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Table of Alternative Readings
The nature of these alternative readings is explained in the Introduction. Notes on the individual items are provided at the end of the table. An asterisk (*) in the Text column indicates that the reading printed in the Revised Edition has not appeared in earlier editions. (In this case, the alternative reading given here is usually the same as the previous reading listed in the Table of Emendations.)
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NOTES
1. (18.21) MS "sit" altered to "sits"; scribal copy and typescript "sits"; printed in 1947 "sit" [the "s" may have been deleted by Sri Aurobindo when he revised the now missing proofs of the fascicle] 2. (20.8) MS "huge"; copied and typed "large"; printed in 1947 "stark" ["its stark drive;" two lines earlier was revised at the same time to "the driving wheels:"] 3. (31.9-10) MS (dictated) "It was a region of wonder and delight. / All now his bright clairaudience could receive;"; "region" copied as "reign"; "receive;" typed as "receive,"; "delight." printed in 1947 as "delight;" [the last change is likely to be a deliberate alteration by Sri Aurobindo; his attention to this detail may be considered to lend some validity to the version of these two lines printed in 1947 and subsequently] 4. (33.3) MS (dictated) "in"; scribal copy "in" altered to "of; typed "in" [the scribal copy was revised after the canto was typed; when other revisions were transferred to the typescript, this change was missed] 5. (34.32) MS (dictated) "For into ignorant nature’s gusty field" [the line was first written by the scribe on the previous page with "the" before "ignorant", but was cancelled and written again without "the"]; "ignorant nature’s" copied as "the ignorant nature’s" ["ignorant nature’s" (without "the") is normalised to "ignorant Nature’s" in the text of this edition, following Sri Aurobindo’s regular practice] 6. (43.6) MS (dictated) "with unseen"; scribal copy altered to "with an unseen"; typed "with unseen" [typed before revision of the scribal copy; this change was not transferred to the typescript] 7. (47.18) Last complete MS "borne,"; later MS draft of this passage "borne," altered to "born,"; scribal copy of last complete MS "borne," altered to "born,"; typed "borne," 8. (59.8) MS "And keeps for us safe in its unslackening grasp"; "unslack-ening" copied as "unshaking"; scribal copy altered to "In its unshaken grasp it keeps for us safe" 9. (69.21) Revised scribal copy "of" altered to "to"; typed "of [typed before final revision of scribal copy; this change not transferred to typescript] 10. (70.15) MS (dictated) and scribal copy "To reach known harbour lights in distant lands"; "known" typed as "unknown"; "lands" altered to "climes" ["unknown" left unchanged in extensive subsequent revision of the passage, including the insertion four lines earlier of another line containing the word "unknown"] 11. (87.1) MS and scribal copy "lore"; typed "love"; typescript altered to "lore"; printed in 1948 "love"; fascicle altered to "law" [perhaps the scribe’s mishearing of "lore"] 12. (87.16) MS "hermetic"; copied "heretic"; scribal copy altered to "hier-etic" [sic]; typed "hieretic"; printed in 1948 "hieratic" 13. (98.22) MS "Made for"; copied "Made from"; scribal copy altered to "Made by" Page-38 14. (107.27) Revised first typescript "This is her destiny bequeathed to her"; second typescript "the destiny" typed instead of "her destiny" [this more natural wording may have been what Sri Aurobindo intended; it was not changed when the next two lines were added in the revised fascicle] 15. (111.8) MS "The conscious forms of its everliving truth;"; "everliving" copied as "ever living", typed "ever-living"; first copy of typescript revised to "New images of its ever-lasting truth," ["everlasting" (without hyphen) evidently intended]; revision transferred to second copy of typescript except for the alteration of "living" to "lasting"; printed in 1947 "New images of its ever-living truth,"; "New" altered to "The" and "truth," to "Truth," in revised fascicle; printed in 1950 "The images of its ever-living Truth" 16. (111.20) MS "of the unspoken"; "the" cancelled in scribal copy and first copy of typescript; cancellation not transferred to second copy of typescript 17. (116.title) MS "and Fall"; scribal copy and first copy of typescript altered to "and the Fall"; "the" not transferred to second copy of typescript 18-19. (121.24, 27) See Introduction, pp. 15-16. 20. (122.2) MS and scribal copy "Even though deformed, obscure, accursed and fallen,"; "obscure," typed as "obscured,"; typescript altered to "Even deformed, obscured, accursed and fallen, — " 21. (132.6-7) MS (dictated) "inconscient sleep, / Tied"; scribal copy altered to "inconscient sleep / And tied"; first copy of typescript altered to "the Inconscient’s sleep, / Tied"; revision of first copy of typescript not transferred to second copy 22. (132.16) MS "Hunter of the joy that earth has failed to keep," revised by dictation to "Hunting for the joy …", then to "Hunts for the joy that earth has failed to keep."; copied "Hunting for joy… keep"; scribal copy altered to "Hunting for a joy … keep" [comma added after "keep" in revised typescript] 23. (134.31) MS (revised by dictation) "But" written in the space above uncancelled "And"; copied "But" on a small note-pad sheet attached to the MS [the original passage was