~~~ FROM HERE & THERE, a global legacy~~~
“This frail vessel thou emptiest again and again, and fillest ever with fresh life…
Ages pass, and still thou pourest, and still there is room to fill…”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~–Gitanjali (Song-offerings), Rabindranath Tagore
Sounds like a LEAKY BUCKET. Most poems found here, from Like Water (side b), can be heard in the Audio Archives room.]
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River of Poetry–
“Our lives are nourished by that river,
as through its veins, the gifts of many
mountain peaks flow down, the wondrous sap
of life feeding our fields from many sources,
our dreams & our awakenings watered
with streams of song from all directions,
bringing the far near, even to our own door,
greetings from the unknown, so we are all like wanderers,
ever renewed with gifts from everywhere…. –Tagore
Dedication: to Kitty Houghton (1942-2013). Bridging the distances between near & far with gifts from everywhere, she lived the essence of cultural exchange–Peace Corps, UN & rescue volunteer (Nepal, Bangladesh, Latin America); diplomat (Austria, Canada, Columbia, Ivory Coast, China…); language lover (doctorate in linguistics, plus languages of music, science, economics, christian science, mountain trails, ski slopes & aeronautics); small plane pilot (leader in the 99’s); & friend of all the world–
thunder all four quadrants
flash of sun
a little silver plane
swoops down
just under the rainbow
(vrb)
During a visit to New Mexico in 1993, Kitty helped translate the following.
~~~…to Orpheus
by Ranier Maria Rilke
A god might. But tell me, little one, how can
humans follow through the lyre strings?
Our sense is split. And where two ways cross
within the heart, what oracle can we consult?
Singing, as you teach it, is not striving for,
not wanting what can never be finally attained.
To sing is to be. For a god that’s easy,
but when are we truly–& when wound round
inside out with earth and the stars?
Let it not be this, young one, that you love so,
when the voice bursts the mouth open–learn
to forget you sang out so. That fades away.
In the true singing is another breath…one
around nothing, a stirring in god…a wind…..
One who so loved music, she resonated with the line “To sing is to be,” as well as with the sense that the truest music reached beyond sensory experience, to a “breath…around nothing,” that stirring of the creative, receptive, & responsive spirit that was at the center of her life. Besides, as a small-plane pilot, she understood the elemental dynamics of Rilke’s wind like few others.
Sri Aurobindo Ghosh, Tagore’s fellow Bengali, joined west & east in himself all the more, integrating the arts & sciences, history & philosophy. Educated in western traditions in the best English schools, he returned home to become teacher, revolutionary, yogi, philosopher, re-translator of ancient texts, sage, mentor, guide, seer & poet.
An early advocate of swaraj, self-determination, as an aim of the Indian National Movement, when Indian independence arrived on his birthday, he lamented the divided gift, predicting to the year how long it would take East Bengalis to free themselves from Pakistani domination, with grief at the suffering entailed (which Kitty Houghton witnessed close up at its worst).
Aurobindo had taken refuge in French Pondicherry long earlier, attracting many devoted students, including Mira Alfassa, the Mother. Stopping initially on her way from France to Japan, she returned to become a partner in the work, exercising executive & spiritual leadership for the expanding communities of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, International Centre of Education & Auroville, “city of the future” (in 2018 celebrating the 50th anniversary of its dedication, Feb. 28, 1968, as in photo of Gus Rabi & his parents there).
[insert photos…]
Aurobindo may be most widely known for his historical role in the self-determination movement, along with his “synthesis of yoga” & evolutionary philosophy, re-uniting east & west in the human adventure. His writing derives added power at the intersection of personal experience & linguistic depth. His own great works were primarily written in English, but on a conscious foundation of ancient roots, drawing equally from western & eastern classics.
