The Poetry of Ajit Barua
The Poetry of Ajit Barua
The Poetry of Ajit Barua
Nalinidhar Bhattacharya
Ajit Barua, an eminent Assamese poet, was born in Guwahati in 1926. A recipient of
several award including Sahitya Akademi Award and Bharatiya Bhasa Parishad
(Calcutta) Award, he is recognized by the literary circle in Assam as a major poet who
restored a kind of intellectual dignity to modern Assamese poetry. He retired from
Indian Administrative Service in 1986. While in service he visited England and
France, and used the opportunity to deepen his knowledge of modern English and
French poetry. Barua started writing under the influence of prevailing romanticism,
moved on to a radical revolutionary phase under the impact of the Second World War
along with a batch of young poets, and then gradually adopted the Eliotean technique
of modern poetry with subject matters more aligned to his early songs, romantic
poems, poems with social concern, and it also includes his later variety of poems of
density. It includes an early revolutionary lyric “Haturi” (The Hammer) remarkable
for his compressed power and the rattling rhythm.
But this concern for squalor and decay in capitalist society and its soiled and banal
humanity soon disappeared and he turned to T.S. Eliot and French symbolists for
inspiration. Eliot’s influence on him was probably more direct than on the neo-
romantics who only tried to imbibe the spirit of Eliot’s creativity based on imagist and
symbolist tradition. According to Barua, his later poems are more mature than those
written earlier, because of their restrained symbolic structure.
“Jengrai, 1963” is a poem where an introvert (probably the poet himself) seems poised
on the brink of the discovery of reality from unreality. The poet had to spend a right at
a confluence of rivers, Spending a right in a solitary place remote from human
habitation is naturally a disturbing experience. He is a modern man with scientific
knowledge and cannot pray to God or lesser gods to deliver him from anxieties and
fears of the situation. To him, these are mere superstition. Yet he cannot remain
without recalling these traditional beliefs in such a situation. This dilemma led him to
a peculiar state of mind. Sleeping on the boat he is aware of the tiger’s roar in the
nearby jungle, the sound of bells fastened to the neck of the buffaloes and at the same
time he hears the music of the spheres and songs of water-nymphs. While fear of
death tortures his spirit, vague spiritual musings also haunt his mind. The material
world is here coupled with the abstract from which, like a schizophrenic, he could not
free his spirit, towards the end of the poem; we see that, in the morning, two Indian
skimmers begin to fly over the surrounding fog. This image gives us a hint that the
poet is undecided and vaguely troubled. In this poem also, the poet uses allusions from
various literary sources with extraordinary skill.
Another poem “Abanti Nagar” (City of Abanti) describes the poet’s spiritual
adventures in a dreamy land under the sea, where the poet hears an unearthly music.
There the poet finds only the light of love and nothing else:
Nor sunrise
Penetrated by light
What kind of land is this? It is again bold and amalgamation of the material with the
abstract. Perhaps it is the poet’s imaginative yearning for unadulterated love which is
painfully lacking in the real world. This world seems to be named as Abanti Nagar,
because, in another poem (Mandia River) the poet says,
It is to be remembered that the poem “Abanti Nagar” was written in Paris, when the
poet was on tour. He may be hinting at the sterile, industrial life of the city.
Ajit Barua’s second volume of poems Brahmaputra Ityadi Padya (Brahmaputra and
other Poems) consists of two long and a few short poems. In one of his short poems,
the poet expresses his deep love for his motherland Assam and the world
simultaneously, sitting on the bank of the river Seine in Paris. The language here is
very simple and easily communicable:
This healthy live for one’s own land is noteworthy, as it indicates that the poet is free
from chauvinism and narrow nationalism.
His two long poems are “The Brahmaputra” and “About Schizophrenia”. The poem
Brahmaputra is a visionary journey of the poet from the river’s source to the sea with
a consciousness for the natural beauties, growing culture and traditional from antiquity
on the river bank and historical developments it has witnessed up to recent times. The
poet here feels that the Brahmaputra over comes all and fails in to the sea unabated.
