Thus Sang Bard of Brahmaputra

A brief blog can hardly do justice to the towering genius of Bhupen Hazarika (1926-2011) who won several awards and accolades including the Dada Saheb Phalke award, and Bharat Ratna, awarded posthumously in 2019. The versatile maestro passed away in 2011, but has left behind a rich legacy that would continue to inspire and motivate future generations. He is the Bard of Brahmaputra, Sudhakantha, and the beloved artist and cultural icon of Assam and India.

(Source: Wikimedia Commons)

This blog presents a translation of one of his most-loved songs Bistirna Parore (Assamese) along with a brief appreciation.

You may better appreciate this blog and the translation after listening to your preferred version of the song – Assamese (Original), or Bengali (O Ganga Tumi Boyicho Kena) or Hindi (O Ganga Tum Beheti Ho Kyun), all available in You Tube.

Bistirna Parore: Assamese Song by Bhupen Hazarika

(Translation by Prasanna Dash)

You hear the heart-rending cries

of the distressed masses

On the vast expanse of your banks,

Don’t you, Old Luit*?

Why, then, do you flow by in silence,

Are you mute,

O Old Luit?

Why are you so callous,

Why so indifferent,

Even when you find

Ethics abandoned, and

Humanity debased?

Can’t you see

The illiterate mired in ignorance, and

Millions without a morsel?

Why don’t you lead them out of the mess?

You got much experience

Of capturing the fury of a thousand showers,

Mobilising millions of raindrops;

Why don’t you inspire

Paralysed humanity

To rise in battle and rush to their goals?

Individual is now self-centred, and

Society spineless;

Why, then, don’t you demolish and sweep away

The deadwood?

Were you truly

Son of Brahma,

Won’t you be seeding in them

Dream of a new society,

A new future?

The world is enmeshed

In the frenzy

Of a furious, fatal Kurukshetra war;

Several heroes lie immobile

Like Bhishma

In their bed of arrows;

Why don’t you revive them

To take up weapons again?

You hear the heart-rending cries

of the distressed masses

On the vast expanse of your banks,

Don’t you, Old Luit?

Why, then, do you flow by in silence,

Are you mute,

O Old Luit?

***

*Brahmaputra river is also called Luit or Lohit. Lohit (Sanskrit) means red, and the name derives possibly from the muddy brown colour of the river during the monsoon.

During its course through Tibet, the river is known by its Tibetan and Chinese names, and after crossing the 'Grand Canyon' of Tsango, it enters Arunachal Pradesh where it is named Dihang (or Siang). Near Sadiya, Assam, the river is joined by two mountain streams - Lohit and Dibang. Below the confluence, the river is known as the Brahmaputra.

Bhupen Hazarika was born at Sadiya.

***

The Song

Bhupen Hazarika wrote and sang the original song in Assamese in 1969. It was translated into Bengali and Hindi, and both versions were also sung by Bhupen Hazarika. This is no ordinary song; for it presents the empathetic poet’s worldview and a slice of its time and milieu.

The Assamese song is an Ode to Bura Luit (Old Lohit, i.e. Brahmaputra); a song fired with revolutionary fervour and the vision of a dreamer for a better world for the suffering masses. In the Bengali and the Hindi translation, the song is addressed to Ganga, a more venerated river for the people of India.

Ol’ Man River

Bhupen Hazarika had acknowledged that Bistirna parore was inspired by Ol’ Man River. However, both songs are unique, and not amenable to comparison.

"Ol' Man River" is a show tune from the 1927 Broadway musical Show Boat with music by Jerome Kern and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, who wrote the song in 1925. The song contrasts the struggles and hardships of African Americans with the endless, uncaring flow of the Mississippi River. It is sung from the point of view of a black stevedore on a showboat.

Paul Robeson’s later rendition of “Ol’ Man River”, performing as Joe in Show Boat in 1936, was acclaimed world-wide, and was included in Grammy Hall of Fame in 2006.

Paul’s rendition is purposely slow, as though sung by a bone-tired wearied worker. Bing Crosby also sang it, but in a faster pace and tempo.

Paul Robeson was a leading light of the civil rights movement, and a versatile personality – actor, singer, musician, activist, football player, lawyer, and more.

In America, the Civil War had been won, and slavery abolished, but it was too soon for the racial discrimination to end. In Ol’ man river, the protagonist presents a harrowing picture of the misery of millions of workers and hopes for freedom from unbearable shackles, longs to cross the river Jordan to return to homeland.

“Let me go 'way from the Mississippi,

Let me go 'way from de white man boss;

Show me dat stream called de river Jordan,

Dat's de ol' stream dat I long to cross.”

