Nupur Hazarika

Date of Publish: 2023-08-11

A few poems by Nupur Hazarika

Pain

Within a blink of an eye

The spear pierced through the bosom !

Dried coating of blood on both of the fists

I wandered just to remove the powdered blood

on land dumping garbage

Where nothing grows on it,

Or dried-out reservoirs up to it's bottom.

 

Very secretively inside the heart

Those pointed weapons disorganisedly kept...

His,

your's,

our cherished friend's,

For whom I kept blossoming our mornings

Brought fragrances of the evening

And longing for a closeness.

Translated from original Assamese into English Abani Buragohain

Farness

 

Who are we, how farther away are we

We don't know

But the measurw of this farness

Has been decided.

How did the farness keep increasing

That too nobody knows

Nobody recognizes each others' faces

Anymore

Mask over face, eyes-nose shut

We don't reach for each others' hands, voices are unrecognizable

Is it possible to talk to each other with just our eyes?

 

Family, house, neighbourhood, everywhere

This farness increases

Yet it is our wish

That we will soon build a house in sky

 

Translated from original Assamese into English by Nupur Hazarika

A game of slumber

 

Laying the head on golden bed

Leads to golden dreams

Laying the head on a silver bed

Leads to silver dreams

Facing the moon

Placing the chest on ground to sleep

Allows one to touch the night

(Is his river long or is yours short?)

The bunny falls asleep on ground

Listening to stories of kings.

 

Translated from original Assamese into English by Nupur Hazarika

Conversations

He said

For how long will you live

With the dream of a rock?

I said,

That I had thought, it would be released in his eyes

The gates of heaven

and

My deity of rock would be

A precocious child.

He said,

You are blind.

 

I don't know if its light or darkness

Probing myself I said to him,

Yes yes

Two stone doors

Over my eyes.

 

Translated from original Assamese into English by Nupur Hazarika

If you say

If you say,

I can keep my eyes shut.

If you say,

I would keep the door shut .

If you say,

I'd bring my day to end

If you say,

I'd end the night.

The ancient hands with which

You have earnestly decorated

That sky

Hill-river-constellation

And

The enchanted world of my eyes;

For those hands

I shall try to love

This imprisoned life's difficult art

I shall create with earth

Earth' rejuvenation

If you say....!

Translated from original Assamese into English by Nupur Hazarika

The hill stories

One

The oranges in her busket

After adorning the sun's lustre

Reflect her smile.

 

The shepherd struggling

To peek

At the oranges

Apears taller

On his toes

Like erect pine trees.

Two

The ancient hill weeps

Through the long wintry night ,

Hence the river can not sleep,

The rocks by the river

Are dumb

But not insensible.

The hill alone is insensible child ,

That can not run like the river

Downstream.

 

Three

The mist hums

From dusk till sunrise.

The hummings gather

In the cracks of rock ,

In the curves of path ,

In the shrubs .

 

The birds are exhausted

By the hummings of mist ,

They hide themselves

In each other's bossoms

For solace .

 

Even though

Silence is not our last resort.

Translated from original Assamese into English by Nupur Hazarika

 

Nupur Hazarika

About the poet:

 

Nupur Hazarika(1978) is a bilingual poet, short story writer and translator who writes in Assamese and English. She has published two collections of poetry in Assamese--Jodi (2010) and Tejiloma Aru Anyanya Kavita(2018) and a collection of short story , Eta Phoenixor Janmagatha (2018).

She has translated Charles Dicken’s Great Expectations into Assamese as Param Pratyasha. She is currently translating Deewar Mein Ek Kjirkee Rahati Thi, a novel by MV Skulka into Assamese for Sahitya Akademi.