Sonnet 124
…n e ’ e r t h e
t w a i n… ?
So many centuries of Indian thought,
So many saints who found their inmost
soul,
So much of observation of the mind,
So much of consciousness itself
revealed,
And all this given due language and due
terms,
That we, the distant heirs in foreign
tongues,
May struggle, in our word-hoard so much
less,
To stretch our minds to comprehend this
wealth;
Thus, make a virtue from necessity,
And as perforce the English mystics
did,
With heart-warmed mind, speak true
simplicity;
With mind-clear heart, reveal what’s
God and hid :
And trust that godly silence, godly sound
Will yield that self-same truth to Western mind.
The scope of the Sanskrit and subsequently Hindi language
to classify the observation and discrimination of the sages,
compared with the heartfelt simplicity of the medieval
English mystics, prompted this act of faith.
