Evolution (revised)

I passed into a lucent still abode
And saw as in a mirror crystalline
An ancient Force ascending serpentine
The unhasting spirals of the aeonic road.

Earth was a cradle for the arriving god
And man but a half-dark half-luminous sign
Of the transition of the veiled Divine
From Matter’s sleep and the tormented load

Of ignorant life and death to the Spirit’s light.
Mind liberated swam Light’s ocean vast,
And life escaped from its grey tortured line;

I saw Matter illumining its parent Night.
The soul could feel into infinity cast
Timeless God-bliss the heart incarnadine.

1938
(revised 22-3-1944)

Sri Aurobindo

The Sonnets

Reference: # 91 in “Les poèmes de Sri Aurobindo” (bilingual edition)
also in “Last Poems” – 48
all published by Sri Aurobindo Ashram – Pondicherry
diffusion by SABDA