Calm and strong she stood
Immortal wings covered her self and whole being,
A luminous power that knows no defeat;
Calm and strong she stood Death standing next to her,
The spirit of negation denying God’s creation;
He claimed ownership of the soul as his full right,
Inconscience supporting the prerogative;
But a superlative noon was here to end it all,
In a triumph worked out since the beginning.
29 November 2024
Savitri Book Nine Canto One:
Then suddenly there came on her the change
Which in tremendous moments of our lives
Can overtake sometimes the human soul
And hold it up towards its luminous source. ||134.6||
The veil is torn, the thinker is no more:
Only the spirit sees and all is known. ||134.7||
Then a calm Power seated above our brows
Is seen, unshaken by our thoughts and deeds,
Its stillness bears the voices of the world:
Immobile, it moves Nature, looks on life…. ||134.8||
This in a moment’s depths was born in her…. ||134.14||
Like one who looks up to far heights she saw,
Ancient and strong as on a windless summit
Above her where she had worked in her lone mind
Labouring apart in a sole tower of self,
The source of all which she had seemed or wrought… ||134.18||
That mightiness assumed a symbol form:
Her being’s spaces quivered with its touch,
It covered her as with immortal wings…. ||134.22|
Let us scan the last few lines:
Like one| who looks| up to| far heights| she saw,|
An+cient| and strong| as on| a wind|+less sum+mit|
A+bove| her where| she had worked| in her| lone mind|
La+bour+ing| a+part| in a| sole tow|+er of self,|
The source| of all| which she| had seemed| or wrought,|
Then like| a thought| ful+filled| by some| great word|
That might|+i+ness| as+sumed| a sym|+bol form;|
Her be|+ing’s spac|+es quiv|+ered with| its touch,|
It cov|+ered her| as with| im+mor|+tal wings;| …

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