cancelled when this fair copy was made]; "But" recopied from the note-pad sheet as "And" 24. (134.31) MS "came down" altered by dictation to "has come"; copied "came down" on a sheet attached to the MS [possibly according to Sri Aurobindo's oral instructions] 25. (135.2) Revised scribal copy and typescript "work,"; printed in 1947 "work;" [the semicolon, if authentic, would seem to make "knowledge" in the next line the subject of "gropes" rather than its object; but it is doubtful that Sri Aurobindo intended this] 26. (139.8) MS, scribal copy and typescript "our"; altered to "her" on first copy of typescript; revision not transferred to second copy of typescript 27. (142.14) Antepenultimate MS "Huge armoured strengths shook the Page-39 frail ground with their tread,"; penultimate MS "Huge armoured strengths shook the frail ground," [metrically defective], final MS "Huge armoured strengths shook the" [the line in Sri Aurobindo's hand is incomplete]; MS revised by dictation to "Huge armoured strengths shook a frail quaking ground,"; "a" copied as "the" 28. (143.12-16) See Introduction, pp. 13-15. 29. (147.12) MS "insentient"; copied "inconstient" [sic]; typed "inconscient"; typescript altered to "unconscious" 30. (147.20) MS "But all was yet a vague unorganised stress;"; "unorganised" copied as "unrecognised"; typescript revised to "All was unrecognised stress and seeking vague."; printed in 1950 "… seekings vague." 31. (147.30) MS "In" altered by dictation to "On"; copied "In" 32. (148.23) MS "restrain" altered to "confine"; copied and typed "continue"; typescript altered to "restrain" 33. (148.29-30) MS and scribal copy "Accept its dangerous ignorant brevity"; first typescript revised to "Accepting its dangerous ignorant brevity / And the inconclusive purpose of its walk,"; retyped copy altered to "Accept a dangerous…walk"; printed in 1947 "Accepting a dangerous … walk," 34. (150.18) MS and scribal copy "In spite of her multitude of motived plots,"; "her" typed as "the"; typescript revised to "Amid the multitude of her motived plots," 35. (160.22) MS (dictated) "Or gabled storeys piles and climbing floors"; "floors" copied as "roofs"; fascicle revised to "Its gabled storeys piles, its climbing roofs" [several new lines were added at the same time, including one containing the word "floor" six lines later] 36. (163.14) MS "our" written over "life’s"; copied "Life’s" 37. (166.1) Revised fascicle "He has made a hedge planned to defend his life,"; printed in 1950 "He has made a thick and narrowing hedge / Defending his small life from the Invisible;" [these lines were dictated by Sri Aurobindo when he revised the proofs of the first edition; the metrical irregularity of the first line suggests that he might have intended "into" after "made"] 38. (171.12) MS "in" written in the space above uncancelled "of; copied "of 39. (171.24) MS "dim"; copied and typed "deep"; typescript altered to "dark" 40. (176.11) MS "That yearned out from a bosom of mystic Bliss," altered by dictation to "That yearned out from a mystic bosom of Bliss,"; "out" omitted in scribal copy; typescript revised to "That yearned from a bosom of mysterious Bliss," 41. (176.21) MS "Its signs have traced their pattern in our lives:"; "traced" copied as "made", "pattern" copied as "patterns"; "made" altered in typescript to "stamped"; printed in 1947 "Its signs have stamped their patterns on our lives:" ["in" changed to "on"] 42. (178.26) MS "This is her being’s law and sole resource, / She has no Page-40 other way to be than this:"; "be than" copied as "better"; typescript altered to "This is her being’s law, its sole resource;" [deleting "She has no other way to better this:"] 43. (180.28) A/5 "She refuses motionless in the dust to sleep."; "refuses" copied as "reposes", "to" copied as "of; "the" altered to "its" in revised typescript 44. (186.12) MS (dictated) "outer’s"; copied "other’s"; typescript altered to "outer" 45. (187.20) MS and scribal copy "superconscience"; typed "superconsciousness"; typescript altered to "the Superconscient" 46. (188.2) MS, scribal copy and first typescript "was soon"; retyped "was seen"; second typescript altered to "he grew" 47. (189.33) Antepenultimate MS "And wordless mouths unrecognisable: / A thousand covert living indices" [second line omitted by Sri Aurobindo (inadvertently?) in the next MS; the punctuation in the first line was altered accordingly to a comma in the version printed in the text, and to a full stop before the version of the following passage printed in "Unused Versions and Omitted Passages" (see p. 112 in the Supplement).] 48. (190.30) MS and. scribal copy "Amid the live"; typed "Amidst the live"; typescript altered to "Amidst live" 49-50. (192.2-3, 193.35) See "Unused Versions and Omitted Passages", footnote on p. 116. 51. (194.34) See Introduction, p. 11. 