selected assamese poetry( English translation)

A saga of Majuli

A stormy Bordoisila ¹ pierces  the thickets of riverine majuli                                                                                                                                                         Shoal of fishes  rush with the whirling water to its river edge                                                                                                                                                           Quiver in Dolonga ²  pabha ³ and kawoi ⁴                                                                       Keeper counts of litres and gallons in the buffalo shed of farmstead                                                                                                                                                                      Chains of the cycle of  silothiya⁵ brothers creaks                                                                                                                                                                         Unseen thighs of koneng ⁶  at the field of mustard leaves                                                                                                                                                                        Poetic sonata of Satyasandha’s⁶ dearest Naba Baruah

                  

Majalee⁷  turns gradually to Majuli                                                                                                                                                           Fast disappears the thatching grass and jhaobon                                                                                                                                                                                Slowly ascends the sandy desert                                                                                                               Parashuram’s ⁸ semen  drives                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Lil and Albert  crazy                                                                                                                                                 Mermaid swims in the gold mines of arimatta9 

 A flock of falcon flies                                                                                                                                                            Falcon fights the  fish hungry cranes                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Some people call for meeting                                                                                                                                                                                                                                They staged sit-in- demonstration                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     In the moment of  a minute                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Extirpated gluttoniously the  stuffs offered as aid by royal house                                                    oh, Tiresius ¹⁰ is blind and mum!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Helplessly he stares  the affairs

Epilogue:

Gradually swirls the floods                                                                                                                         Engulfs the riverine island                                                                                                                                                          East and west sink deep into whirling water                                                                                                                                                           Ajit Baruah’s Jengrai keeps floating in the in water.

Reference & Notes:1) Bordoisila: a speedy storm of monsoon in assam, belived to be caused by godess Bordoisila                                                                                                                     2)Dolonga: an apparatus to catch fish in Assam made by bamboo or thin and light plant of river side Nal                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             3)pabha:  a local fish of assam.it has no bark .hence very soft.                                                                                                                                                       4)Kawoi: a very delicious fish. Its body is bit rough  thorny                                                                     5)silothiya: usually refers to the hard working people of Maiamansing of Srihatta district,  which is now in Bangladesh                                                                                                                                                 6)Koneng: a word of the dialect of indigenous mishing tribe.it means young unmarried girl                                                                                                                                                               7)Satyasandha: 20^th century assamese poet Naba kanta Baruah  coined this term to mean eminent scholar Homen Borgohain                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              8)Majalee: Majuli earler,as historian says, known as Majalee                                                                 9)Arimatta: 13^th century king of Gaud Dynasty. Some myths of him associated with Majuli                                                                                                                                                                              10) Tiresius: androgynus  greek prophet.