The Owl Sight
By Prakalpa Ranjan Bhagawati, Translated by Ananda Bormudoi
A Collection of poems originally written in Assamese.
2023, PWF, HB, Price Rs 175.00, ISBN 978-81-975772-7-7
About the Poet
Prakalpa Ranjan Bhagawati is an Indian poet, writer and translator who writes in Assamese, the major language of the state of Assam in North East India. He has drawn wide critical attention through his first collection of poems titled Baladharohi Aru Anyanya Kabita (The Bullock Rider and Other Poems) published in 2021. He is one of the members of a group of poets and critics who streamlined Parbantarar Padya (a New Chapter for Verse), by publishing a manifesto in 2020 to consider and reconsider certain issues related to Assamese poetry. His poems have been translated into English, Malayalam and Bengali and have appeared in Modern Poetry in Translation; Muse India; Guftugu; Indian Cultural Forum; Deshabhimani Weekly etc. Besides poetry he has published two collections of critical essays, three translated books and a few edited books.
About the Translator
Dr. Ananda Bormudoi is a literary critic and translator based in Guwahati, Assam. He translates from Assamese language to English and vice versa. He has published more than fifteen books on literary criticism in Assamese and English. He has translated more than eight books from Assamese to English and vice versa. Some of his critically acclaimed books in Assamese are Asamiya Samalochana Sahityar Chamu Buranji (A Short History of Assamese Literary Criticism, 2008); Asamiya Kavitar Samalochana (Criticism of Assamese Poetry, 2012); Yuganayak Sankardeva (Hero of the Era Sankardeva, 2014); Adhunik Asamiya Sahityar Itihas (A History of Modern Assamese Literature, 2023).
About the Book
“Nature and human being, past and present, life and death: no more do these remain binaries in these poems that look inward and outward in an attempt to build a holistic vision of life and the universe. They combine observation with vision and memories with experience in a style that is apparently simple yet profoundly impressive. The translations capture all the nuances of the originals so much so that we feel they were written originally in English.”
K. Satchidanandan, Poet and Critic
“The simple surface of Prakalpa Ranjan Bhagawati’s poems hides deep meaning.”
Harekrishna Deka, Sahitya Akademi Award Winner Poet
“Prakalpa Ranjan Bhagawati’s poems strike you with strange, unfamiliar words and images like those coming up in a dream or even a nightmare. The one who looks at death without being seen by it and living to tell the tale that is summed up in the comments that death looks like an innocent child; having looked at an owl perched on the window shutter of an old government office, seeing the world around through the owl’s eyes– such unusual conceits keep his poetry apart from the common run and give it its uncommon vision.”
Dr. A J Thomas, Poet and Former Editor, Indian Literature
“Nuanced and evocative of a vision that carries forth Bhagawati’s priorities as a poet, this book of verse marks out his own space for an English readership. In his poems, Bhagawati cultivates an idiom enriched by the Assamese language’s vivacity, which is now accessible to a wider audience.”
Dr. Bibhash Choudhury, Critic and Professor of English Literature, Gauhati University, Assam