Mute stands she, lonely on the topmost stair,
An image of magnificent despair;
The grandeur of a sorrowful surmise
Wakes in the largeness of her glorious eyes.
In her beauty's dumb significant pose I find
The tragedy of her mysterious mind.
Yet is she stately, grandiose, full of grace.
A musing mask is her immobile face.
Her tail is up like an unconquered flag,
Its dignity knows not the right to wag.
An animal creature wonderfully human,
A charm and miracle of fur-footed Brahman,
Whether she is spirit, woman or a cat,
Is now the problem I am wondering at.
October 1939
Sri Aurobindo
Reference: # 135 in "Les poèmes de Sri
Aurobindo" (bilingual edition)
also in "Last Poems" - 41
also: SABCL, volume 5 "Collected Poems",
page 113
all published by Sri
Aurobindo Ashram - Pondicherry
diffusion by SABDA
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