One slow move forward on a measureless board

Savitri: Book 1 Canto 2 Section 2 5:43 to For this she had accepted mortal bredthTo wrestle with the Shadow she had comeAnd must confront the riddle of man’s birthAnd life’s brief struggle in dumb Matter’s night.Whether to bear with Ignorance and deathOr hew the ways of Immortality,To win or lose the godlike game for man,Was her soul’s issue thrown with Destiny’s dice.But not to submit and suffer was she born;To lead, to deliver was her glorious part.Here was no fabric of terrestrial makeFit for a day’s use by busy careless Powers.An image fluttering on the screen of Fate,Half-animated for a passing show,Or a castaway on the ocean of DesireFlung to the eddies in a ruthless sportAnd tossed along the gulfs of Circumstance,A creature born to bend beneath the yoke,A chattel and a plaything of Time’s lords,Or one more pawn who comes destined to be pushedOne slow move forward on a measureless boardIn the chess-play of the earth-soul with Doom,—Such is the human figure drawn by Time.