Savitri with Accents: the Book of Beginnings
Description:... We present here the text of the First Edition of Savitri with accent-marks which are in the font in red. The scansion of the lines could be left to the individual's perception; but we should also mention that we are not considering half-accents which on occasions can fall on vowels in the rhythmic flow of the lines. It must also be noted that some accents could change from context to context, and from person to person. The subjective element in the rhythm must be recognised while reading or reciting poetry, principally the poetry of the mystic-spiritual kind where the inner sound and silence count the most. Let us take an example, of the last line of the opening Canto of Savitri, The Symbol Dawn: "This was the day when Satyavan must die." If we accent "This" it would bring a certain force to the statement, and the drift of the passage could very well mean that. On the other hand, the natural quietness but with all the yogic confidence in it would get affected; it might even make the statement rhetorical. In that case the "bare"-ness of the line would be lost; for the same reason we would refrain in making the last foot a spondee. Our preference here is for "This" without accent or emphasis of any kind. We hope that the present attempt of bringing out the text with accent-marks will prove rewarding to the lovers of poetry, and in particular of Savitri in its metrical power, its rhythm and melody, its undertones and overtones, its volume and pitch and timbre, its nada and laya and chhanda, they carrying the "seed-sounds of the eternal Word", moving in the felicity of "rhythmic calm and joy"; possibly it would take us closer to the yogic source from which it originated. Savitri Foundation is glad to put in this pioneering effort towards metrical presentation of Sri Aurobindo's epic Savitri. Comments and suggestions from perceptive readers are welcome to work upon our presentation of in subsequent editions.
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