meant to stress

With the r′e|flexed eff′ul|gence of m′y | lone dre′ams |

“Reflexed” as a past participle = recurved has its stress on the last syllable but Harin must have used in the sense of “becoming a reflex”, that is carrying in it the reflected image of my dreams. “Reflex” the noun (or adjective) is accented on the first syllable.

I am glad you are taking up writing again. I always think that it is a mistake at this stage to give up mental activity — that it should be done as the exercise of a god-given talent to be used for the true purpose is quite the right thing and my experience is that it can help rather than hinder the purification. Fame you already have and that need no longer attract or divert you.

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1932?

The softness is the sign of the coming to front of the psychic being and it brings with it the plasticity of the mind and vital to a truer working.

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1932?

(About a letter from the Carey-Perry School
of the Chemistry of Life, Los Angeles)

I think this will amuse you; it is an unexpected comment on Krishnaprem’s scepticism about science + Yoga — or should it be, science = Yoga. Here there is both the addition and the equation. “The great plan of salvation for man, — it is truly a physico-chemical process” seems hard to beat, but “The Second Period of the Divine Outpouring, symptoms due to Natrum Sulph[2] need” does, I think, beat it. And there are many others.

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1932?

I have read the book^[3] which I return. The part about the changed attitude of modern Science to its own field of discovery is interesting, and the other book in which, I suppose, he deals at more length with this subject, ought to be worth reading. The latter part of this book about religious experience I find very feeble; it gives me the impression of a hen scratching the surface of the earth to find a scrap or two of food — nothing deeper.

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1932?

The translation is very successful.

I don’t know whether “marmatale… parbata-guhāy” will convey the right meaning to the Bengali reader; but if it does, then it is certainly more poetic than the alternative.

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1932?

(On Sri Aurobindo’s translation of Dilip’s poem,
“Priestess of the Unseen Light,” reproduced
on the facing page.)

This is the best I could make of it; I think it ought to do. K. Sen’s translation is far from bad, but it is not perfect either and uses too many oft-heard locutions without bringing in the touch of magic that would save them. Besides, his metre in spite of his trying to lighten it, is one of the common and obvious metres which are almost proof against subtlety of movement. It may be mathematically more equivalent to yours, but there is an underrunning lilt of celestial dance in your rhythm which he tries to get but, because of the limitations of the metre, cannot manage. I think my iambic-anapaestic choice is better fitted to catch the dance-lilt and keep it.

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1932?

Your translation^[4] is admirable. I like it very much and fully appreciate the beauty of the phrase you have discovered to translate mine — they are much better and nearer to the power and spirit of the original than the mere literal variants you cite. Durlabha nakṣatra-dīkṣā is very good, but not so good as asānga ingit tara [?].

Nishikanto’s poem in laghu-guru [Sanskrit metre of short and long syllables] is splendid. But perhaps Girija would say that it is a pure Bengali rhythm, which means I suppose that it reads as well and easily in Bengali as if it were not written on an unusual rhythmic principle. I suppose that must necessarily be the aim of a new metre or metrical principle; it is what I am trying to do with quantitative efforts in English.

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^[1] Heddy Miller, Dilip’s friend from Vienna, a famous opera-singer.

[2] A homoeopathic medicine.

^[3] Eddington’s book, Science and the Unseen World.

^[4] Probably of Sri Aurobindo’s poem “Trance” (see Collected Poems).