Kabin Phukan

Your savoury fragrant Phalguna
Its breath's warmth, its stirring heat
The opulence of its lips and fingers
Its moist incorporeality and body
Send my mind's mist
My body's winter
Flying afar...

The gloss of the Mahua blooms
The honeyed voice
The soft bodily touch
The smile's swing on the chubby bosom
Melting and dissolving the woes of Paush
Cuddle me with songs and trillings...

Your Phalguna draws my Bohag
Closer and closer
    

..............................................
Phalguna : eleventh month of the Indian year (February-March)
Bohag : first month of the Assamese year (April-May) heralding spring
Paush : ninth month of the Indian year (December-January)

Translated by Krishna Dulal Barua

Kabin Phukan (b. 1946-d. 2011) was a noted Assamese poet and critic. He received Sahitya Akademi posthumously for his collection of Assamese poems Ei Anuragi Ei Udasi in 2011.

Krishna Dulal Barua is a prominent translator and writer based in Nagaon, Assam. He received the Katha Award for translation in 2005.

Click here for the original Assamese poem.

Ajit Barua

I've to finish writing
Before my departure
About certain issues through some other issues
About certain issues
Through the artifice of presenting some other issues
Before my heart stiffens
Before the moss of amnesia enters my mind
I've to finish writing
Before my departure. Because
Therein I see the one who keeps beckoning me
Where the Brahmaputra river meets the sky
Turning into a whitened hue, turning into the thunder of clouds
Turning into the stillness after a storm
In the extreme west where a flock of crows freezes in flight 

I'm not prepared. I haven't
Brought the map of Kamrup with me
If summoned for an explanation, I've no deposition to show
(In the middle of the Dwaipayan lake, boundary-stakes are fixed during moments of weakness : 
Why, after being acquainted with my creed, I remain
Aloof from it !)
Before my last breath I seek
To write about my apathy for truth
(Supreme truth is perceived only in absoluteness)

Translated by Krishna Dulal Barua

Ajit Barua was a modern Assamese poet, novelist, essayist and translator.

Krishna Dulal Barua is a prominent translator and writer based in Nagaon, Assam. He received the Katha Award for translation in 2005.

Click here for the original Assamese poem.

By Sri Sri Madhavdev

I am ignorant of the ignorant my lord 
I know not how I can adore you best. 
Unholy desires are so strong my lord Ram
They never let me alone.
Your maya has fascinated my mind my lord Ram
Sprawling in the dark I find no way out.
Your feet alone can offer shelter and I submit to them
I sing your praise seeking light, my lord Ram.
I know not how to worship, exalt and love you intensely 
None else is more ignorant than I am, my lord Ram.
You are an ocean of kindness, my lord Hari
Shelter me in the shade of your feet. 
Hari is the ocean of love, the friend of all lives
He is motion, consciousness and lord Narayan. 
Singing Your praise is the greatest treasure of the bhaktas.

Translated by Ananda Bormudoi

Sri Sri Madhavdev (b.1489–d.1596) was a 15th–16th century Assamese poet, playwright, musician and social-religious reformer.

Click for the original Assamese text.

by Hemanga Kumar Dutta

Have a good look at the corpses

Identify the near and dear ones of yore
No no
      Not at all for retrieval
Identify them today to lose them in a better way

While the bomb was planted
Though none of the living ones were familiar
Now before taking them home
Identify the corpses

Translated by Krishna Dulal Barua

Hemanga Kumar Dutta is an Assamese poet. He has one collection of poems to his credit.

Krishna Dulal Barua is a prominent translator and writer based in Nagaon, Assam. He received the Katha Award for translation in 2005.

Click here to read the original Assamese poem.