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A few poems by Sananta Tanty
Touch
I touch your love. Entering your love, I burn myself.
My days are hot, my nights are hotter.
First, it was in the alphabets, it was hidden in the words.
Then it came to the touch of the hand. It revealed itself in life.
Blooming, spread like itself from heart to heart
I touch your love. Entering your love, I burn myself.
Now it's not easy to kill the love that lives in the blood of my veins
the way even if shot at, poetry does not die like men do.
Savage
Twenty seven persons were killed
Among them twelve were men
others were women and children
eyewitnesses said there were babies too
asleep in their mother’s bosoms
First, the villagers were surrounded
then breaking the doors
the men were dragged from their beds
Even ignoring the innocent faces of the children
the murderers fired their bullets indiscriminately
the bullets filled with gunpowder passed
through the innocent eyes and hearts of the children
The flies hovered all night over
the soil blackened by blood
the moon left the sky
the sky cried in the savagery
in grief, the coulds turned into rain
Seeing the heartbreaking scene
eyewitnesses didn’t say a thing
just covered their faces with handkerchiefs
After identification, this was learnt about the dead bodies:
Invitation
Come to the core of my heart
come to the deep source of words
Open up your love
abruptly in my blood
Perhaps you are my last invited guest
to partake in my mournful life
Come to the core of my heart
prepare me for the victory march
I survive in your purity
I survive in your purity
and blossom everywhere
I sink in eternal immersion
And be discovered everywhere
Even in the strong current, I remain unmovable
And I break the house inside
I burn perpetually in the heat of your heart
And burst out everywhere
Waking up with a golden dream
Suddenly I am born
quietly
inside you
How do I forget?
How do I forget your heartening warm hand?
We were joyous when the soft, quivering dreams
touched the winds which collided with the blue hills
and spread on us
We were desirous of touch in the time
spent in the soft sound of the rivulet
we had shifted the words crammed in an undiscovered pain
form heart to heart
We gazed at the lack of pride
How do I forget your warm voice in the spreading sky
where our dreams were plastered?
How do I forget your heartening warm hand,
the hand that threw upon us the words of dream?
After a long time
After a long time, the other day, I bumped into myself
I shook hands with myself. We moistened ourselves in fellow feeling
Drawing some blood, I mixed it with my own blood.
I mixed my own word with other words.
After a long time, the other day, I saw myself
I compared myself with the picture which, turning to fire
turnign to ash is has become past. While doign this, I went to sleep
beside my own shadow. Wakign up, I saw the time depart.
After a long time, the other day, I saw myself
I shook hands with myself. We moistened ourselves in fellow feeling
With me from past, I laughed, played and exchanged sadness.
The Day you arrived
The Day you arrived, I wore a green garment of dream
I waited next to the road. In my eyes, there was a deep desire to see you.
In my heart, there bloomed a rose.
Dismantling my heart, it bloomed withing me.
Surprisingly my nerve cells, flowed its unsung pain.
The day you arrived, my pain was crystallized.
The day you arrived, scented red flowers bloomed on the trees
and I was immersed in colour, in scent.
Sunayana’s birthday
Today is Sunayana’s birthday
What could I give Sunayana today?
Waiting for the city bus, I thought of Sunayana
She, who is crazy about love, on her birthday
It would be huge mistake
If I forget
My heart may crumble
My hours may grow tiresome
I could experience unbearable pain
I could remain sleepless all night
Perhaps the birthday would be spent in despair
Sunayana will weep; I wil weep in sorrow
Sunayana’s so desired
birthday party will go waste
for a slight mistake
Today is Sunayana’s birthday
I look around
City buses filled with passengers pass by me
Immobile like a tree
standing on the same spot
I think of a gift for Sunayana
on her birthday
Today is Sunayana’s birthday
I am sure to wish her on her birthday
the rain will turn into drizzle
the roads will be be without dust
free of dust trees will share their breez with the guests
The rain will wash away bloodstains
revealing the roots people will gaze into their past
the rail will wash away the bloodstains
from the dead in the bomb blast yesterday
the hours will be crystalline
I call up Mamoni Baideu
Today is Sunayana’s birthday
Is Mamoni Baideu coming?