His re-translation of the ancient term maya, from illusion to creative magic, had profound implications, for example. If the world were just illusion, one might let it all pass by disengaged, as if just a meaningless dream anyway. If, on the other hand, there’s deeper meaning & purpose in our creative interaction with the forces & situations encountered, one may work with these, acting in the world, even through the page. One’s thought, intentions, exercise of focused attention, communication & relationships may all have meaning, make a difference….
Mantric power–
Aurobindo’s writings–letters & essays, as well as his epic poem Savitri–have mantric power, the ability to move the reader, change the texture of consciousness, on various levels from core vibrational qualities. The idea that sounds can carry &/or directly exert psycho-emotional effects is rather easy to demonstrate, with resonating implications. “Ring a bell & I’ll salivate,” said Pavlov’s dog (a “Russian Drooler”). Make a sudden, loud crashing noise around others & notice how quickly their adrenaline level skyrockets.
From lullaby to spiritual, bamboo flute to symphony, ceremony to film soundtrack, we use sound to change mood, emotion & other aspects of consciousness. Pythagoras connected this to mathematical relationships. Countless mysteries, sects, religious & other kinds of groups apply it to prayers, chants, dances, scripts & rites. It’s at the heart of our earliest nursery rhymes & games, our humming, dancing & singing together. And also of what vocal communication picks up & transmits in the tonal realm, by “tone of voice.”
Although the term mantra is sometimes applied to a category of verbal formulas, syllables set in stone, the mantric element is less formulaic than a primarily vibratory potential inherent in the power of sound to move. Without it, the Vedic hymns, Greek drama, Homer’s epics, Bhagavad Gita would be largely intellectual exercises, and the world “great poetry” would lose its ability to affect more than the thoughtful mind. Not that moving the mind is just chopped liver, but only a relatively small part of the legacy feast.
Many of Aurobindo’s own views on such matters, including his perspective on earlier poetry of various traditions, can be found in The Future Poetry, all the more interesting, perhaps, with the passage of the last 75 years or so. More to the point–& of more lasting resonance–is his own epic masterpiece, Savitri, permeated with a transformative mantric power where mind & music meet, inner journey embodied in the work.
Like a modern Pythagoras, Aurobindo could speak & write about the effects of particular metrical devices, but the mantric power embodied comes directly from the source–not in itself analytical. Here are links highlighting the power of sound he writes of, in music & voice:
Mother’s Music:–http://www.sriaurobindoashram.org/music/organ/
Mother Reciting Savitri:—http://www.sriaurobindocenter-la.org `
[Once on this site; click “Savitri-Reading” near bottom end of menu. Mother’s accent may first seem to get in the way, but after listening to an otherwise competent version by a native American speaker, I found myself mentally translating back to Mother’s intonation for fuller effect. The voice carries levels of meaning not locked in the words–though Aurobindo’s text is also included.]
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~~~~~~~~“Things reveal themselves passing away.” –W.B. Yeats
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While aboard ship en route to visit Britain, Tagore translated a collection of his song-offerings (“gitanjali”), originally composed in Bengali with music. Shared with new friends, some of whom–like Yeats–became such enthusiastic fans that Tagore ended up the first Asian awarded a Nobel Prize, in literature, soon after (1913). Gitanjali was not the first of Tagore’s works to resonate deeply with my attention, however, that being a copy of Sadhana from Samuel Weiser’s used bookstore in NYC, essays on his focused spiritual practice–my main introduction to the mantric power of prose, Ralph Waldo Emerson aside.
Indeed, Emerson largely in prose & Whitman in poetry were no slouches in the vibratory power department….
global perspective–in search of wholeness
If one theme of the Inspired Gifts room is the mantric power of language, as offered through great voices transcending their ages & cultures, another is a global perspective on our legacy as a whole. Kitty Houghton, to whom this room has been dedicated, was certainly a dramatic example of global perspective in action through her life.
An accomplished linguist (Ph.D., Stanford); diplomat & economic analyst (Dept. of Commerce); skier, singer, jazz & classical musician (clarinet, organ); aviatrix, rescue volunteer; & truth-speaker, with articles in The Christian Science Monitor on Bangladeshi independence struggles (when she was with the U.N.).
