On Savitri
THEME/S
Though few, there are factual details about the composition of Savitri which are indeed revealing in many contexts. The first available draft dated 8/9 August 1916 has only 1637 lines which became in the latest printed version 23,837. Part I which was mostly written by Sri Aurobindo himself in his own hand had, in 1944, about 9000 lines; but as the revision by dictation proceeded, it grew to 11,683 in the printed text of 1950. This kept on happening in the fair copy made by Nirodbaran, in the typescripts, proofs, and the printed versions which had come out either in the Ashram journals or as fascicles. The very first line of the epic in the twenty-first version is as follows:
It was the hour before the gods awake.
He is satisfied with his common average kind; Tomorrow’s hopes are his, the old rounds of thought; His old familiar interests and desires He has made a hedge planned to defend his life…
Sri Aurobindo further revised these lines in the proofs of the first edition. These proofs, unfortunately, were not preserved; so what was printed in that edition is the only evidence of his last revision of Part One. The passage was printed in 1950 as follows:
He is satisfied with his common average kind; Tomorrow’s hopes and his old rounds of thought, His old familiar interests and desires He has made a thick and narrowing hedge Defending his small life from the Invisible…
Amal Kiran commented in 1954 on the fourth line: “Limping line—one foot missing. It is impossible to scan it as a pentameter as it stands: He has| made’ a| thick’ and| nar’row| ing hedge’|. Three consecutive trochees in the middle are too jerky and inadmissible. The natural scanning is: He has made’| a thick’| and nar’| rowing hedge’|. But this gives a four-foot line. Look up the original.” We have seen Sri Aurobindo’s statement that a trochee, if it is not the first foot of a line, needs to be supported “by a strong syllable just preceding it”. But…this supposedly iambic line consists mainly of trochees, with only one iamb at the end… Did Sri Aurobindo, in the final revision in 1950, forget momentarily the subtle laws of metrical movement which he had expounded so lucidly in his prose writings and embodied with a spontaneous and unfailing mastery in so many thousands of lines of Savitri? If this irregularity had created a forceful effect of some kind, it might have been justified… But in the passage of our “common average kind”, nothing out of the ordinary seems called for… To avoid supposing an unaccountable lapse in Sri Aurobindo’s metrical skill, we may infer that he actually dictated:
He has made into a thick and narrowing hedge…
By making explicit the implied “into”, the line becomes readable as pentametric according to the natural rhythm of the words.
Then hand in hand, with social steps their way Through Eden took, with Heav’nly Comfort cheer’d.
Once more he moved amid material scenes, Lifted by intimations from the heights And twixt the pauses of the building brain Touched by the thoughts that skim the fathomless surge Of Nature and wing back to hidden shores.
The last emendation of a handwritten line was necessitated by what the editors consider to be a slip made by the author while revising. All handwritten versions, except the last, of line 491 [p. 347] of Book Three, Canto 4, run as follows:
And in the pauses of the building brain.
When he copied this line in the “final version”, Sri Aurobindo wrote “twixt” instead of “in”. This word, although somewhat archaic, is perfectly legitimate, and in fact of fairly frequent occurrence in Savitri. But here it does not make sense. The “pauses” of the brain are what come between, or twixt, its ordinary activities. Sri Aurobindo’s intention surely was that it is in these pauses that, as the sequel says, “thoughts” from hidden shores come in and touch the seeker. Perhaps he meant to alter “pauses” when he substituted “twixt” for “in”. At any rate,” the note further says, “the unrevised version of the line, as given above, seems to represent Sri Aurobindo’s intentions better than the revised one, and it has therefore been restored to the text.
He who has found his identity with God Pays with the body’s death his soul’s vast light. His knowledge immortal triumphs by his death.
…leave her to her mighty self and Fate.
The Supplement to the Revised Edition of Savitri speaks of the “twixt”-“in” as follows: (pp. 19-20)
Once more he moved amid material scenes Lifted by intimations from the heights And in the pauses of the building brain Touched by the thoughts that skim the fathomless surge Of Nature and wing back to hidden shores.
And twixt the pauses of the building brain
The replacement of "in" by "twixt" cannot quite be dismissed as a mechanical slip of the pen. However, it may be supposed that Sri Aurobindo made the substitution without noticing its misleading effect. Though "twixt" occurs in the last manuscript, it can be plausibly maintained that it does not convey the intended meaning as aptly as the earlier reading did. If so, there would seem to be good reason in this instance for making an exception to the rule that the text should follow the author's latest version. Because of the problems of interpretation raised by "twixt the pauses", the long series of manuscripts with the more straightforward phrase, "in the pauses", deserves special consideration. In the present edition, the text is printed with "in", while "twixt" is given as an alternative reading.
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