English of Savitri, The – Volume I

“One of the wonderful features of the English language which makes it very flexible for poets to use, is that in poetry any word can be used as any “part of speech”, in any function in the sentence. An outstanding example of this flexibility is a line of Shakespeare from his play Richard III, in which one of the characters says “But uncle …” and his uncle, the king, responds “But me no buts and uncle me no uncles”. If we think in terms of “parts of speech”, the grammatical functions of words, the word “but” is classified as a “conjunction”, a linking word which can be used to connect two parts of a sentence, as in: “We wanted to go on a picnic but it rained so we could not go.” However in Shakespeare’s line, the humble conjunction is used once as a verb in the imperative, and then as a noun in the plural; similarly the word “uncle” is used first as a verb, and then as a plural noun. Very vividly the speaker conveys “Do not come saying “But uncle” to me! I am the king and I do not want to hear those two words from anyone”. In Savitri we shall find many instances where Sri Aurobindo makes full use of this freedom allowed to the poet by the English language. Here “foreboding”, often a noun, is used as an adjective describing the mind of Night, the subject of this sentence. Night is in her temple, lying stretched out, unmoving, “upon Silence” marge”: “marge” is a form of “margin” meaning an edge or border; she is as if on the threshold of Silence. But Night is not asleep; she is conscious, and she is foreboding. She is feeling that something very bad for her is approaching: the divine Event, the coming of the Dawn and the Day, with all its Light and movement, which will mean the end of her reign.”