Quit your slumber Kamalapati, wake up, it’s dawn
Rise Govinda, let me behold your moonlike face
The eastern horizon is softly glowing alive
Sunlight emerges piercing the fading darkness
The lotus blooms with bees hovering around
The curd-churning women of Braja sing your paeans
Dama and Sudama keep calling you aloud
Look there, even Balarama has woken up and arrived
Nanda has gone to the pen, the drovers for the tending
Surabhi needs the grazing-ground, wake up Gopal
Get ready with cream and butter, the cane and the flute
The calf has to be untethered, the cow moos
Madhava exclaims, “What devotion has bestowed you, Mother
With the Lord of the Three Worlds as your protector !”
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Translator: Krishna Dulal Barua has been consistently translating poems, short- stories and literary articles from Assamese to English. His ‘Selected poems of Nilmani Phookan’ published by the Sahitya Akademi appeared in 2007.He received the Katha Award for translation in 2005.
Madhavdeva (1489–1596) is an important preceptor of the Ekasarana Dharma known for his loyalty to his guru, Srimanta Sankardev as well as his artistic brilliance. Initially a sakta worshipper, he was converted to Ekasarana Dharma by the Sankardev and became his most prominent disciple. He became the religious as well as artistic successor of Sankardeva after the later’s death in 1568. He is known particularly for his book of hymns, the Naam Ghoxa, as well as a large selection of songs called Borgeets.
5 responses to “Tejore Kamalapati (a Borgeet by Madhavdeva) : trans by Krishna Dulal Barua”
Arunava Gupta
Excellent rendering!! I think the line ‘Nanda has gone to the pen, the drovers for the tending’ expresses the flow of the original the best. Also, this must be one of the most translated Borgits to date. One other translation is at:-
We thank the translator for this fine rendering and request him to translate more and more of the Saints’ works since it was they who had given to Assam a ‘new life, letters and a state’.
Anubaadakak dhanyabaad janaisu ene eta atixay praxanxaniya karjyar baabe, karan eaar dwaaraa teu amar pujaniya gurujanar shristikhini anaa axamiya xakaleu bujibo aru janibo para kari eta “universal” rup dise……………..
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