Opening Remarks
As Savitri stands on the brink of the home of Darkness, Death cries to her asking her to turn back.
Death peeled forth
But Death pealed forth his vast abysmal cry:
“O mortal, turn back to thy transient kind;
Aspire not to accompany Death to his home,
As if thy breath could live where Time must die.
Death peeled forth his vast abysmal cry asking Savitri to turn back. He warns sternly addressing her as a mortal who must go back to earth and be the transient lot of humanity. He warns her not to accompany Death and aspire to be with him in a realm where breath could not live and Time itself sinks and stops and dies.
Think not
Think not thy mind-born passion strength from heaven
To uplift thy spirit from its earthly base
And, breaking out from the material cage,
To upbuoy thy feet of dream in groundless Nought
And bear thee through the pathless infinite.
He reminds her that her mind and passions should not be mistaken for the strength of the gods that would uplift her spirit beyond earth and breaking free from the bodily frame to carry her feet of dream stuff in vacant Nought. There is no ground to stand and carry her through the pathless infinite in the realm of Death.
Only in human limits
Only in human limits man lives safe.
He reminds her that human safety lies only in human limits.
Trust not
Trust not in the unreal Lords of Time,
Immortal deeming this image of thyself
Which they have built on a Dream’s floating ground.
Death asks Savitri not to trust in the unreal gods who have built this image of an immortal self on a dream’s floating ground.
Dreadful goddess
Let not the dreadful goddess move thy soul
To enlarge thy vehement trespass into worlds
Where it shall perish like a helpless thought.
He advices her not to be moved by the dreadful goddess who seems to incite her to trespass into worlds. All dies and perishes.in this dark domain of Death.
Cold-stone terms of hope
Know the cold term-stones of thy hopes in life.
The hopes of human life are set in fixed boundaries of cold rigid fate that cannot be altered.
Ideal’s borrowed might
Armed vainly with the Ideal’s borrowed might,
Dare not to outstep man’s bound and measured force:
Ignorant and stumbling, in brief boundaries pent,
He crowns himself the world’s mock suzerain,
Tormenting Nature with the works of Mind.
He mocks at the idealism of Savitri saying that it is a borrowed might as reflected in the mind. He cautions her not to dare beyond the measures and boundaries set for human strength. Man is meant to stay within small and narrow boundaries of stumbling ignorance. He is the ridiculous sovereign of the world who torments Nature with all that his mind creates.
O sleeper
O sleeper, dreaming of divinity,
Wake trembling mid the indifferent silences
In which thy few weak chords of being die.
He bids Savitri to wake up from her dreams of divinity, trembling amid the indifferent silences in which she is bound to die along with the chords that tie her to life.
Impermanent creatures
Impermanent creatures, sorrowful foam of Time,
Your transient loves bind not the eternal gods.”
He addresses humanity through her as impermanent creatures whose transient love binds not the eternal gods.
Dread voice ebbed
The dread voice ebbed in the consenting hush
Which seemed to close upon it, wide, intense,
A wordless sanction from the jaws of Night.
The dread voice of Death receded in the approving hush which seemed to surround her as a wide intense wordless sanction from the jaws of Night.
The woman answered not
The Woman answered not. Her high nude soul,
Stripped of the girdle of mortality,
Against fixed destiny and the grooves of law
Stood up in its sheer will a primal force.
Savitri answered not. Her high soul stripped of her mortality that labours under fixed destiny and grooves of unalterable law stood up in its sheer will as an original Divine Force.
Still and lone
Still like a statue on its pedestal,
Lone in the silence and to vastness bared,
Against midnight’s dumb abysses piled in front
A columned shaft of fire and light she rose.
Savitri stood still like a statue on a pedestal. Lone in the silence she barred to the vastness of midnight against dumb abysses piled up in front. As a column and shaft of fire and light she rose.
Closing Remarks
Savitri stands on the brink of Nought where none can dare enter and, from where, swallowed by the abysmal Night, none returns.
Closing Remarks for the Canto
Book Nine Canto One is the beginning of Savitri’s journey through different realms following the steps of Death carrying the soul of Satyavan with him. The atmosphere of the subconscient realm is described before they enter the primal Night of the Inconscient where Death has its base and from where he finds his strength. Death warns Savitri to dare not set her feet forbidden to mortal breath. Savitri stands defiant ready to plunge into dumb abysses of the Night to plead her case and bring back Satyavan by the power of Love.
