BHUBANESWAR: There is so much to celebrate in Jayanta Mahapatra’s poetry and life, said Sahitya Akademi awardee poet Mamang Dai.
Delivering the first Jayanta Mahapatra memorial lecture, organised by Ketaki Foundation trust here on Tuesday, Dai spoke about the strong ties that Mahapatra shared with the poets of the North East including her. “In fact, we are all products of Jayanta da’s writings. He had tremendous regards for poets from the North East,” she said while recalling her association with the legendary poet.
Dai said it was Mahapatra who introduced them to his yearly literary magazine ‘Chandrabhaga’ and many of them began contributing to it. This was also the time when she realised the power of literature and print. The poet who also taught physics, worked with symbols and images in his poetry. And that is what fascinated Dai.
Recalling her second meeting with him at his house, also called ‘Chandrabhaga’ at Cuttack’s Tinikonia Bazaar in October 2017, she said he had gifted many things to her at that time including a Japanese purse.
“My friend from Nagaland who was accompanying me had commented that he was too kind. But I was wondering if the man ever felt lonely and isolated because I had seen carpets of leaves in the ground and his quiet house. But now I realise the question was spurious because Jayanta da always said poetry is a fragile private business,” she said. It is for believers in the ceremony of poetry, Dai further said adding, the best thing one can do is to leave writers alone.
Speaking on the occasion, writer Devdas Chhotray said works of Mahapatra have influenced many young Odia poets.
Author and translator Rabindra Kumar Swain spoke about the trust’s association with Mahapatra which published his ‘Chandrabhaga’ magazine after the poet revived its publication in 2000. The last 20th edition of the magazine and his last book ‘Jhanji’ was published when Mahapatra was on his death bed. Swain said the Jayanta Mahapatra memorial lecture is now going to be an annual affair.
As Mahapatra was a bilingual poet, the trust also organised a poetry recitation in both English and Odia, in his memory. Poets like Manohar Das, Kedar Misra, Basudev Sunani, Pratekhya Jena and Prabal Majumdar recited some of the legendary poet’s poems in both the languages.