52. (201.7) Revised first typescript "Birth, death are a ceaseless iteration’s points;"; "iteration’s" typed as "vibration’s" in retyped copy; second typescript altered to "Birth, death appear as its vibrating points;" 53. (203.24) MS "harm"; copied "charm" [the next line, related to "charm", was added in the revised fascicle] 54. (205,10) MS (dictated), scribal copy and first typescript "Thus all her glory ended in a doubt"; first typescript altered initially to "All glory of life dimmed, tarnished, into a doubt," [the second typescript was made after this revision]; first typescript further altered to "All glory of life was dimmed, tarnished with doubt;" [this revision was not transferred to the second typescript]; printed in 1948 "All glory of life dimmed, tarnished, into a doubt,"; printed in 1950 "… dimmed tarnished…" 55. (205.18) MS (dictated), scribal copy and first typescript "outsides"; first typescript altered initially to "outside", then changed back to "outsides"; retyped copy "outside" 56. (212.11) MS "the" altered to "his"; copied "the" 57. (217.34) MS, scribal copy and typescript "being"; first copy of typescript altered to "beings"; "s" not transferred to second copy of typescript 58. (218.6-7) Penultimate MS "A formless void oppressed his struggling brain, / A darkness grim and cold benumbed his flesh,"; final MS "oppressed" (repeated) instead of "benumbed" in second line [though this is in Sri Aurobindo's own hand, the repetition seems inadvertent]; copied and typed as in final MS; "oppressed" in first line altered in Page-41 typescript to "suppressed" 59. (228.23) MS "of the great spider-web"; copied and typed "of the great spider’s web"; first copy of typescript altered to "that wove the dark spider’s-web"; revision transferred to second copy of typescript except for the hyphen; "that wove the" altered to "of the" on second copy of typescript 60. (228.24) MS and scribal copy "In which the being was caught and quivered held,"; first copy of typescript revised to "…caught and, quivering, wrapt," ["wrapt" is the scribe’s spelling; "wrapped" was apparently intended at this stage]; changes transferred to second copy of typescript, which was further revised to "In which the soul was caught and quivered wrapt;" [here "rapt" may have been intended]; third copy of typescript, with changes transferred from second copy, finally revised to "… caught, quivering and wrapt;" [where "rapt" was probably intended] 61. (228.36) Second copy of typescript (dictated insertion) "Cities uprooted, the blasted human home," altered to "Uprooted cities, blasted human homes,"; transferred to third copy of typescript as "Cities uprooted, blasted human homes," 62. (240.9) MS "Hypothesis crutching on argument" revised by dictation to "Hypothesis crutched upon argument", then to "Crutching hypothesis on argument"; copied "Crutching hypothesis upon an argument"; "an" cancelled in scribal copy [a comma after "argument" was put when the next line was revised in the typescript] 63. (241.9) MS "hidden" written in the space above uncancelled "unseen"; copied "hidden" 64. (241.29) MS, scribal copy and typescript "could put"; printed in 1948 "would put" 65. (243.21) MS "Ever it searched and grasped"; scribal copy altered to "Ever it searching grasps" [Sri Aurobindo may have dictated "its searching grasps", a more usual construction, which the scribe might have misheard]; typed "Ever searching it grasps" 66. (249.28) MS "The strongest, subtlest of the troll-like Three"; "strongest, subtlest" copied as "strongest sat there"; typescript revised to "She took her firm and irremovable seat, / The strongest, wisest of the troll-like Three." 67. (256.15) MS, scribal copy and typescript "wings,"; printed in 1948 "wing," 68. (263.1) MS (revised by dictation) "A memory steals in from lost heavens of Truth,"; "in" omitted in copy; scribal copy altered to "A memory steals from a lost heaven of Truth," 69. (263.11) MS (dictated) "its" altered to "a"; copied "its" 70. (274.23) MS (revised by dictation), scribal copy and first typescript "A witness to his high triumphant star,"; "witness to" typed as "witness of in second typescript ["witness of was left unchanged in the revised fascicle when "servitor to" was introduced in the next line] Page-42 71. (277.25-26) MS "A glory of sunrise breaking on the soul, / In a tremulous rapture of the heart’s insight"; "sunrise" copied as "surmise"; scribal copy altered to "A glory, a surprise of the seized soul, / In a tremulous…"; typed "A glory, a surprise seized the soul / In a tremulous …"; typescript revised to "In a glory and surprise of the seized soul / And a tremulous…" 72. (279.20) MS "Time’s sun-flowers gazing" altered by dictation to "Time’s sun-flowers’ gaze"; scribal copy, typescript and early editions as in revised MS; printed in 1970 "Time’s sunflowers gaze" [the present edition adopts the reading in the revised MS, but "Time’s sun-flowers gaze" is mentioned as a possible conjectural emendation which would avoid the unusual sequence of two possessives in "Time’s sun-flowers’ gaze"] 73. (283.26) MS "This neutral hush, needed as thinking’s base"; "neutral" copied as "mental"; scribal copy altered to "A witness hush is thinking’s secret base:" [with much revision and expansion of the following passage]; typescript revised to "This witness hush is the Thinker’s secret base:" 74. (290.1) MS "long-known, well-loved,"; copied "long-known, all-loved,"; scribal copy altered to "long-known and loved," 75. (296.8) MS "And drunk as with a gold spiritual wine,"; "gold" copied as "golden"; typescript revised to "Drunk with a deep golden spiritual wine," 76. (308.23) Revised scribal copy "in fathomless peace," altered to "in its fathomless hush,"; [no typescript available]; printed in 1946 and 1950 "in fathomless peace,"; printed in 1954 "in its fathomless hush," 77. (310.13) MS "The ego is dead; we are freed from being and Time,"; "freed" copied as "free" ["Time," altered to "care," in the revised fascicle] 78. (315.13) Earliest MS "Thus"; four subsequent MSS in Sri Aurobindo’s hand, including final MS, "This"; copied "Thus" 79. (320.25) Penultimate MS "Beyond the sight that seeks support of form,"; final MS "Beyond the sight the [sic] seeks support from form," ["seeks" semilegible], revised by dictation to "Beyond the sight the last support of form," [When the MS was revised, the scribe may have been unable to decipher "seeks", while "the" which had accidentally replaced "that" might have prompted Sri Aurobindo to find an adjective to modify "support". A comma after "sight" was printed in 1947.] 