Date of Publish: 2020-08-22

A few songs of Parvatiprasad Barua

 

1.Bajaale aahine

 

Is it flute or lute Ahin is playing

Can you catch the tune

 

In the wind is wafting the tune

Who’s that forlorn playing the flute

Beyond the grove who is that

Minstrel playing the lute

 

Oh white clouds Oh kahua blooms

Are you lost in the tune

 

So familiar it seems it seems

On land the cloud roar quickens

The lute’s tune merges with the flute’s

* * * * *

(translated on 20 Oct 2011 – revised 17 July 2020)

Ahin: the 6th month of the Assamese calendar (17/18 September – 16/17 October)

Kahua: sedge grass

 

2. Kino pakheeye puvatee gale

 

In the wee hours what bird is singing

Its trill I can’t make out

The dawn is breaking

 

Getting up I open the window

And I look around

How lovely is this soft white glow

It flashes through my mind

 

I do not know which god today

Has gifted this nice day

The laziness of mind and body

Has fully melted away

* * * * *

(translated on 18 July 2020)

 

3. Heroe baliya nayan bhari bhari cha

Oh crazy drink in drink in with your very eyes

Crazy drink in drink in with your very eyes

In your front are rising and falling

the surging waves of the Rupali stream

The light is playing on the surge

the waves are dazzling and rolling

The sight of the waves makes your body sway

with a leaf of sedge row the canoe

Setting the sail with the butterfly wings

trail along towards the middle

blowing the horn tipped with kolmou stem

Sing a strain of bongeet O crazy

Drink in drink in with your very eyes

drink in with your very eyes

* * * * *

(translated on Oct. 2011 – revised 18 July 2020)

Kolmou: water bindweed

Bongeet: pastoral song

 

4. Luitar Chaparit

On the Luit’s sandbar where are the boatmen

From who cook meal and eat on sand

The merchant’s barge with the silver sail

Glides towards upstream land

Oh boatmen unmoor and drift the barge

Raise the silver sail

The west wind is coming and blowing up

It is picking up well

The west wind will fill the sail

The barge will rock side to side

Start a shanty* as the waves lap and roll

It’ll sway your bodies with the glide

* * * *

(translated on 19 July 2020)

Shanty: a song sung by sailors in rhythm with their work

5. Seuji parar tomar tomar nirala gharat

By the green bank

at your quiet home

what you said

sobbing at the parting

just in case you have forgotten

Just for a lone night you did open

the saphura of your love

pouring the honeyed songs close to my heart

Then picking your way you parted just before dawn

just in case you have forgotten

Fallen from your bun

a sprig of red korabi

Alas even its petals have wilted

Alas in the same way has wilted

the garland I put on you

just in case you have forgotten

* * * *

(translated on 25 Oct 2011 – revised. 20 July 2020)

Saphura: reticule

Korabi: oleander flower

6. Aji Fagunar puwa belatei

On this very morning of Fagun today

dark bulging clouds are gathering fast

Out of season who has so daubed

the azure sky with raven black

The festival of spring was on hold

The furtive chats of the Juti clump

did not come to an end

O dear the Kharikajais’

hidden pains of budding breasts

nobody knew at all

The rustle runs long amongst the leaves

as if the mournful strain of a wail

of some distraught woman

Has its echo struck

a chord of the Veena

of the heart

* * * *

(translated on 25-26 July 2020)

Fagun: the eleventh month of the Assamese calendar (14/15 February – 14/15 March)

Juti: a variety of jasmine (Bot. Jasminum sambac)

Kharikajai : another variety of jasmine ( (Bot. Jasminum multiforum)

 

7. Gorokhiya Hero’ Gorokhiya

Cowherd hey cowherd what notes

are you playing at noon

Amidst the field under the peepul tree

blowing the buffalo horn

 

what notes have you unleased in the sky

At noon the world gets so quiet and lorn

 

On the peepul leaves are quivering the notes

Cool so cool is blowing the breeze

 

Listening to the notes my heart throbs

again and again in thrill

The childhood tale of our days of yore

awakes unaware in mind in zeal

* * * *

(translated on 26 July 2020)

8. Jai brata sankalpa bhagi

My vows resolves get broken

My voice is consumed by

the lyrical spirit

 

In mornings and evenings

I hold fairs of songs

play the melody of songs

sitting up all night

 

My hours get crowded

Ignoring the books to study

I keep roaming about

 

My mind is forlorn

on an unknown path

for some Bholanath

seeking his boon

* * *

Thakuria ( translated on 27 July 2020)

9. Aji Akashar Sheh hoba pai

In the sky today may come to an end

the last refrain of summmer’s song

So the river Dikhou is surging

in its latest spate

The cry of the dark clouds shedding tears

has come to an end

In the sky fluffs of cotton are scudding

The gleeful notes are playing

The rolling balls of tiny ants are floating down

The surging water is receding

The news that winter is about to come

has been broken

Shafts of light have won the fight for the sun

Darkness has fled away

The arrows of sunlight have pierced the clouds

The weather has cleared

* * * * *

(translated on 30 July 2020)

10. Kihar ragit jwala kala hali

 

What inebriety makes you so distressed

What crazy wreath of victory have you sported

 

Who is that beauty you’re lost in his view

Whose dazzling beauty has so blinded you

 

Fascinated you can’t find your way

You have staggered this or that way

 

In the dazzled eyes runs the shadow-play

The world has changed into a beauty today

* * * * *

(translated on 30 July 2020)

About the Lyrcist

Parvatiprasad Barua (1904- 1964) was an acclaimed lyricist, poet, singer, playwright, and actor. He was popularly known as Geetikavi (lyrical poet) for the creative genius in him in conveying powerful feelings through highly musical verses penned by him in Assamese language. His first collection of songs Gungunoni was published in 1953. Luiti, published in 1959, is a collection of pastoral songs (known as Bongeets in Assamese) written by him. His collection of poems Bhonga Tokarir Sur was also published in the same year. Sukula Dawor Oi Kahua Phul is a collection of his lyrical poems published in 1963.

Photo courtesy : The coverpage of the book Parvatiprasad Barua Rachanawali, a complete works of Parvatiprasad Barua edited by Sri Pabanth Sharma, complied by Dr Sumi Kalita and published by The Asam Sahitya Sabha. The artwork on the coverpage is by renowed artist late Benu Misra

About the translator

Nirendra Nath Thakuria (b. 1960- ) translates Assamese literature into English and his translations have appeared in Kavya Bharati, Chandrabhaga, Indian Literature, Yaatra, The Oxford Anthology Writings from North-East India, Poetry and Essays, and Dancing Earth: An Anthology of Poetry from North-East India (Penguin Books). Mr. Thakuria worked as Associate Editor of Yaatra and as Literary Editor of Assam: Land and People. He edited Democracy of Umbrella, a collection of English translations of Anubhav Tulasi’s Assamese poems. He can be reached at 98640 90267 or [email protected], [email protected]