Q: Nirodbaran: We have been wondering why you should have to write and rewrite your poetry – for instance, Savitri ten or twelve times- when you have all the inspiration at your command and do not have to receive it with the difficulty that faces budding Yogis like us.
A: Sri Aurobindo: That is very simple. I used Savitri as a means of ascension. I began with it on a certain mental level, each time I could reach a higher level I rewrote from that level. Moreover I was particular – if a part seemed to me to come from any lower levels I was not satisfied to leave it because it was good poetry. All had to be as far as possible of the same mint. In fact Savitri has not been regarded by me as a poem to be written and finished, but as a field of experimentation to see how far poetry could be written from one’s own yogic consciousness and how that could be made creative. I did not rewrite Rose of God or the sonnets except for two or three verbal alterations made at the moment.
Q: Nirodbaran: Is silencing the mind to be done only at the time of writing?
A: Sri Aurobindo: Silencing the mind at the time of writing should be sufficient, even not silencing it but its falling quiet to receive.
Q: Nirodbaran: One of my methods in composing is to try to find out the rhymes.
A: Sri Aurobindo: Just the thing you should not do. Let the rhyme come, don’t begin dragging all sorts of rhymes in to see if they fit.
Q: Nirodbaran: Do you want to say that if I have discovered some lines I must not think of the next lines, but try instead to keep absolutely silent?
A: Sri Aurobindo: That is the ideal way; but usually there is always an activity of the mind jumping up and trying to catch the inspiration. Sometimes the inspiration, the right one, comes in the midst of this futile jumping, sometimes it sweeps it aside and brings in the right thing, sometimes it asserts itself between two blunders, sometimes it waits till the noise quiets down. But even this jumping need not be a mental effort- it is often only a series of suggestions, the mind of itself seizing on one or eliminating another, not by laborious thinking and choice, but by a quiet series of perceptions. This is the method No. 2, No. 3 is your Herculean way, quiet the slowest and worst.
Q: Nirodbaran: I have worked today from 1.30 to 6.15 p.m. – 5 hours ! – and composed only 16 lines ! Is this a sign of laziness?
A: Sri Aurobindo: But that is quite magnificent – 16 lines in one day, 3 1/5 lines an hour about! Remember that Virgil used only to write 9 lines a day. At this rate you will end by being twice as inspired and fluent as Virgil.
(Nirodbaran, ‘Correspondence with Sri Aurobindo’, Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust, Published by Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry, 1969).
A: Sri Aurobindo: That is very simple. I used Savitri as a means of ascension. I began with it on a certain mental level, each time I could reach a higher level I rewrote from that level. Moreover I was particular – if a part seemed to me to come from any lower levels I was not satisfied to leave it because it was good poetry. All had to be as far as possible of the same mint. In fact Savitri has not been regarded by me as a poem to be written and finished, but as a field of experimentation to see how far poetry could be written from one’s own yogic consciousness and how that could be made creative. I did not rewrite Rose of God or the sonnets except for two or three verbal alterations made at the moment.
Q: Nirodbaran: Is silencing the mind to be done only at the time of writing?
A: Sri Aurobindo: Silencing the mind at the time of writing should be sufficient, even not silencing it but its falling quiet to receive.
Q: Nirodbaran: One of my methods in composing is to try to find out the rhymes.
A: Sri Aurobindo: Just the thing you should not do. Let the rhyme come, don’t begin dragging all sorts of rhymes in to see if they fit.
Q: Nirodbaran: Do you want to say that if I have discovered some lines I must not think of the next lines, but try instead to keep absolutely silent?
A: Sri Aurobindo: That is the ideal way; but usually there is always an activity of the mind jumping up and trying to catch the inspiration. Sometimes the inspiration, the right one, comes in the midst of this futile jumping, sometimes it sweeps it aside and brings in the right thing, sometimes it asserts itself between two blunders, sometimes it waits till the noise quiets down. But even this jumping need not be a mental effort- it is often only a series of suggestions, the mind of itself seizing on one or eliminating another, not by laborious thinking and choice, but by a quiet series of perceptions. This is the method No. 2, No. 3 is your Herculean way, quiet the slowest and worst.
Q: Nirodbaran: I have worked today from 1.30 to 6.15 p.m. – 5 hours ! – and composed only 16 lines ! Is this a sign of laziness?
A: Sri Aurobindo: But that is quite magnificent – 16 lines in one day, 3 1/5 lines an hour about! Remember that Virgil used only to write 9 lines a day. At this rate you will end by being twice as inspired and fluent as Virgil.
(Nirodbaran, ‘Correspondence with Sri Aurobindo’, Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust, Published by Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry, 1969).
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