Having narrowly survived many life-threatening experiences (whether standing up to ignorance, oppression or atmospheric conditions), her life was eventually lost in an impersonal act of random violence in New Hampshire, near her old school, where there is now an Arts Center bearing her name (the Catherine Houghton Arts & Music Center, White Mountain School).
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~~~~~~~“Things reveal themselves passing away.” –W.B. Yeats
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we came whirling out of nothing,
scattered with stardust–
I was a corpse & became new–
~~~earth, tree, beast, into each
I have died, & become more.
~~~Do we ever become less?
~~~Come, beggars,
sit with open hands
at the nothingness gate.
in the needle’s eye
stars go on turning–
so a stick on the drum beats,
I am a green branch again!
Desire only what you have
no hope of maintaining.
This is no little mountain creek, friends.
This is that shoreless sea, where swimming
always ends in drowning.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~–[Rumi]
Emerson wrote that “Every word was once a poem.” His little poem reporting a conversation between a mountain & a squirrel is a well-packed nut, reminding us that meaning depends on realm, context, point of view, & relationship. Indeed, the sage points out that a poem needn’t puff itself up with self-importance, as if living beyond its means. It can have value as therapy, exploration, play, mission, entertainment, communication, you name it.
It needn’t have an intended audience, but can be meant for a single person only, the author through time or particular recipient right then. In fact, it needn’t have an audience in mind beyond that moment at all, the poet entirely absorbed in contemporaneous reporting, as in Master Basho’s timeless offerings–
~~~furu ike ya kawazu tobikomu mizu no oto~ ~ ~ ~
~ ~ ~ old pond frog leaps in water’s sound~~~~~~[1686]
~~~kiyotaki ya namu ni chirikomu ao matsu-ba~ ~ ~
~ ~ ~ clear cascades in flowing current drawn green pine-tips~~~~~[1694*]
* the last of his “last poems” written down, matsu & ba also being part of Matsuo (his family name, as in pine) & Basho (his pen-name, a broad-leafed member of the banana family).
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~~~~~~~[more to come here…]~~~~~~~
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Of course Yeats was wrong, at least grossly incomplete, when he claimed “Nor is there singing school but studying monuments of its own magnificence.” An equal or stronger case can be made that the greater singing school is found entirely within, in the poet’s creative experience, not in monuments at all.
Great examples in any art are always a surprise. There’s no mechanical formula to explain them. They may be entirely idiosyncratic, with wholly individual quirks, as with Walt Whitman, yet at the same time touch something cosmic & universal. Sometimes they come without a maker’s name attached, or even emerge more or less cumulatively (& anonymously) from a tradition–as in the following blessing, shared in Zapotec & Spanish by a singer who just happened to be at the next table (in a 3-table café) in Oaxaca in 1986.
This collaborative translation became the mission statement for all Land of Enchantment Poetry Theater’s programs during its brief heyday (1986-2007).]
~~~~~~~Oaxacan Blessing
A Zapotec singer in Oaxaca said,
listen carefully to these words.
~~~Our song is like the heart of the flower,
~~~~~our words like pollen on the wind,
~~~~~~~with the perfumes of intuition,
~~~~~~~~~incense for our prayers,
~~~~~~~blessings opening to the future
~~~~~like flowers on the tree of life,
~~~from roots with no end, through
~~branches beyond measure–
seed-heads bursting on the wind,
each carries a part of the whole.
So here & now we say to everyone–
“work together; help each other like relatives;
go forth & make the world beautiful.”
[Martin Chacon, the singer at the next table, translated Zapotec to Spanish, claiming a two-thousand year lineage for the song. Mitch Rayes, Gita Bodner, & others helped bring it from there to the version here. It sums up an attitude also found in Basho, Tagore, Black Elk, Ansel Adams, Aldo Leopold, & many others who go on inspiring long after their own singing voices have faded away.]
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