You know
This poet has nothing more
Just this one shirt
Coming apart at the seams
Love also is perhaps like this
Unclothing itself to state the heart!
The most meaningful and beautiful things in life are sometimes the most simple ones; after all, what life is? A loved one, the smell of the hometown, the memories, the childhood, family, the fallen yellow leaves, water, the cosmos? So simple yet so simply profound. This is what the poetry of Hiren Bhattacharya is like, using local words and the local dialect to describe the simple life, the simple fields, the simple patriotism, the simple agony, and above all, the simple love, and create an effect that hits right at the depths of the reader’s expansive heart.
What is it that burns in me
That swells
The agony and ecstasy my heart.
In all my senses
Hums the tune of your love
Burns intensely that
Saturates with ash!
Known as the poet of Aromatic Butterflies in the Assamese literary world, the poems of Hiren Bhattacharya are shorter, economical and reflect a strong attachment to rural life. Some of his poems also mirror the political reflection around him, but it is his poems on art, paintings, love, agony, and fear that resonate with the mass of Assam the most. His poems are still used by lovers, and his two nursery poems, “Lora Dhemali” and “Akou Dhemali”, are famous among the Assamese households.
Famously known as Hiruda, Hiren Bhattacharya was born in Jorhat, eastern Assam, in 1932. Majorly a poet, he scarcely wrote in other genres. His first poem was released in 1957, and his first anthology Mur Desh Mur Premor Kobita, was published in 1972. His published anthologies of poetry include Roudro Kamona (1972), Kobitar Rod (1976), Tomar Bahi, Xugondhi Pokhilaa (1981), Mor Desh Aru Mor Premor Kobita 1972, Bibhinno Dinor Kobita, Shoichor Pothar Manuh, Mur Prio Bornomala, Bhalpuwar Buka Mati, Bhalpuwar Dikchou Batere.
Inside and out of my heart.
Maybe the colloquialism of your love,
Will incinerate me in a slow pace!
Hiren’s exceptional contribution to Assamese poetry earned him many awards, such as the Bharatiya Bhasha Parishad Award, Bishnu Rabha Award, Rajaji Puroskar, Soviet Desh Neheru Award, Sahitya Akademi Award in 1992 for his anthology of poems ‘Saichor Pathar Manuh’, Assam Valley Literary Award, (Asom Upotyoka Sahitya Bota) 2000.
Hiren Bhattacharya, the poet who engraved the name of the Assamese language even deeper and darker on the Indian landscape of languages, left us on July 4, 2012. However, he will always be alive in the letters of the lovers, in the speeches of the politicians, in the humming of the bees, and in the voice of the lullaby-singing mother.
These my words.
In these my words that have caressed
The orchards of my dream
Is the grace of a lifestyle,
The intimate warmth of time.
I have no inventions of my own.
I am like a farmer,
I roll words on my tongue;
To see how each one tastes;
Hold them in my palms to see how warm.
I know words are the lusty offsprings of man’s noble creation;
A mere poet am I
In these words that I have relayed
From other shoulders
Is man’s cruel experience,
And the maulings of history
(English Translation by Pradip Acharya)