80. (322.31-32) Penultimate MS "Then suddenly there came a downward look. / As if a sea exploring its own depths,"; final MS the same, but without punctuation; revised scribal copy "Then suddenly there came a downward look / As if a sea exploring its own depths;" [It is not certain that this punctuation was put at Sri Aurobindo’s dictation.] 81. (324.27) MS "communality"; copied "communalty"; scribal copy altered to "commonalty" 82. (324.32-325.1) See Introduction, pp. 11-12. 83. (325.30) MS "With its eddies" altered to "With eddies"; copied "With its eddies" Page-43 84. (334.12) MS "grasp" written over "clasp" or "clasp" over "grasp"; copied "grasp" 85. (340.34) See Introduction, p. 13. 86. (346.12) MS, scribal copy and typescript "cloud-nets"; printed in 1947 "cloud-net" 87. (347.31) See Introduction, pp. 19-20. 88. (350.3) MS (dictated) "Tempests"; copied "Tempest’s"; typed "Tempests’ " 89. (350.28) Revised typescript "sullen" written in the space below underlined "sombre"; retyped "sombre" 90. (353.10-12) MS "Its brightness linked our transience to the Unknown. / A spirit of its celestial source aware / [two more lines inserted and cancelled] / Translating- heaven into a human shape" [an arrow in the MS indicating that "Translating…" was to be moved before "Its brightness…" was cancelled]; typed with "Translating …" before "Its brightness …" 91. (354.11) MS "Always she drives the soul to new attempt;" altered to "… our souls …"; "the" restored in MS ["soul" was probably meant to be restored at the same time]; typed from revised MS "… the souls …" 92. (361.32) MS (revised by dictation) "It stretched towards Truth the mind’s divining rod;" cancelled by the scribe and replaced by a slightly altered version of the line written in the margin of the MS, "Or stretched towards Truth mind’s divining rod;" [the metrical awkwardness of this suggests that Sri Aurobindo meant to keep "the" before "mind’s" when he changed "It" to "Or"], revised to "Or stretched to find Truth mind’s divining rod;"; "Truth mind’s" altered on second copy of first typescript to "truth mind’s"; retyped "Truth-mind’s"; retyped copy altered to "Truth mind’s"; printed in 1950 "Truth-mind’s" 93. (367.1) MS and typescript "As yet with the great world she had no link;"; first copy of typescript altered to "As yet unlinked with the broad human scene"; second copy of typescript left as in MS; unrevised line printed in 1950 and 1951; revised line printed in 1954, with a comma after "scene" 94. (367.3) MS and typescript "Her spirit’s early reign and human school,"; first copy of typescript altered to "Her being’s early school and closed domain,"; second copy of typescript left as in MS; unrevised line printed in 1950 and 1951; revised line printed in 1954 95. (367.4-5) MS and typescript "Her apprenticeship she made to life and death,"; first copy of typescript altered to "Apprentice in the business of earth-life, / She schooled her heavenly strain to bear its touch,"; second copy of typescript left as in MS; unrevised version printed in 1950 and 1951; revised version printed in 1954 96. (367.8) MS "Although earth knew not yet the inhabiting flame,";first copy of typescript altered to "The wide world knew not yet the inhabitant flame,"; second copy of typescript left as in MS; printed in 1950 and 1951 "Earth nursed, unconscious still, the inhabiting flame," [revised in Page-44 the proofs of "Advent" (August 1950) from the MS version found in the unaltered second copy of the typescript]; printed in 1954 "The wide world knew not yet the inhabitant flame," [In the last section of this canto, where the second copy of the typescript was not revised, the 1954 edition incorporated most of the alterations marked on the first copy of the typescript (see items 93-95, 97 and 99); the fact that Sri Aurobindo had revised this particular line when the canto was published in "Advent" — at a later lime than his revision of the first copy of the typescript— was overlooked.] 97. (367.30) MS and typescript "There came to join her heart no heart’s approach,"; first copy of typescript altered to "No equal heart came close to join her heart,"; second copy of typescript left as in MS; unrevised line printed in 1950 and 1951; revised line printed in 1954 98. (368.2) MS and typescript "in the sense-life’s"; "the" cancelled in first copy of typescript; second copy of typescript not altered; "the" printed in 1950, 1951, etc. 99. (368.17) MS and typescript "Alone amid surrounding crowds she dwelt,"; first copy of typescript altered to "Midst those encircling lives her spirit dwelt,"; second copy of typescript left as in MS; unrevised line printed in 1950 and 1951; revised line printed in 1954 100. (371.8) MS (revised by dictation) "A goddess caught in the Inconscient’s nets," replaced by "A goddess in a net of transcience [sic] caught," [this was written in the margin of the MS, probably during a second dictated revision; at this time the scribe