But man fails to overcome anything and never reaches the sea of a higher spiritual
reality which overcomes all contradictions. The framework of this long poem is not an
end, but only a means to re-establish traditions and to blend chaos in to a spiritual
aesthetic unity. Repetition of the sentence ‘every system is a promise-killer’ speaks
volumes for the chaos that man perpetrates throughout history.
The other poem “About Schizophrenia” is about the psychology of modern man who
suffers from schizophrenia due to a complex environment characterized by squalor,
decay and human folly. Schizophrenia is a mantel disease which leads to occasional
thought-blocking. The man who suffers from such a disease remains alienated from
society and his mantel horizon is clouded with sorrow, excitement and fatigue. The
poet gives the idea of a man who suffers from schizophrenia in modern life. He also
speaks of artists and poets, who are apparently healthy, but inwardly ailing from
symptoms of Schizophrenia. In this connection, he brings in allusion of French poet
Baudelaire, English stage-actor Garrick, and Matsyendra, a Buddhist Tantric of
Assam, to show them to be schizophrenics. In another part, he takes two patients and a
schizophrenic who was sentenced to death. The latter behaves differently when he
hears the news of his death sentence. The poet in his long poem wishes to impress that
modern man is a divided self. This dichotomy of personality is depicted on the verbal
surface of the poem peeping in to the minds of different people with poet’s insight.
Besides being a poet, Ajit Barua is noted critic, essayist, novelist and translator. He
has a deep knowledge of English French literatures. In his poetic endeavor, he seems
to follow Eliot when he says that the poet must become more and more
comprehensive, more allusive, more indirect in order to force, to dislocate if
necessary, language into its meanings. This is the reason why his poems seem to be
often obscure. He confesses that he writes for his own satisfaction. He is elitist by
vocation; you may call him a snob also, because he can afford not to be loved by the
common masses. Yet he is a true poet, who scorns power and pelf in his devotion to
the craft of words.
jengrai 1963
We are superstitious –
Only,
One can see the mud and the stars at the same time
The tiger’s roar, the buffalo – bells, the song that mermaids sing
At midnight
Fire of the will – o’ – the – wisp, sentry at the Death – god’s door
And
Glossary :
Jengrai : The name of a river in the present Lakhimpur district of Assam. It is actually a
combination of many tributaries of the Brahmaputra before it falls into it.
Line : 8 : Subansiri : The name of a river in the same district. Celebrated in legend and song.
One of the rivers which might be having a confluence with the river named Jengrai already
mentioned.
Line : 28 : “Brother fire ….. ….. …..” Attribute to St. Francis of Assisi (1182-/-1226). He is
supposed to have said before an eye – operation. (in those days done by means of a burning
iron – stick)
a jacaranda
I sat down.
A Jacaranda
Like a veil
A horse
Goes round
And round.
of schizophrenia
(Never say the fire of the mind will not cross the fire-
But apart.
(2)
He becomes a tiger
In so many markets
A lot of chaff
But
(3)
liberation.
(4)
But
Is afraid of solitude
“Let us go to Cytheria
To the far distance and further
(5)
of the self.
Garrick, the best time for murder is while you act out
a murder.
I am the listener,
imagination
Glossary :
Line 46 : ou : The tree Dilennia indica. Grows to a height of 30 to 40 feet, the leaves are
oblong and heavily crinkled. The fruit, favourte of the Assamese as it makes a thick sour
gravy, is also the favourite of the elephant. The fruit is large and hard, surrounded by concave
sepals.
Line 46 : 50 : Lines from a marriage song from the Nalbari district of Assam.
Line 49: seleng : A thin , short piece of cloth worm by both the sexes on the upper part of the
body.
Line : 60 : Ahar : The Assamese month falling in the last part of June and the first part of
July.
