Volume 5 | Issue 3 | Aug - Sept
2011 |
My Cynosure
Bidyut Prabha Devi
Bidyut Prabha Devi (1926-1977) is considered one of the best Oriya female poets of the pre-modern period and one of the finest of Oriya writers.
Born in Natra village, she taught herself grammar, vocabulary, poetic idiom and diction. Later she studied at the Ravenshaw Girls' School till class nine. Inspired by her father's colleague, Krushna Chandra Kar and other mentors such as Radha Mohan Gadnayak and Mayadhar Mansingh, Bidyut Prabha began to write poetry from 1940 onward. She taught herself Bengali and English. With her elder sister Basanti, she published her first collection Sabita (1944) which was followed by several others. In 1949, Bidyut Prabha married Panchanan Mohanty who was very supportive of her writing. She began to write children's poetry after she became a mother in 1952 and received much acclaim for her work. In 1955 she received an award for children's literature from the Govt of India. In 1962, her poetry collection Sanchayana won the Orissa Sahitya Akademi Award.
Bidyut Prabha had an untimely death in 1977. Her collected works were later published by Friends' Publishers, Cuttack.
Today, it’s the son’s health.
And tomorrow, it’s
the daughter’s stomach ailment!
Can there be
amidst all this,
the meeting of pen and ink?
Writing, I know
cannot fetch me
food and clothing.
Nothing in it
to interest the family.
It remains
despite this
my pleasure, my cynosure!
Let people say what they like.
I shall go on flowing,
Like the mighty river,
I shall cross
whatever comes my way
with a smile
forever on my lips.
[ This is a translation of Oriya poem by Bidyut Prabha Devi (1926-1977). Translated by her son Sachidananda Mohanty]
Bidyut Prabha Devi -