may have misread "Inconscient’s" as "Transient’s", thus influencing Sri Aurobindo’s revision (the scribe’s misspelling—"transcience", with "sc" as in "Inconscient’s"—suggests such a misreading, which the unclear formation of the first letters of "Inconscient’s" in the MS would make possible)]; "transcience" typed as "inconscience" 101. (373.31-34) MS "A casual passing phrase can change our life." marked to be shifted after "To weigh unconscious lips with words from Fate:"; typed in its original position before "For the hidden …" 102. (378.23) MS "Upon her" altered by dictation to "On her own"; typed "Upon her own"; typescript altered to "Upon her" 103. (381.27) MS "unprofaned"; typed "unprepared"; typescript altered to "unassailed" 104. (389.19) MS (revised by dictation) and typescript "call and"; second copy of typescript altered to "call, to"; printed in 1950 "call and" [the second copy of the typescript of Book Five, containing a number of revisions not marked on the first copy, was overlooked when the text was printed in 1950] 105. (389.26) MS and typescript "Below there"; second copy of typescript altered to "Below them"; printed in 1950 "Below there" 106. (390.6) MS and typescript "purple"; second copy of typescript altered to "azure"; printed in 1950 "purple" 107. (390.7) MS (revised by dictation) and typescript "In her"; second copy Page-45 of typescript altered to "In a"; printed in 1950 "In her" 108. (390.9) MS (revised by dictation) and typescript "Wasted"; second copy of typescript altered to "Wasting"; printed in 1950 "Wasted" 109. (390.9) MS (revised by dictation) and typescript "patterns"; printed in 1950 "pattern" 110. (390.11) MS and typescript "was"; printed in 1950 "were" 111. (390.31-32) MS (revised by dictation) and typescript "hills / And peaks"; second copy of typescript altered to "hills, / Peaks"; printed in 1950 "hills / And peaks" 112. (396.2) MS, scribal copy and typescript "the gleam"; second copy of typescript altered to "a gleam"; printed in 1950 "the gleam" 113. (398.35) MS (dictated), scribal copy and typescript "although life, mind"; second copy of typescript altered to "though life and mind"; printed in 1950 "although life, mind" 114. (401.21-22) MS "I have glimpsed… pools / And seen" altered by dictation to "I glimpsed… pools / And saw"; copied and typed as in revised MS; second copy of typescript altered to "I have glimpsed… pools, /I have seen"; printed in 1950 "I glimpsed … pools / And saw" 115. (403.17) MS "withdrew" written in the space above uncancelled "removed"; copied "removed" 116. (404.33) MS "inmates" altered to "intimates"; copied "inmates" 117. (405.7-11) MS "Pranked butterflies,…" marked with an arrow shifting it before "And wandering wings in blue infinity"; "Pranked butterflies, …" copied in its previous position after "Mountains and trees …"; "in blue infinity" copied as "in the infinity" typescript altered to "nearing from infinity" 118. (410.23) MS "grew aware"; copied "grew a wave"; scribal copy altered to "was a wave" 119. (411.14) MS draft "priestly whispering" altered to "priestly whisperings"; dictated version "choral whispering"; copied "coral [sic] whisperings"; typed "choral whisperings" 120. (415.1) MS (dictated) "In regions far above the mortal’s plane" altered to "… the mortal range"; copied and typed "… the mortal’s plane" [the copy was evidently made before "mortal’s plane" was altered to "mortal range"; the change was not transferred]; proofs of "Sri Aurobindo Mandir Annual" (1950) revised to "In silent bounds bordering the mortal’s plane" 121. (415.12) MS (dictated) "a see-saw game of death with life." altered to "the see-saw …"; copied "a see-saw …" [apparently copied before the alteration of "a" to "the" in the dictated MS; "with" was represented in the copy by a shorthand symbol]; typed "a see-saw game of death and life." 122. (417.10) MS (dictated) "might" altered to "darts"; copied "might" 123. (418.19) MS "fiery" lightly cancelled and "fire-tinged" written in the space above it; copied "fiery" 124. (419.11) MS "noon"; copied "moon"; scribal copy altered to "morn" Page-46 125. (420.33-34) MS (dictated) "Pitiful to mortals; only to them it spoke" [the semicolon appears to be a mistake, since the preceding line ends in a semicolon and the phrase "Pitiful to mortals" seems more closely connected with what follows than with what precedes]; scribal copy revised by the insertion after this of a new line, "As a wind flatters the bright summer air," [a comma was put after "spoke" in the first line at this stage]; scribal copy further revised with an arrow shifting "As a wind flatters…" before "Pitiful to mortals;…" [the comma after "spoke" was now cancelled]; typed (overlooking the arrow) "Pitiful to mortals, only to them it spoke, / As a wind flatters the bright summer air," 126. (421.20) MS "wizard"; copied "inner" [repeated from the line above]; scribal copy altered to "hidden" 127. (426.5) MS (dictated) "this benign" altered to "the benign"; copied "this benign"; scribal copy altered to "this blithe" 128. (434.28-29) MS (dictated) "delights / As steps to climb towards an unseen height"; "delights" copied as "delight"; scribal copy revised to "delight / As steps to climb towards the unseen heights." [Sri Aurobindo evidently wished to avoid the rhyme between "delight" and "height" created by the miscopying]; typed "delight / As steps to climb towards unseen heights."; typescript revised to "delight / As steps to climb to God’s far secret heights." 