My Guru in Göttingen, Baas Terwiel's translation of six poems by Nirmalprabha Bordoloi, along with a short Introductory Note. The text that Baas wrote in 1980 to contextualize the poems is a page from the cultural history of Assam and was meant as an introduction to Assam and its rich literature, as well as to the poet Dr. Bordoloi, for foreign readers of that time. The entire text is published below with the six translated poems embedded in it, without any alteration, along with a photo of the Bordoloi family that Baas had taken then.
A version of this piece appeared in the Thumbprint Magazine:
https://thumbprintmag.in/single_post.php?id=607
[The Assamese originals of the last four poems are also given (thanks to another poet Kushal Dutta). I will be grateful if some reader can give me the originals of the first two.]
Introductory Note: The author of this piece, Professor Barend Jan Terwiel (Baas, to everyone who knows him) is a renowned Dutch-Australian anthropologist, historian and Thai studies expert. He has visited India many times for long periods and has published extensively on, besides many other subjects, also the Tai people of Assam.
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| Taken when I visited Baas in August 2023 |
It was during that period that Baas translated the set of six
Assamese poems of Dr. Nirmalprabha Bordoloi into English. The rest of the story
of how that came to pass is best narrated in Baas’ own words:
I needed to go to Gauhati (as the capital Guwahati was usually called) to reclaim the first draft of my book ‘The Tai of Assam’ from the printers. My friend Atul Borgohain of Dibrugarh kindly
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| Nirmalprabha Baideo (extreme right) with her daughter and family |
arranged a lift in his car. We drove all night and arrived early in the morning of 19th Feb. 1980. I was dropped off at the house of Nirmalprabha Bordoloi, with whom I had had a warm correspondence during the past year, since the Bhubaneshwar conference.
She arranged accommodation at the Travel Lodge.
During the three days of my stay, I spent many hours with Neela (as I called Dr. Bordoloi), discussing my work and her creations. I asked her to explain some of her Assamese poems, and took careful notes of some poignant ones that struck me when she explained their deeper meaning.
I wanted to publish some of them in the journal Hemisphere, an Asian-Australian monthly, edited by Ken Henderson and D.S. Abeyagunawardena. However, by the time I was ready to send it them, the journal folded. The pages stayed in my personal library until Meenaxi B. visited me in 2023.
The text that Baas wrote in 1980 to contextualize the poems is a page from the cultural history of Assam and was meant as an introduction to Assam and its rich literature, as well as to the poet Dr. Bordoloi, for foreign readers of that time. The entire text is published below with the six poems embedded in it, without any alteration. Today Baas is 81 years old and lives in the outskirts of Göttingen in Germany.
A WINDOW UPON ASSAM
Six poems by Nirmalprabha Bordoloi
Hemmed in by China in the north, Burma in the east and
Bangladesh in the south lies the huge fertile and densely populated valley of
the Brahmaputra river. Most of this valley forms the Indian state of Assam. It
is attached to the rest of India via a narrow corridor south of Sikkim and
Bhutan.
Foreign visitors have to obtain permission to enter Assam and
though this permission is readily obtained, it usually allows them only to stay
in Gauhati, Assam’s capital city. Before they can travel outside the capital,
further travel permits have to be obtained. As a result there are relatively
few Westerners in Gauhati and even fewer outside; the region does not feature
on the regular tourist routes and is sometimes regarded as a bit of a
backwater.
For Westerners it may be a forgotten part of the world; yet
the Barhmaputra valley has been the scene of fascinating cultural developments.
Traditionally it has been a meeting place of cultures which can be
characterized as “Indian” with those from China, Tibet and Southeast Asia. Even
today, Assam is surrounded by a great variety of peoples which each have left
their mark upon the dominant “Indian” valley culture.
