Works of Sri Aurobindo

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Savitri-Book-5

                Book 1    Book II    Book III    Book IV     Book V    Book VI    Book VII    Book VIII     Book IX    Book X    Book XI

Book Five. The Book of Love

MusicBook Five. Canto One:The Destined Meeting-Place
  

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001   But now the destined spot and hour were close;
002   Unknowing she had neared her nameless goal.
. . .
028   Pale waters ran like glimmering threads of pearl.
029   A sigh was straying among happy leaves;
030   Cool-perfumed with slow pleasure-burdened feet
031   Faint stumbling breezes faltered among flowers.
032   The white crane stood, a vivid motionless streak,
033   Peacock and parrot jewelled soil and tree,
034   The dove’s soft moan enriched the enamoured air
035   And fire-winged wild-drakes swam in silvery pools.
  

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067   A matted forest-head invaded heaven
068   As if a blue-throated ascetic peered
069   From the stone fastness of his mountain cell
070   Regarding the brief gladness of the days;
071   His vast extended spirit couched behind.
MusicBook Five. Canto Two:Satyavan
  

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034   As might a soul on Nature’s background limned
035   Stand out for a moment in a house of dream
036   Created by the ardent breath of life,
037   So he appeared against the forest verge
038   Inset twixt green relief and golden ray.
. . .
046   His look was a wide daybreak of the gods,
047   His head was a youthful Rishi’s touched with light,
048   His body was a lover’s and a king’s.
  

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085   At first her glance that took life’s million shapes
086   Impartially to people its treasure-house
087   Along with sky and flower and hill and star,
088   Dwelt rather on the bright harmonious scene.
. . .
111   Her vision settled, caught and all was changed.
112   Her mind at first dwelt in ideal dreams,
. . .
115   And saw in him the genius of the spot,
116   A symbol figure standing mid earth’s scenes,
117   A king of life outlined in delicate air.
  

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118   Yet this was but a moment’s reverie;
119   For suddenly her heart looked out at him,
120   The passionate seeing used thought cannot match,
121   And knew one nearer than its own close strings.
. . .
145   Hooves trampling fast, wheels largely stumbling ceased;
146   The chariot stood like an arrested wind.
147   And Satyavan looked out from his soul’s doors
148   And felt the enchantment of her liquid voice
149   Fill his youth’s purple ambience and endured
150   The haunting miracle of a perfect face.
  

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151   Mastered by the honey of a strange flower-mouth,
152   Drawn to soul-spaces opening round a brow,
153   He turned to the vision like a sea to the moon
154   And suffered a dream of beauty and of change,
155   Discovered the aureole round a mortal’s head,
156   Adored a new divinity in things.
  

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164   Marvelling he came across the golden sward:
165   Gaze met close gaze and clung in sight’s embrace.
  

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203   There is a Power within that knows beyond
204   Our knowings; we are greater than our thoughts,
205   And sometimes earth unveils that vision here.
206   To live, to love are signs of infinite things,
207   Love is a glory from eternity’s spheres.
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MusicBook Five. Canto Three:Satyavan and Savitri
  

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017   Thus Satyavan spoke first to Savitri:
. . .
023   How art thou named among the sons of men?
. . .
050   I have heard strange voices cross the ether’s waves,
051   The Centaur’s wizard song has thrilled my ear;
052   I have glimpsed the Apsaras bathing in the pools,
053   I have seen the wood-nymphs peering through the leaves;
054   The winds have shown to me their trampling lords,
055   I have beheld the princes of the Sun
056   Burning in thousand-pillared homes of light.
057   So now my mind could dream and my heart fear
. . .
060   Thou drov’st thy horses from the Thunderer’s worlds.
  

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100   Musing she answered, “I am Savitri,
101   Princess of Madra. Who art thou? What name
102   Musical on earth expresses thee to men?
103   What trunk of kings watered by fortunate streams
104   Has flowered at last upon one happy branch?
  

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112   And Satyavan replied to Savitri:
113   “In days when yet his sight looked clear on life,
114   King Dyumatsena once, the Shalwa, reigned
. . .
122   Heaven’s brilliant gods recalled their careless gifts,
123   Took from blank eyes their glad and helping ray
. . .
127   He sojourns in two solitudes, within
128   And in the solemn rustle of the woods.
129   Son of that king, I, Satyavan, have lived
130   Contented, for not yet of thee aware,
131   In my high-peopled loneliness of spirit
  

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164   A visioned spell pursued my boyhood’s hours,
. . .
173   The neighing pride of rapid life that roams
174   Wind-maned through our pastures, on my seeing mood
175   Cast shapes of swiftness; trooping spotted deer
176   Against the vesper sky became a song
177   Of evening to the silence of my soul.
178   I caught for some eternal eye the sudden
179   King-fisher flashing to a darkling pool;
180   A slow swan silvering the azure lake,
181   A shape of magic whiteness, sailed through dream;
. . .
183   Pranked butterflies, the conscious flowers of air,
. . .
187   The brilliant long-bills in their vivid dress,
188   The peacock scattering on the breeze his moons
189   Painted my memory like a frescoed wall.
  

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209   I glimpsed the presence of the One in all.
210   But still there lacked the last transcendent power
. . .
216   I shall feel the World-Mother in thy golden limbs
217   And hear her wisdom in thy sacred voice.
  

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223   “Speak more to me, speak more, O Satyavan,
224   Speak of thyself and all thou art within;
. . .
227   Speak till a light shall come into my heart
228   And my moved mortal mind shall understand
229   What all the deathless being in me feels.
230   It knows that thou art he my spirit has sought
231   Amidst earth’s thronging visages and forms
232   Across the golden spaces of my life.”
  

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233   And Satyavan like a replying harp
234   To the insistent calling of a flute
235   Answered her questioning and let stream to her
236   His heart in many-coloured waves of speech:
237   “O golden princess, perfect Savitri,
. . .
309   Wilt thou not make this mortal bliss thy sphere?
310   Descend, O happiness, with thy moon-gold feet
311   Enrich earth’s floors upon whose sleep we lie.
  

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327   “O Satyavan, I have heard thee and I know;
328   I know that thou and only thou art he.”
329   Then down she came from her high carven car
330   Descending with a soft and faltering haste;
. . .
335   Her gleaming feet upon the green-gold sward
336   Scattered a memory of wandering beams
337   And lightly pressed the unspoken desire of earth
338   Cherished in her too brief passing by the soil.
  

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339   Then flitting like pale-brilliant moths her hands
340   Took from the sylvan verge’s sunlit arms
341   A load of their jewel-faces’ clustering swarms,
342   Companions of the spring-time and the breeze.
343   A candid garland set with simple forms
344   Her rapid fingers taught a flower song,
345   The stanzaed movement of a marriage hymn.
  

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349   A sacrament of joy in treasuring palms
350   She brought, flower-symbol of her offered life,
351   Then with raised hands that trembled a little now
352   At the very closeness that her soul desired,
353   This bond of sweetness, their bright union’s sign,
354   She laid on the bosom coveted by her love.
  

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355   As if inclined before some gracious god
356   Who has out of his mist of greatness shone
357   To fill with beauty his adorer’s hours,
358   She bowed and touched his feet with worshipping hands;
. . .
360   And made her body the room of his delight,
361   Her beating heart a remembrancer of bliss.
  

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362. He bent to her and took into his own
363. Their married yearning joined like folded hopes;
  

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364   As if a whole rich world suddenly possessed,
365   Wedded to all he had been, became himself,
366   An inexhaustible joy made his alone,
367   He gathered all Savitri into his clasp.

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