129. (435.17) MS "The" inserted by dictation before "Beating"; copied "Beating" 130. (437.16-19) Revised second typescript "Awhile she lost her spirit’s tranquil poise, / Awhile she shared the lot of common souls / And bore the heavy hand of Death and Time / And felt the anguish in life’s stricken deeps." written between the lines of the original seven-line typed passage preceding the queen’s speech [these four lines replaced a single typed line, "Lost for a while the spirit’s tranquil poise:"]; further dictated lines were written in the margin of the typescript, including the lines "Awhile she fell to the level of human mind, / A field of mortal grief and Nature’s law / She shared, she bore the common lot of men / And felt what common hearts endure in Time."1 [these lines, marked to be inserted above the other four with several lines intervening, seem to be a reworking of the earlier lines, for they use a number of the same words such as the verb-sequence, "she shared", "bore", "and felt" and the words "common", "lot" and "Time"]; the entire passage, including both four-line sentences beginning with "Awhile…", was copied by the scribe onto small slips of paper and crossed out on the typed sheet. [All of the lines were printed in the texts of 1951 and 1954, but in 1970 the last seven lines were removed to a footnote as an alternative version. The last three lines of this footnote are restored to the text in the present edition, since they do not contain any obvious duplication of other lines.]
1 Punctuation has been supplied at the end of the second line in this edition. It seems clear that "the common lot of men" was intended to be the object of "she shared" as well as of "she bore". Cf. "she shared the lot of common souls" in the previous version. Page-47 131. (441.13) Revised typescript "In a vague repetition of lost lines"; "lines" typed as "lives" in retyped copy; second typescript altered to "In a vain repetition of lost toils" 132. (444.13-14) MS (dictated) "Against the world’s Ignorance and its obstinate strength, / Against the stumblings of man’s pervert will,"; second line omitted in copy; first line revised in typescript to "Against man’s ignorance and his obstinate strength," 133. (446.16) MS "His fiercer strife and wrestle"; "fiercer" copied as "fierier"; typescript revised to "The fire, the strife, the wrestle" 134. (448.11) Revised typescript "His enemies are the beings he came to save. / Those he would save are his antagonists." [The first line was inserted by the scribe between the lines of the typescript, the second was written in the left margin (followed by four other lines). The similarity of the two lines suggests that the second was meant to replace the first.] 135. (449.22-23) Revised typescript "His heart is undismayed by adverse powers," written in the right margin next to the typed lines: "Invulnerable his soul, his heart unslain, / He lives through the opposition of earth’s Powers" 136. (450.1) MS (dictated) "hazard" ["haphazard" intended?] 137. (455.9-13) MS (dictated) and scribal copy "Eternal Consciousness became a freak / Of an unsouled almighty Inconscient / And, breathed no more as spirit’s native air / Bliss was an incident of a mortal hour, / A stranger in the insentient universe."; "freak" typed as "peak", "air" typed as "air." [supplying a full stop instead of the needed comma]; typescript revised to "The eternal Consciousness became the home / Of an unsouled almighty Inconscient; / It lived no more as spirit’s native air. / A stranger in the insentient universe, / Bliss was the incident of a mortal hour."; further revised on an offprint of "Sri A Aurobindo Mandir Annual" (1948): "Of an" altered to "Of some", "It lived no more as" altered to "One breathed no more the" 138. (456.5) MS and first scribal copy "A Thought that from the Timeless leaped became / A cyclic…"; recopied "A Thought that leaped from the Timeless became / A cyclic…"; typescript revised to "A Thought that leaped from the Timeless can become, / Indicator of cosmic consequence / And the itinerary of the gods, / A cyclic…" 139. (457.26) MS "It thinks a dead machine or unconscious Fate."; "dead" copied as "hard"; scribal copy first altered to "He thinks a hard machine or unconscious Fate." (agreeing with the change of "it" to "he" in other lines), then revised to "Appears a hard machine or meaningless Fate." 140. (457.27-28) MS "A Magician’s formulas have made this world / And while they work all things by them are bound;"; "this world" copied as "thy wrestle"; "thy wrestle" altered to "Matter’s laws", "work" to "last," 141. (458.23) MS "in" [or, less likely, "on"; the word is unclear, but there seems to be the dot of an "i"]; dictated version and scribal copy "in"; typed "on" [in view of the slight uncertainty of the MS reading, "on" has been retained in the text, being the more usual preposition with "road"] Page-48 142. (459.7) See Introduction, pp. 10-11. 143. (460.10) MS (dictated) "Queen, strive no more against thy daughter’s will; / Opposing the fixed sanction of the gods, / Bring not the helpless touch of human tear [sic] / Or the cowardly escapism of human mind / To a struggle too deep for mortal thoughts to sound"; second line omitted in copy; second typescript thoroughly revised, including the cancellation of the fourth line, the alteration of the remaining three lines, and the addition of fifteen new lines between these lines. [Because of the extent of the later revision, the line omitted in the scribal copy has not been restored to the text in the present edition.] 