Poems from His Earth: Hiren Bhattacharyya’s Nature Poetry
Poetry that brings up the lush imagery of nature in all its glory.
Possibly the most popular name in Assamese poetry, Hiren Bhattacharyya’s poetry brings up the lush imagery of nature: paddy fields, waves of green, ripples in the air and gushing rains. Bhattacharyya had a long career as a writer and editor of many periodicals in which his poems were much awaited.
The internet tells us that he added the word shosyoghran, an evocative word for the smell of harvest, to the Assamese dictionary. Reading his beautiful words, even in translation, shows how apt this contribution was.
Hiren Bhattacharyya, Source: Kavishala
October Landscape Hiren BhattacharyyaI
It’s over –
The orgiastic frenzy of a brutal sky.
In the restive fields now ripple
Wave after green wave.II
The white of the kohua
Breaks the lull of an inky sky.
An autumn sky whispers –
There’s a season for every poem.III
In every crease of descending light
A revelation.
With every emotion
Awakens a word
Translation by Pradip Acharya
His imagery of nature is soothing in its invocation of colours and smells, and the emotions and associations with them. However, a poem that’s particularly touching is one that talks of words in the hands of a young poet. Keeping the imagery of nature and farming intact, he fuses this beautifully with his love for words.
These My Words (For the young poet) Hiren BhattacharyyaIn these my words that have caressed
The orchards of my dream
Is the grace of a life style,
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
Translation by Pradip Acharya
Read more of his poetry.