The singer is aghast that Mississippi, that Ol’ man river, flows unconcerned and indifferent, a mute witness to the inequity and suffering of the people it passes by.

“Ol' man river,

Dat ol' man river

He mus'know sumpin'

But don't say nuthin',

He jes'keeps rollin'

He keeps on rollin' along.”

The song, written during the heydays of Harlem Renaissance (1918-37), captures the agony and anguish of the coloured people with little hope for any radical change in the foreseeable future.

Hope blossomed decades later when Martin Luther King Junior (1929-1968), deeply influenced by Gandhi’s novel method of peaceful civil resistance, led the March on Washington, and delivered at Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 1963 his epoch-making speech ‘I have a dream’. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964.

India had won independence in 1947, and hope was in the air for a brighter future; but Gandhi had been assassinated. The challenges the country faced in the decades after independence seemed insurmountable, and the dark clouds of distress, despair, and despondency loomed large. India fed its hungry masses through import of wheat under US PL-480, and its pathetic situation was ridiculed as ‘ship-to-mouth.’ India had suffered a humiliating defeat in the Indo-China War in 1962.

In Bistirna parore, the poet captures the anguish of those difficult times, but urges Brahmaputra, the old river to shed its callousness, reveal its mantra for mobilising millions of raindrops to make a tumultuous, unstoppable river, and release the brave warriors from their self-willed bed of arrows (sharasayya) to lead the war to transform the country and humanity.

This is a song of hope. That is why Bhupen Da’s baritone voice lifts the lyrics transfused with revolutionary fervour to impassioned heights. Paul Robeson’s purposely laconic singing, or Bing Crosby’s racy rendition would not match the theme and the lyrics of Bistirno parore!

Bhupen Da wrote the lyrics for many of his songs. His lyrics reverberate with his faith in the power of poetry, song, and drama to mobilise and motivate humanity to create a just, equitable world.

He was a writer with very impressive academic credentials; after his BA and MA in Political Science from BHU, he got his PH.D. from Columbia University in 1952!

Gajagamini

Bhupen Hazarika was the Music Director for M.F. Hussain's film Gajagamini with Madhuri Dikshit as the heroine. He also sang the title score. Hussain was asked: Why did you choose Bhupen Hazarika as your Music Director?

Because he paints with his voice, replied the gifted painter.

A heartfelt tribute to the maestro by a peer!

My Favourite Bhupen Hazarika Songs

Assamese: Bistirna paroer, Dola re Dola re Dola, Moi Eti Jajabor, Buku Hum Hum kare

Bengali: O Ganga tumi boyicho kena, Ami Ek Jajabor

Hindi: Dil Hum Hum Kare

Dedication

My blog and translation are dedicated to Harish Sonowal, my batchmate and dear friend since I am twice indebted to him. He was instrumental in my maiden stage-appearance several decades ago for singing, albeit as part of a chorus. He had led, and we had sung with much gusto and joy an Assamese folksong Haati Pani Khale e noi ye hea noi ye. Recently, he helped me to translate Bistirno Parore into English.

Yesterday, I called around noon to greet him on his birthday. Got message: Phone switched off. Why would he switch off his phone on his special day, I wondered, and called on WhatsApp. He picked up after a few rings.

Did I wake you up, I asked?

Yes, you did. I’m in South Carolina with my daughter.

My apologies. Must be night in the US. I’ll call you tomorrow.

It’s alright, go on.

Happy Birthday, Harish. I need your help to translate an Assamese song. May I call you tomorrow for it?

Which song?

Bistirna Parore.

I told him where I was stuck, and he was most generous to explain.

The time at South Carolina, US was 1.30 AM.

Thank you, Dear Harish.

***

References & Resources

1. Indianculture.gov.in

2. Encyclopaedia Britannica

3. Wikipedia

4. https://lyricstock.in/bistirna-parore-lyrics-dr-bhupen-hazarika/

5. www.wildfilmsindia.com

6. Bistirno Parore (Assamese): https://youtu.be/0LXdS5cRbt0?si=whURCdGbRzhzRQV4

7. O Ganga Tumi Boicho Keno (Bengali): https://youtu.be/XGeccjWtWnc?si=s6CcD4UhJOcEdJRn

8. O Ganga Tum Beheti Ho Kyun: Live Performance by Bhupen Hazarika, 2000: https://youtu.be/SWveuRmXHeQ?si=ECyRj4AfTID4rY1U

9. Ol’ Man River: Paul Robeson: https://youtu.be/eh9WayN7R-s?si=AfcFd86smO86L1aw

***

Prasanna Dash