144. (478.36) Revised first typescript "life’s" altered to "time’s"; retyped copy "life’s" 145. (479.23) MS draft "in great secret rooms;"; scribal version the same, altered to "in his secret room;"; typed "in his great secret room;"; typescript revised to "in great secret rooms;" 146. (483.4) Revised typescript "turns" written in the space above uncancelled "rush"; retyped copy "turns" 147. (492.14-17) MS (dictated) "Out of the mountain secrecies of the soul / It brought the moon-flow of the plant of Bliss / And the dreams of some first inexpressible ecstasy."; second line omitted in typed copy; typescript revised and expanded to four lines as printed in the text 148. (495.26) MS (dictated) "And guarding"; typescript first altered to "They guarded", then "They" altered back to "And" without restoring "guarding" [perhaps an oversight] 149. (496.28) MS (dictated) and typed copy "gardened parks."; typescript altered to "gardened paths." [This change introduces a seemingly less natural expression and creates a repetition of "paths" and "path" in two successive line-endings. It may be conjectured that the scribe misunderstood Sri Aurobindo’s instructions, but it is not obvious how such a mistake might have occurred. Moreover, the alteration of "the safe level paths" to "a safe level path" in the next line of the typescript has the effect of avoiding an exact repetition.] 150. (519.32) MS draft "the void Unborn."; dictated version "the Void unborn." [The possibility of a scribal error is suggested by a similar expression where the wrong word was capitalised. In the MS draft of 608.28, Sri Aurobindo wrote "the mute Alone" (a phrase which also occurs with the same capitalisation in 593.2 and 647.17); it appears in the dictated version as "the Mute alone". That this was a mistake is confirmed by the next line, which begins: "In the Alone …". This error was corrected in the 1970 edition.] 151. (531.19) MS draft "In the small span between a birth and death,"; dictated version "In the brief stade between a death and birth" [The line in Sri Aurobindo’s hand occurs among some passages which he later dictated in a slightly different form. The substitution in the dictated version of "brief stade" for "small span" is clearly intentional. The inversion of "birth and death" to "death and birth" must perhaps be considered Page-49 authentic, though the original phrase seems more apt in this context.] 152. (552.35) MS (dictated) "Turned" altered to "She turned" [The insertion of "She" seems to disturb the straightforward grammatical structure of the sentence in which the last line was the main clause. Possibly a change in punctuation, such as a full stop in place of the second dash, was intended to go with the insertion.] 153. (571.13) MS "She clasped to her the mute and lifeless form"; "and" omitted in copy; scribal copy revised to "Closely she clasped to her the mute lifeless form" 154. (580.34) MS "hopes from"; copied "hopes of; scribal copy altered to "hopes in" 155. (581.2) MS "sovereign,"; scribal copy "sovereign" altered to "suzerain"; typed "sovereign" 156. (581.10) MS (revised by dictation) "wide, intense,"; copied "a wide, intense,"; scribal copy altered to "wide and tense,"; typed "wide and intense,"; printed in 1949 "wide, intense," 157. (588.27) MS "huge refusals" altered by dictation to "vast refusal"; copied "vast refusals" 158. (592.24) MS (dictated) "And, a vain oneness seeking,"; copied "And, a vain oneness seeking" [omitting the second comma]; scribal copy altered to "And a vain oneness seeking" [cancelling the first comma, so that "oneness" might be taken as the subject rather than the object of "seeking"] 159. (602.15) MS (revised by dictation) "There were vague fields, vague pastures, rainy trees,"; "rainy" copied as "vague"; [no typescript available]; printed in "Advent" (April 1951) "Vague fields were there, vague pastures gleamed, vague trees," [in the first edition, "gleamed" was misprinted as "gleaned"] 160. (615.15) MS (dictated) "Hardly he can mould the life’s rebellious stuff, / Hardly he can hold the galloping hooves of sense:", "he can" in the second line altered to "can he" [was this change intended in the first line also?] 161. (615.25) MS draft "On the firm earth Matter alone is sure:"; dictated version "Matter on the [or its] firm earth reigns strong and sure." altered to "Matter on its [or the] firm earth sits strong and sure." ["its" written over "the" or vice versa]; copied "Matter on the firm earth sits strong and sure." 162. (616.35) MS "the dumb inconscient"; copied "the inconscient"; typescript altered to "the still inconscient" 163. (622.36) MS (dictated "Already in his still foreseeing depths,"; copied "Already still in his foreseeing depths,"; scribal copy altered to "Motionless, voiceless in foreseeing depths," 164. (631.28) MS draft and scribal version "planned it all."; copied "planned it"; scribal copy altered to "made the plan" [a comma was printed in 1951] 165. (639.32) Last MS "ruled,"; dictated version "led," ["led" might be Page-50 misunderstood as implying that Savitri was in front of Death and Satya-van, until "she behind" is read in the next line; however, "led" is found in an early MS as well as in the final dictated version] 166. (642.32) MS "or by river banks"; copied "or river banks"; scribal copy altered to "or