SRI AUROBINDO

Collected Poems

SHORT POEMS — 1930-1950

Silence is all

1
 

Silence is all, say the sages.

Silence watches the work of the ages;

In the book of Silence the cosmic Scribe has written his cosmic pages;

Silence is all, say the sages.

2
 

What then of the word, O speaker?

What then of the thought, O thinker?

Thought is the wine of the soul and the word is the beaker;

Life is the banquet-table — the soul of the sage is the drinker.

3
 

What of the wine, O mortal?

I am drunk with the wine as I sit at Wisdom's portal,

Waiting for the Light beyond thought and the Word immortal.

Long I sit in vain at Wisdom's portal.

4
 

How shalt thou know the Word when it comes, O seeker?

How shalt thou know the Light when it breaks, O witness?

I shall hear the voice of the God within me and grow wiser and meeker;

I shall be the tree that takes in the light as its food, I shall drink its

nectar of sweetness.

1946.01.14