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Translations of Bhupen Hazarika Songs Translator Bios Translations of Bhupen Hazarika Songs them. They would often ask me to translate into English so that they would understand the words better. That’s how I got into translating poems - and in Bhupen Hazarika (Assamese: ভূ পেন হাজৰিকা) (1926–2011) was an Indian lyricist, collaboration with my daughters and wife. It gives me sheer joy, particularly musician, singer, poet and film-maker from Assam. His songs, written and sung when I can translate with my daughters who love Bengali culture. They do not mainly in the Assamese language by himself, are marked by humanity and gloss over but take keen interest in conveying the nuances. universal brotherhood and have been translated and sung in many languages, most notably in Bengali and Hindi. He is also acknowledged to have introduced Pampi the culture and folk music of Assam and Northeast India to Hindi cinema at the I’m a digital mixed media performance artist and poet. I’m my father’s national level. daughter. Translating Bengali with my father is an exercise in remembering sweet sounds that swell me up and a challenge to see how much I’ve retained For a brief period he worked at All India Radio, Guwahati when he won a after almost three decades of living in the States – not to mention something scholarship from Columbia University and set sail for New York in 1949. There fun and frustrating to do with my old man. How much of it I still understand! he earned a PhD (1952) on his thesis "Proposals for Preparing India's Basic Education to use Audio-Visual Techniques in Adult Education". Translator Notes by Pampi: In honor of the spirit for communal amity and empathy that Dr. Bhupen In New York Hazarika befriended Paul Robeson, a prominent civil rights activist, Hazarika advocated for, in this set of translations, I have made comments on who influenced him in his song Bistirno parore which is based on the imagery the gendered and casteist implications of certain lines. and theme of Robeson's Ol' Man River. This song is translated in various Indian languages, including Bengali and Hindi and sung by the artist himself, and is still Increasingly, as I commit to acknowledging my caste privileges, I’m revisiting popular. everything Hindu. I know my discomfort is nothing to the systemic violence my Dalit friends face every day at home and even here. Hazarika’s funeral was attended by an estimated half a million people. He was posthumously awarded the Padma Vibhushan, India's second-highest civilian Caste does not simply disappear crossing oceans. Because #dalitwomenfight award, in 2012. every day to survive, I stand in solidarity by questioning exclusive practices of (from wikipedia entry on Bhupen Hazarika) communities I have access to here. I’m proud my father stands by me. Translator Bios To know that commonplace images that bring me nostalgia can be used to exclude, shame, and make hostile spaces for others by virtue of their birth Gopal Das, Ph.D. circumstances is intolerable to me. And also, personally painful, as many of the Born in Lohagara, Jessore (now in Bangladesh), the partition of India forced our symbols root me to the land of my grandmother whom I had to leave. The family to move to Kolkata. As an adult, I migrated to USA so I’ve been twice implications are great, yet I am not deterred that I will find a compassionate displaced. I have a deep love for anything Bengali-especially Bengali literature, way through. While I work this out, in the spirit of community, I offer a folklores, songs, dance, dramas, traditions, etc. including Ilish maach. At home, challenge to consider realities of others made alternate by egregious, my parents routinely drilled us on all these aspects of culture so that we do not discriminatory, millennia-long practices. How dare we? How dare we call forget our roots. another spiritually polluting? Like all Bengali parents, when my daughters were young, we read Bengali With our freedom-fighting legacy, as Bengalis we must work to cast out caste. books with them, recited Tagore poems with them, and sang songs with For more information, please write me [email protected] Wanderer1 Country after country, I have seen love-less unions breaking apart families. The stranger becomes my own in my mind, and my own people become distant. The world having embraced me as its own, I've forgotten my own home. I've become a wanderer. I've become a wanderer. That’s why I am a wanderer. I’m one wanderer. I’m a wanderer. From the land of the Ganges2, I visited the mighty Mississippi and saw the beautiful Volga. From Ottowa through Austria I arrived - covered in Paris’s dust From Ellora I took color and gave it to the distant city Chicago, I heard the ghazals of Galib, sitting inside the Taskhend minaret. Sitting at Mark Twain's tombstone I talked about Gorky. Again and again by the pull of the road I have made the road my home. That’s why I am a wanderer. That’s why I am a wanderer. Though most wanderers appear aimless, I travel with intention: Wherever I go I soak my mind in the color of the place. I have seen countless rows of tall buildings touching the sky. Under their shadow I have also seen many homeless folk3. I have seen endless groves of roses and bakul flowers blossoming in the millions. I have also seen buds withering due to neglect. 1 What are the assumptions for the gender presentation of the Wanderer? 3 If the word homeless is taken as if homelessness is not a choice, what systemic 2 Ganges has a powerful association with Hindu India measures does India have in place to make our people homeless? Who typically live in our slums? This is “love”4 Male solo: You are beyond beautiful. Who created you?!8 Male solo + male chorus: It is a moonlit night. I’m thinking your name is Anjana. Anjana is my khanjana (hand-held percussive instrument). Male solo5: Who is this beauty - her hair dressed up in dopati flowers, passing by with a slow, swinging gait? Male solo + chorus: I believe I know you… Female chorus: Do you really? Draped in a dark sari, she glides by without a care, enrapturing my mind. Male solo + chorus: I believe I have seen you… Female chorus: Seeing you, my body trembles deliriously. Seeing you, my Female chorus: Did you really? body trembles deliriously. Male solo + chorus: You are batting your eyes smiling9… Female solo + female chorus6: Your love does not abide any convention: Female chorus: For who? My body is struck down by my love for you. Male solo + chorus: You are looking all around… I cannot get away, nor do I wish to… I only continue to circle back. Female chorus: At whom? Male solo + male chorus: What will happen, I wonder? You go away Male solo: Like a drunk10 I have no illusion- you have made my mind smiling. forgetful. Like a drunk I have no illusion- you have made my mind forgetful. When the buds blossom, the bees become restless. Female chorus: Seeing this beauty, our bodies tremble deliriously. Seeing Male solo: Hey, daughter of my future father-in-law7, why aren’t you this beauty, our bodies tremble deliriously. talking to me? Male solo: If I tell you... Female solo: I am dying in my mind. Female solo: What will you tell me? 4 “Love” is in quotes, because the female chorus is teasing the male lead over his 7 Role of women in many societies is subordinate to cis-male caretakers – first the infatuation, but at the same time avoiding expressly saying that he is lusting for a father, then the husband. No other way for a woman to be. woman. In Hindu society, love is often conflated with lust, because there is a reluctance 8 Impossible dual standards: here, she is impossibly beautiful. to speak candidly about sexual intention. 9 Everybody makes eyes, not just women. 5 Who speaks first? Who declares first? 10 Why relate love to inebriation? Because he word “drunk” shames alcoholics, relating 6 The solos and choruses are male and female- assigning ad reinforcing dominant and himself to a drunk, the lead shames his feelings of “love” thereby shaming the woman prescriptive gender roles for individuals and groups of people. The language reflects the who inspires these feelings. cis-heteronormative values and expectations of Hindu society. Female solo + female chorus: You, fellow, fell in a trap —this is that trap. Male chorus: Love is like pouring hot milk into puffed rice This is “love.”11 Female chorus: No, this is “love” Female solo: Should you be wounded in your heart, then you will slowly Male chorus: Love is like mixing yogurt with flattened rice in autumn die. Female chorus: No, this is “love” Female chorus: Is that right? Male chorus: Make sure not to bind all this food into your gamcha cloth by mistake. Male chorus: A wild12 bird lives in the forest. How might I catch it? Male solo: Dearest friend: where are you, dearest friend? With a hastily-made trap – Will I trap it? Female solo: You see me;15 Female chorus: You, fellow, are suffering and now have jumped into the Male solo: my heart is restless fire. Female solo: that’s why you are falling dying In your thrashing mind you have fallen in love, but you are making a ALL: the insect of love is very stupid; like that insect you are behaving mistake.13 idiotically Male chorus: Every fiber of the body is affected by love14.
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