on river banks" 167. (648.34) MS draft "Its green delight" [this phrase and "its laughter of beauty" in the next line refer to "Life" in the preceding line]; dictated version "If green delight" [the substitution of "If for "Its", though grammatically possible, makes the reference of "its" in the following line unclear; it is suspected to be a scribal error] 168. (662.13) MS draft "Can feel the Infinite in a finite form"; dictated version "Feels all the Infinite lodged in finite form" ["a finite form", as in the draft, was perhaps intended in the final version also] 169. (665.24) MS draft "It flooded into her navel’s lotus depth"; dictated version "It poured into a navel’s lotus depth," [the replacement of "her" by "a" looks like a scribal error] 170. (667.8) Several MS drafts "light"; dictated version "life" [It is assumed that "light", the word written by Sri Aurobindo and the one that best fits the context, could have been misheard by the scribe as "life". This supposition is supported by the fact that in another line (600.29) the scribe initially wrote "light" instead of "life" (the inverse of the present case), the evident mistake being later corrected to agree with the MS draft.] 171. (671.6) Revised typescript "were there" written in the space above uncancelled "appeared"; printed in 1951 "appeared", with a footnote giving "were there" as an alternative 172. (673.32) MS "harping" altered in the scribe’s hand to "rhythming"; copied "rhythming" [or "rhythmic"] and altered to "rhythmic" [or "rhythming"; it is not clear whether "c" was written over "ng" or vice versa] 173. (680.6) MS draft "laugh."; dictated version "love." [taken to be a scribal mishearing] 174. (683.24) Revised typescript "taught", with "vistaed" written in the margin; printed in 1951 "taught", with a footnote giving "vistaed" as an alternative 175. (683.30-32) MS "I am the hushed secret of the jealous gods / Seized in the thousand meeting ways of heaven."; "secret" copied as "search"; scribal copy revised by inserting a new line, "Pursuing my wisdom’s vast mysterious work"; "word" printed in 1970 instead of "work" [since "Pursuing…" Was evidently added to explain "search", "secret" has not been restored to the text] 176. (684.5) MS "foaming steely straits"; "steely" copied as "sleety"; scribal copy altered to "conscious foaming straits" 177. (689.27) MS (dictated) "For most are built on Nature’s early plan"; "early" typed as "earthly" ["earthly" contrasts well with "a superior plane" in the next line ("And owe small debt to a superior plane;"); Page-51 however, there seems to be no compelling reason to suppose a scribal mishearing of "earthly" as "early" which was later corrected by the typist] 178. (692.33) MS (dictated) "And have an answer to the cry of earth," ["have an" seems to be a scribal mishearing of "heaven"]; "have an" later altered in MS to "hear an"; scribal copy revised to "And hear an answer to her lonely cry," 179. (699.11) MS (dictated) "And the glory of my sun-lift in their thoughts" [It has been conjectured that the unusual expression, "sun-lift", might be a scribal mishearing of "sun live"; but the proposed alternative would create a grammatical irregularity, since "men" in the preceding line is the implied subject of the verb "feel" in the following line, while "live" would have a different subject.] 180. (705.14) MS (dictated) "originer" [not an English word or a coinage that would seem justified by the context; emended in this edition to "origin"] 181. (706.12) MS (dictated) "lotus throne"; typed "lotus throne," [the comma gives a different meaning which might possibly have been intended by Sri Aurobindo]; retyped "lotus-throne," [the hyphen has been accepted in this edition] 182. (709.9-14) MS (dictated) "The higher kind shall lean to lift up man / And man desire to climb towards his heights." revised and expanded with the insertion in the available space of four new lines whose order is indicated by arrows and numbers; two lines that were not numbered ("The truth above shall wake a nether truth, / Even the dumb earth become a sentient force.") were written above the positions of the other lines as indicated by the arrows, but the intended position of these two lines is slightly uncertain and they appear last in the typed copy. 183. (717.20) MS "Disdained the gates of night and turned from joy / Of heaven insufficient without thee." revised by dictation to "Together we have disdained the gates of night. /I have turned away from the celestial’s joy / And heaven’s insufficient without thee." ["celestial’s" has been emended to "celestials’", since this word when it occurs as a noun normally refers to the gods and is used in the plural. (Other evidemtly misplaced apostrophes in dictated matter indicate that Sri Aurobindo did not always dictate apostrophes, but that the scribe sometimes supplied them according to his own understanding of the meaning.) The apostrophe in "heaven’s" (presumably representing in this case not a possessive, which would be redundant after "the celestials’", but a contraction of "heaven is") is also open to question; Sri Aurobindo may have intended "heavens".] 184. (718.3) MS (dictated) "scene," ["seen," intended?] 185. (719.25) See Introduction, pp. 16-19. 186. (721.30) MS "days" written in the space above uncancelled "life" [when a line beginning with "Life" was inserted three lines below]; typed "life" Page-52
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