Category Archives: Poem of the Week

Life is an art

Nirmalprabha Bordoloi

The sculpture 
Bestowing form 
To a block of stone
Needs to remain bemused
By its own beauty
Needs to address 
Humanity.

Life
Is greater than
Death.

Translated by Krishna Dulal Barua

Nirmalprabha Bordoloi (b.1933-d.2004) was an Indian poet, lyricist and folklorist of Assam.

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.

My Love

Durgeswar Sarma

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 by Krishna 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.

Click here for the original Assamese poem.

Poem of Love

Hiren Bhattacharya

What burns in my heart!
My woes, my joys
What keeps it widening more!

Within my feelings
The buzz of your love
Burns so briskly
That its ashes overfill
The inner and outer spaces of my heart.

Perhaps your cheeky love
Shall slowly burn me down into ashes.

Translated by Krishna Dulal Barua

Hiren Bhattacharya (b.1932-d.2012) was an Assamese poet and lyricist best known for his lyric poems.

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.

The Tide

By Navakanta Barua

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 by Ananda Bormudoi

Navakanta Barua (b.1926-d.2002) was a noted Assamese poet, novelist and translator.

Click for the original Assamese poem.

Your Phalguna draws my Bohag

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.

Farewell to Readers

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.

A Passage from Namghosa

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.

Identification of Corpses

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.

Plenitude

By Hiren Bhattacharya

You know only too well
This poet has nothing else anymore.
Just a lone shirt
that too with precarious stitches.
Love surely is like this
Opens up the covering
to fill the heart.

Translated by Uttam Duorah

Hiren Bhattacharya (b.1932-d.2012) was an Assamese poet and lyricist best known for his lyric poems.

Uttam Duorah, the translator, retired as the HoD, English, Women’s College, Tinsukia and is based in Tinsukia, Assam.

Click here for the original Assamese poem.

The Luit’s Sky

By Jyotiprasad Agarwala

Star-spangled is the Luit's sky
The Dipawali of my blood on its banks
Mother, shed no tears
The lamp of blood is lit on the sacred altar
By your sons and daughters

The flame ignited during the days of Lachit
Is yet to extinguish, O' mother
The wick burns with spurts of blaze
With fresher and newer blood

Douse not the fire with your gushing tears
Let the grim darkness melt away
Star-spangled is the Luit's sky
The Dipawali of my blood on its banks


...........................
* Luit : another name of the Brahmaputra river
* Dipawali : festival of light

Translated by Krishna Dulal Barua

Jyotiprasad Agarwala (b.1903-d.1951) was a noted poet, songwriter, playwright, filmmaker and freedom fighter of Assam.

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.