Line : 64 Saora : Streplus asper, a medium sized, dark looking tree, supposed to be the
favourite haunt of the female spirit, Jakhini.
Line : 68 : ananda–bhairava : A mode (raga) of Indian Classical music rousing both
enjoyment and fear.
Line : 96 : Ram , ram, ram, kham, kham, kham : ‘Seed’ mantra of some Tantric worshippers.
Line : 108 : sphota : “For the Grammarian, the word or sentence when taken as an indivisible
meaning unit is the sphota… the original Greek conception of logos best conveys the
meaning of sphota. ‘The fact that logos stands for an idea as well as a word wonderfully
approximates to the concept of sphota.”
Line: 108 : mantra : “The symbol word, the holy sound which, transmitted to the initiate by
the preceptor, make his personality vibrate in consonance and opens it up for higher
experience.”
The verses have been divided into five parts. There is no special significance behind this
division into five. With the first part are associated two ordinary person suffering from
Schizophrenia. With the second part is associated a possible schizophrenic accused of
murder, and then hanged. The third part has reference to a man probably having
Schizophrenia embarking on a spiritual quest. The fourth part refers to a writer who was
probably suffering from mild Schizophrenia. In the fifth part appears an actor who also was
probably a schizophrenic.
The identity of the last three can be revealed. They are well – known persons. The person in
spiritual quest is Matsyendananth who is supposed to have migrated from Assam and was a
Tantric sadhaka. His wonderful spiritual experience are also supposed to have occurred in the
ancient kingdom of Kadali in Assam.
The poet referred to is the French poet Charles Baudelaire and the actor is the well – known
English stage personality David Garrick. The persons associated with the first two parts are
ordinary persons.
The swift rustle of the sheaves of paddy breaks on the blanks of my ear drums –
overhead is the splendoured mockings in the forest of Kuji thekera, Jalpai and Amara
leaves.
Kite – rearer, have you measured the wavelength of the kite – mother’s wing – beats
in the tunnel of the wind? Measure it and welcome the plantain – leaf emerging at the
top.
The white ant hill at base of the Kotoha bamboo clump – only there lines my soul’s
delight. The jackfruit – gum paste (also in the string of the spinning wheel) on the first
bell – metal pitcher of our house – given in my mother’s dowry – is the companion of
the prickly heat on my waist. How would you guess how much do the wet cliffs of the
anthills assuaged the weight of the water of the Majdangara tank, my friend? – you,
who are used to eating hot rice?
How extraordinary is our labour to tear into shreds the only sky – the joint inheritance
of us all!
All the languages of the world are my inheritance.20 All the poverty. But the Muga slik
moth in the month of Chot the berry in Bohag and the Amona paddy in Jeth – let them
remain for ever, let not the galloping of horses and explosions of command bursting in
our midsummer night’s dreams ever change them.
Glossary :
Line : 2 : Kuji thekera : A kind of acid fruit used by the Assamese, especially for their sour,
thin broth (Garcinia penduculata).
Line : 2 : Amara : The hogplum, used for the some kind of sour both. (Spondias magnifera?)
Line : 5 : Kotoha bamboo : A kind of bamboo knotty, hard, full of bends, Grows rather wild
and in thick clumps.
It will be useful here to give the names of the Assamese months as they might have appeared
in many places. Bohag (starts from 15 April or thereabouts). Jeth, Ahar, Saon, Bhada, Ahin,
Kati, Aghon, Puh, Magh, Phagun, Chot.
When the bamboo piece is split with the pruning – knife, the bladder bursts in the
belly of the Bahu fish. And with it the pulp of the coconut. The skin of the green
bamboo for binding will not be peeled, nor will the flat splint of bamboo for the hand
fan, for the sitting mat. For, the parrot wings of the bamboo ruler is my nostrils’ joy.
Trembling of my eyes. Heart – balm.
