Nilmani Phookan: The Poet of Silence

His canvas is vast, his imagination mythopoeic, his voice bardic, his concerns ranging from the political to the cosmic, from the contemporary to the primeval. The landscapes he evokes are epic and elemental: he speaks of fire and water, planet and star, forest and desert, man and rock, time and space, war and peace, life and death. He was the living legend of Assamese poetry.

Jnanpith Awardee poet Nilmani Phookan is a poet of silence. His attachment to Gelabil, a small river in Dergaon since his childhood days is reflected in many of his river poems. But he was never blind to the harsh realities of life as in the poem 'Muthi Muthikoi Kati Tor Dhekiyar Anguli' he depicts a picture of a poor woman who sells vegetables at a local market in Azara. Her appearance itself speaks of poverty. The poet speculates on the reasons for her poverty and her struggles in life – floods, unexpected accidents or scarcity of food: "Muthi muthikoi kati tor dhekiyar anguli / Ajarar andharat toye beso/ Bai tor kon gaont ghar / Manuh morene tat" Liberal economy and the impact of globalisation in the 1990's made the struggle of life harsher for the lower and lower middle class. The new world is equipped with modern technology and this is a big challenge for the common people. As a sensitive poet he muses on human life by focusing on different aspects of nature. All are mingled in his poems – paddy fields, rivers, history, folklore, tradition, alteration trauma, exile, silence and so on. Likewise his poetry encompasses people from various strata including shepherds, peasants , boatmen, women and children. Born in a village called Chakiyal near Dergaon in Assam he studied hard and became a lecturer in Arya Vidyapeeth College where he worked till 1992. He had eight volumes of verse to his credit. Surya Heno Nami Aahe Ei Nadiyedi *The Sun is Said to Descend Along This River') written in 1963 was his masterpiece. Nirjanatar Sabda( The Sound of Silence) (1965), Aru Ki Naisabda (And What Quietude) (1968) Phuli Thake Surjyamukhi Phultor Phale (Towards the Blooming Sunflower,1971) , Kait aru Golap aru Kait (Thorns and Roses and Thorns,1980), Kabita (Poems,1980) Nrityarata Prithivi (The Dancing Earth,1986) Alap Agate Aami Ki Katha Pati Aachilo (What Were We Talking a Little While Ago ,2003).Apart from his poetry collections, he authored a few books on art and sculpture and translated several Spanish, Chinese and Japanese poems into Assamese. Moreover, there are two selected versions of his poems – Golapi Jamur Lagna (The Moment of Rose Apple 1976) and Sagar Talir Sankha (Conch from the Depths of the Sea, 1994). His contribution to Assamese poetry is crucial and significant in several ways. His poetic voice has been a central one in the spectrum of modern Assamese poetry. He seems to delve deep into the nuances of the Assamese language through his poetic exercises. It appears that straight and general comment on his poetry will be ludicrous as his poems are encumbered with a multiplicity of leanings. It seems that Nilmani Phookan facilitates the reader with a unique aroma of folk-life and folk–culture . He explores the resources of Assamese folklore through the medium of poetic language .

He muses on the Assam Movement which created a violent situation in Assam .There was picketing, chaos, bloodshed and strikes everywhere and it influenced the socio-political condition in the state. But Phookan did not incorporate direct politics in his poetry. His vision widened and reflected on the turmoil that unnerved the globe. We perceive different Phookans in his different collections. But above everything his voice was that of a humanist. In the midst of death he sang the glory of humanism. The poet has in himself the incurable Romantic who says: "The overblown surujkanti flowers have not wilted though they are about to, the Dichoi and Dibang have not changed into ice though they are about to." The poet sounds mysterious when he says, "Don't ask me how I am floating down the Kolong/A headless girl/ For my corpse was lying for forty-two hours/On the pavement of Guwahati /For I'm open-eyed still/My death too has its eyes open ,,," This is how the poet weaves his imageries in the poetic tapestry.

Phookan's poems have a plethora of images, "Very black sun of every season/ I am a naked man Ageless with my whole body/ I have felt some rocks hidden under water and earth/ Some rocks and a planet made of human flesh and blood /My lips, tongue and innards have felt some rocks /In the angular privacy of my prolonged life/ some rocks horizontal vertical round." The living legend is no more but he left a glorious poetic legacy posterity. He knew that the dance of creation absorbs the destructive energy. The earth's dance is in agony and in anger but finally it is of joy.

As a sensitive observer of Nature, he looked romantic and his symbolic utterances created a poetic aura for the readers. In 2019 D Litt was conferred on him by Dibrugarh University.

Any reader of Phookan's poetry will recall the poems for their crystal clarity. In his poem striking reality prevails as in one of his poems, 'A Poem' (Later Translated by Niren Thakuria), he wrote: "For days I have heard only one sound day and night. The burning tyre is stinking. I have shed tears, And wiped them away with one hand with both hands. In my tears the stones have soaked, the grass drenched in blood over there has soaked in my tears."

There is a need to take Phookan's poetry to global readers and Assam Publication Board should undertake to translate his poems. Phookan is not a poet of love. Even if he depicts it, it is not sensual but metaphysical. Sometimes love becomes a flower where a person looks for his beloved on the bed and the beloved is found blooming at the foot of a hill. Such beautiful sentiments of love are expressed in his love poetry. It is strange that being a student of history and a teacher too he never showed interest in historical facts but as a poet he poeticizes the history of Assam and its cultural heritage by using modern symbolism of a twentieth century European or American poet. His canvas is vast, his imagination mythopoeic, his voice bardic, his concerns ranging from the political to the cosmic, from the contemporary to the primeval. The landscapes he evokes are epic and elemental: he speaks of fire and water, planet and star, forest and desert, man and rock, time and space, war and peace, life and death. He was the living legend of Assamese poetry.

He was not exactly a poet of river and woods like Yeats or Hardy nor was he a romantic poet writing on love like Neruda nor he was a poet of Nature like Wordsworth or Whitman . Yet the 88-year-old celebrated poet, Nilmani Phookan is the best Assamese poet of the twentieth century and is known for his poems on river, city, forest, life, death and blood-stained mornings or starry nights wrapped in mystery. Phookan is the third Assamese to receive the Jnanpith Award after novelist Birendra Kumar Bhattacharya (1979) and Mamoni Raisom Goswami (2000). The notable works of Phookan are 'Xurjya Henu Naami Aahe Ei Nodiyedi', 'Kabita' and 'Gulapi Jamur Lagna'. Most of the poems of Nilmani Phookan, who created a new era of modern Assamese poetry, are rich in quality and have a beautiful picture of nature. Through poetry, he explores life, youth, love, joy, the world's most common mysteries, nature and many other subjects.

Dr Ratan Bhattacharjee

International Visiting Professor of English USA

trilingual poet may be reached at profratanbhattacharjee@gmail.com