Two measures are there of the cosmic dance.
Always we hear the tread of Kali’s feet
Measuring in rhythms of pain and grief and chance
Life’s game of hazard terrible and sweet,
The ordeal of the veiled Initiate,
The hero soul at play with Death’s embrace,
Wrestler in the dread gymnasium of Fate -
And sacrifice a lonely path to Grace.
Man’s sorrows made a key to the Mysteries,
Truth’s narrow road out of Time’s wastes of dream,
The soul’s seven doors from Matter’s tomb to rise,
Are the common motives of her tragic theme.
But when shall Krishna’s dance through Nature move,
His mask of sweetness, laughter, rapture, love?
15-9-1939
Sri Aurobindo
Reference: # 137 in "Les poèmes de Sri
Aurobindo" (bilingual edition)
also in "More Poems" - 62
and "Collected Poems" - 140
all published by Sri
Aurobindo Ashram - Pondicherry
diffusion by SABDA
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