Translations by Syed Ahmed Shah. Editor and wordmeanings by Syeda Jebeen Shah
Dr. Bhupen Hazarika, a true jewel of Assam, was a many-sided genius—a legendary singer, a lyricist, a composer, a scholar, an artist and above all a genuine humanist who dared to dream of a classless society. He left over 800 recorded songs that had touched people so deeply that, in modern history, besides Mahatma Gandhi, no public person in India drew so many people into public mourning which lasted for weeks. It is said that there are few topics that he didn’t write about, from dignity of labour, mystical rapture, to deeply personal crushing blues, whatever he wrote appealed to ‘peasant’ and ‘PhD’ across denominations. In the tradition of visionary message song writing, he filled his songs with people, life and nature to conjure realities not without solace for those in pain. In that special way of seeing his songs remind us that like the ocean, the underlying vastness of luminous certainty is never far. A populist at heart, his core intentions were to uplift and enlighten both the haves and the have nots. That throughout his formative period he wrote in Assamese, his mother tongue – a regional Indian dialect – attests to the importance he gave the language as a validator of common experience, its maturity as a viable medium to express modern concepts and its special quality of being close to nature. The historical, cultural and linguistic syncretism inherent in the language points to the diversity of the region and it’s role as one of the key unifying languages of the NE. With changing demographics affecting spoken and written language, those passionate about Assamese may find some support and hidden direction in the songs of Bhupen Hazarika. That and the fact that he helped put Assam on the map of India is perhaps why people lined up for upto 8 hours to file past his worldly remains as they lay visible in a glass case for three days. It was late in his life that his work started getting translated into English. After three years of gestation, Coolgrove Press is proud to bring out this first edition of Bhupen Hazarika’s songs titled Winged Horse: Assamese songs of Dr. Bhupen Hazarika translated by Syed Ahmed Shah, a poet and resident of Guwahati, Assam.