I call up Saurav Tripathy
My revolutionary companion once upon a time
who spent the night of impenetrable darkness
I call up everyone
close to Sunayana
today is Sunayana’s birthday
are they coming?
The sun climbs up
Standing like a tree, I think of Sunayana
What be the gift
on Sunayana’s birthday?
I think of Sunayana’s wish list
I thonk of the things Sunayana likes
Sunayana likes perfume
Sunayana like deodorant
Sunayana likes music
Synayana likes pictures
Sunayana likes paneer pao-bhaji
Sunayana likes gajor ka halwa
and apple fruit salad
Sunayana loves to sing and dance
Sunayana cannot stand still whenever she hears
the sound of vehicles
Sunayana, like me, likes the company of poets
I call up my wife
listen, today is Sunayana’s birthday
what do we give her on her birthday?
Over the phone my wife
gives me a long list of birthday purchases
She said – bring two kgs of happiness
bring joy, bring prayers and wishes
and to offer the guests
bring the heart,
if possible bring some choice sweet
And listen, to offer the deity bring some gram
and banana and apple
for Sunayana, bring a long ghagra
because in a long ghagra
she will look dazzling
From the city bus stop
I walk towards the market
and reaching the market
in the cry of my mobile phone
I lose my consciousness
Weeping, my wife gives me the news
Sunayana committed suicide today
Sunayana is no more
Breaking all our hearts
Sunayana has left the world
Sunayana’s birthday is now a day of mourning
now sorrowful hours cover
Sunayana’s birthday
I purchased bereavement from the market
I purchased sadness from teh market
I bought despire and despondency from the market
I bought salt from the market to hide my sorrows
Burying the news of my beloved
Sunayana's death in my heart
immobile, I ask myself alone
where did my Sunayana go?
Sunayana was my daughter
She was never a dog
Translation of all the poems from Assamese into English by Dibyajyoti Sharma
The Poet
Sananta Tanty was born in 1952, in Kalinagar Tea Estate in Karimganj district in Assam. Tanty came from an Oriya speaking poor tea-garden labourer family and was bought up in a semi-town environment of Ramkrishna Nagar. During his chilhood and adolescence he was exposed to Bengali literature through the Bengali language he first learnt and fall in love. He wrote his first poem, a love lyric in Bengali. But his stay in Jorhat in Middle Assam, at the threshold of his youth and the lucidity and life of Assamese language forced him to write in Assamese. A poet who is originally Oriya, educated in Bengali and writes in Assamese is definitely a success. His left redicalism and sensitivity during the time of great political unrest in Assam in eighties made him a voice to be reckoned with.
His literary works include Ujjal Nakhyatrar Sandhanot,1981 (In Search of a Bright Star); Moi Manuhor Amal Utsav, 1985(I’m Man’s Shining Celebration); Nijor Biruddhe Sesh Prastab, 1990 ( Final Proposal Againt the Self), Sabda Athaba Sabdahinotat ,1993( In Sound or in Silence) ; Tathapio Ketiyaba Barisha Ahe, 1997 (Sometimes it floods even in dream); Dhowa Saair Sapon,2002 (The Dream of Smoke and Ash), Dirna Basantar Saurav, 2002( Fragrance of a wretched spring), Apuni Aponar Hotey Juddha Karibo Paribone, 2008( Would you be able to wage a war against you); Moi, 2009 (I); Kailoir Dinto Amar Hobo, 2013 ( Tomorow will be ours), Mor Priya Sopunor Osore Pajore, 2017 (Around my favourite dream).
“Selected poems: Sananta Tanty", is the collection of some of his translated poems published in English in 2017 and translated by Dibyajyoti Sharma.
He is a recipient of Mrinalini Devi Goswami Award by Asom Kavi Samaj in 1992, Bir Birsa Munda Award in 2002, Osman Ali Sadagar Samannay Award by Char Chapori Sahitya Parisad in 2011, Krantikal Samman in 2014, Nijora Kobi Sailadhar Rajkhowa Award by Asam Sahitya Sabha in 2015,and SIRISH-OIL Literary Award by APPL Foundation in 2016. ( Source : Selected poems : Sananta Tanty)
The Translator
Dibyajyoti Sharma has published two volumes of poetry and an academic book, besides numerous contributions in edited volumes, journals and websites.
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