In all state schools the Assamese language prevails. This
language is related to Bangali and shares with Bengali the same script and much
of the vocabulary (but not its pronunciation). Until the mid-nineteenth century
the written Assamese literature was confined to the court circles and the
people’s literary arts were found in forms of oral literature such as songs and
folklore. In the nineteenth century printing presses were introduced and this
had a profound impact upon the literary scene. Literary societies sprung up in
every town and creative writing became the honorable occupation of many social
leaders. During the first half of the twentieth century Assam was literally
electrified by Jyotiprasad Agarwala’s songs and poems. He has been described by
someone who
wants to conjure a powerful spirit
from Assam’s past and with its help not only free Assam from foreign yoke, but
also to resuscitate and moderise her politically, socially, and culturally so
that a really charming Assam may be born. And to this task he invited in
maddening songs the youth of the land. For their moving eloquence, exalted
ideas, apt imageries, and delicate melodies, Jyotiprasad’s songs are matchless.[i]
Jyotiprasad has been dead many years, but his songs are still
known throughout Assam and still serve to inspire the country’s youth. At
present Assam’s literary tradition is varied and rich. There are scores of
novelists, playwrights, poets and song-writers, whilst the coming generation of
creative artists can publish their first ventures upon the literary path in the
many school and college journals. Assam is a country where poetry is still
recited and this forms part of the general cultural heritage, together with the
popular songs and folk dances.
Assam’s most famous creative artist at present alive, and
often compared to Jyotiprasad Agarwala, is Nirmalprabha Bordoloi. Scholars know
her from books on Assam’s folk culture, but the wider public read her novels
and attend her operas for which she has written both the lyrics and music. She has written thousands of songs which
feature daily in Indian radio programmes and many popular films are
interspersed with her music. Her creative work also encompasses children’s
books which have been awarded national prizes. In order to catch a glimpse of
her genius in a short article, a few of her poems have been selected. Together
with their short commentaries the following six poems serve, not only to evoke
Assam’s unique cultural tradition, but also to bring to our notice the fact
that that part of the world also faces deep-rooted social problems.
The first poem loses little in translation and needs hardly
any clarification:
In the fragrance of the autumn field
My father comes back to me,
In the scent of the new scarf
As I unfold it in the shop
I find my mother again,
Where, o where shall I
leave myself
For my child?
The first five lines indicate subtle links with the past
which are generally pleasing and satisfactory. In the last lines, however, the
uncertain future looms up and some anxiety for the next generation is
transmitted.
The second poem is a short and bitter cry:
Don’t you hear a whirring blaze
Of burning sandal logs?
Uncover my breast,
A handful of ash.
To those familiar with Indian culture, the lines evoke the
picture of death through the roar of a funeral pyre and the realization that
only some asked remain after the body has been consumed. The inner meaning of
the poem is a bemoaning of the fact that the idealism of national leaders such
as Mahatma Gandhi can still be heard if we care to listen, but that there is
nothing to show for it.
The third poem also looks to the past and the reader’s
conscience is stirred with the thought that such images may not be seen again
in the near future.
His paddy fields
As the sun sloped down,
A wicker sunshade on his head.
On his shoulder the steady creak
Of two groaning baskets.
Behind him departed
The golden autumn sun
The thatched hamlet
The rough road through the shrub
And the singing birds,
He left and departed.
Will he return
During this lifetime?
The poem reflects the rapid changes being wrought in rural
Assam, the influx of vast numbers of people from different regions looking for
work, the ravages of a rapidly expanding oil industry and the demands of
industrialization.
In the next poem Dr. Bordoloi broaches a universal theme: the
constraints of traditional society and individual freedom:
And seal it with a reason,
I put myself in a balance
And try to measure my weight.
But all the cages are useless
None of the weights fit the truth,
It makes me burst out with laughter.
And in the darkness I freely expand
Through all the chinks in the inhibitions,
Sometimes soft like a flower
Sometimes bold like a sword
Sometimes stunned like a rock
Sometimes…
Another general principle is the theme of the fifth short poem: it is a plea for consideration and realization that our actions influence those of our neighbours: Assam also has its “environmentalists”.
Flowers cannot bloom on mine.
The reek of that blood
Hardens it so that
Plants cannot grow
Poets, often, put into words the hitherto unspoken
aspirations of the present generation. In this light we may read the sixth poem
here presented:
My eyes are somewhat blurred these days,
Is that a glittering like molten silver,
Like the sharp edge of the sacrificial sword?
I see there is something moving,
See whether the archer’s aim has steadied
And tell him to hurry,
A crisis needs no rehearsing.
In this last poem, Nirmalprabha Bordoloi asks herself whether
she is right in noticing that there are some radical changes ahead. She is not
able to determine whether these changes will be for the better but urges that
there is no time to lose.
The poems of Nirmalprabha Bordoloi have been published in
four volumes and the six presented here in translation present but a rough
sample of her oeuvre. Naturally they can best be appreciated in the original
Assamese. These translations may serve, however, to demonstrate that the
Assamese share many of the problems of the modern world.
Barend J. Terwiel
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