Poets are believed to be at the finest point of awareness of an age. Their consciousness is like a fine gossamer on which the smallest particle causes a ripple. They can transform that ripple into the strange and irregular rhythm of life.
Some great poets have created eternal lines which stick to our memory when we read them. Why do they stick to our memory? These lines have adhesive quality of their own. Some eternal lines are taken away from the poems to be used in different contexts of life. At the time of crisis, they console us and donot allow us to give up hope. They teach us to endure, suffer and not to give in. Poetry teaches us what life is worth and what to live for.
Poetry is written with words and words carry meanings on their back. Words much used become clichés. A good poet knows best how to charge a word with new meanings. Words are in the dictionary and the people always use them but the poet knows how to infuse new meanings into them. An old and familiar word looks fresh and new when charged with meaning by a poet. A poet need not be exotic thematically to impress upon his readers. The poet can drop down to a low key to talk to his readers taking them into confidence. If a poet wants to perform only to himself he need not write. If a poet wants to communicate to his readers and he wants it sincerely, he can find out for himself how best to communicate. Trying not to communicate is acting against oneself.
Published on the occasion of the World Poetry Day— 21 March, 2023.
Be lured not by my charming looks --
My doting eyes on a comely face,
Be lured not by my outer goodness,
Be lured not by the glint of love in my heart ;
All might end up along the path of vice --
However somewhere I'll crumble into bits !
Keep your eyes of doubt on my heart,
Be immersed not fully in my affection,
Love me if you feel inclined to, but without being dauntless
Keep not your love for me all along.
Translated byKrishna Dulal Barua
Durgeswar Sarma (b.1882-d.1961) was an Assamese poet and playwright.
Krishna Dulal Barua is a prominent translator and writer based in Nagaon, Assam. He received the Katha Award for translation in 2005.
If the sea asks me in the first fullmoon:
"Why do you excite me
So much from a distance?"
"This foamy enthusiasm for poetry
Has been woken up in your heart
By my unseen kiss from far away.
Is this union from a distance not sweeter than
Pangs of separation that is near?"
If the moon refuses
Rabi Thakur will tell us.
Translated byAnanda Bormudoi
Navakanta Barua(b.1926-d.2002) was a noted Assamese poet, novelist and translator.
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 byKrishna 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.
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 byKrishna 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.
