Collected Poems - Sri Aurobindo Ashram

Note on the Texts 705
the editors included readings from the revised Karmayogin text. In the
present edition these readings have been ignored, but the 1922 and
1942 revisions, both approved by Sri Aurobindo, have been included.)
Chitrangada. 1909 – 10. This incomplete poem is related in theme and
form to “Uloupie” (see above, Part Two), which Sri Aurobindo wrote
around 1901 – 2. The manuscript of “Uloupie” was confiscated by the
police in 1908 and never returned. There were, however, two draft
passages of the poem in a notebook that Sri Aurobindo had with him
in 1909 – 10, and he apparently drew on these to write Chitrangada.
Many of the lines in the final version are identical or almost identical to
those in the draft passages. Sometime before he left Bengal in February
1910, he gave the manuscript of Chitrangada to the Karmayogin staff
for publication. The poem appeared in that newspaper in the issues of
26 March and 2 April 1910. “To be continued” was printed at the end
of the second instalment, but the issue in which it appeared was the
last to come out. The manuscript of the rest of the poem has been lost.
Around 1930, one of Sri Aurobindo’s disciples typed the incomplete
poem out from the Karmayogin and sent it to Sri Aurobindo, who
expressed some dissatisfaction with it. In 1937 he indicated that the
poem required some revision before it could be published, but that it
was “not the moment” for that. More than a decade later, he revised
Chitrangada for publication in the 1949 number of the Sri Aurobindo
Circle annual. The following note was printed along with the Circle
text: “Sri Aurobindo had completed this poem but the original has been
lost, only this fragment remains. It has been revised for publication.”
The revision considerably enlarged the passage containing the speech
of Chitrangada’s “dying sire”. The new lines appear to be the last
poetical lines Sri Aurobindo composed, with the exception of the final
revisions and additions to Savitri.
Poems Written in 1910 and Published in 1920 – 1921
These three poems have an unusual history. They form part of a manuscript
containing material apparently intended for three issues of the
Karmayogin. This manuscript also contains articles on yoga, historical
studies, satirical sketches, and pieces headed “Passing Thoughts”,
which was the name Sri Aurobindo gave to his weekly column in the