Ah, such smell of the half – ripe wood – apple! Spinning round on the heel I make
bright in the sand the single pice– piece given me by elder–mother. The swan of 7
Tchaikovsky. The Bildara bil The width of the pice – piece is the width of the earth
and of the inch. The gold – copper is the lightning inside the heart. The crown on the
head of George the fifth is discovered in the sand. When the breast of the sharp knife
had marked the inches on the green – bamboo ruler – the shining – like – copper pice
– piece was inside my eyes….
The roller of the hand cotton – gin sound grindingly for swaraj. How wonderful is the
yellow of the wood of the jack – fruit tree! Of the inside of the wood – apple! 14 The
touch of the smooth hair of the deer is acknowledged in the shake of its tail. In the
chisel of what carpenter did the gimlet of the jack – fruit wood take shape to play the
grinding despair of the cotton – gin inside my belly?
“Elder Mother, the creation will not be transformed if swaraj comes. The heat of the
smoky fire of green bamboo will still make the earthen bits to fly off your earthen pot.
Always will it remain – the lost hope of the ‘ka’ written with the kehraj19 on the
plantain leaf.
“I shall become their poet from the air – conditioned20 plastic tower.” Like when the
colour of the makarighila the skin of the tengamara fruit and honey are pasted in the
hollow mortar! I remember that and also the sugar – cane juice boiling with waves
like layers of the ou fruit. The charmed ghila is under the quit on my bed.
Ghunghuni, Selpeti, Dafa, Nakha, - nobody remembers them. With the pod of the
ghila. With the spotted skin on elephants’ ears, with the maroon spot on the parched
rice, they flew away in the green of the vanishing wing40 of the last green Imperial
Pigeon of the earth. The last Mejankari silkworm is on the Adakari tree.
I cannot start for that bright universe with walking stick in hand. For the lord of the
universe is above force of gravity. Only is sharpened sword cuts our time into pieces.
Bangalore
6-1-89
Glossary:
Line : 2 : Bahu fish: A big fish with large belly and bladder.
Line : 8 : bil : a very small lake, ‘ka’ : the first consonant of the Assamese alphabet.
Line : 19 : Kehraj : Probably, Verbesina prostrata. Its juice makes ink for village children to
write on plantain leaves.
Line : 21: Makari – ghila : The seed of a large climbing wild plant. The seeds are found
inside a coconut – like pod. Used by village children to play a game.
Line : 21: Tengamara : A acid fruit of beautiful blood red colour.
Line : 23 : Ou : The fruit of the Dilennia indica, with hollow sepals measuring upto ¾ inches.
When the sugarcane juice is boiled, bubble of the shape of Ou sepals on the convex side
emerge.
Line : 23 : Ghila : Same as makari – ghila described above but larger in size. Normally ghilas
other than makari – ghila have a duller colour.
Line : 24 : Ghunghuni, Selpeti, Dafa, Nakha : These are various ways of played the ghila in a
prolonged game where every part of the body is involved. In Data for instance, the ghila is to
be placed on the top of the foot and then thrown with it, in Nakha the ghila is to be held
between the big toe and the next toe and then thrown and so on.
Line : 25 : Mejankari : a kind of old – gold coloured silk exclusive to Assam. Now, the
silkworm producing that silk may be extinct and so is the silk.
Line : 25 : Adakari : Probably Tetranthera quadrifoli. The tree smells a little ginger. Still
found in Assam forest but very rarely. The Mejankari silkworm referred to above was reared
on the leaves of this tree.
An eagle!
Calcutta
23-10-48
Glossary :
Line : 3 : Daiyang : A river in central Assam which appear a number of times in the
love songs of the Spring festival of the Assamese – the Rangali Bihu.
Line : 11: Darikana : (Sanskrit) Dandik. A small fish celebrated in village songs.
( These poems were translated into English himself and published in Yaatra-
Journal of Assamese Literature & Culture )