Bishnu Rabha at his study table. A Telegraph picture

Guwahati, June 30: If you have always craved to gift Kalaguru Bishnu Rabha’s everlasting poems to a non-Assamese friend and moaned the lack of a good translation, here’s news.

Every piece of work that the legendary poet-painter-actor had ever penned will be translated into English by experts from Tezpur University to take Rabha to a wider audience.

Rabha’ son, Hemraj, today revealed that the project would include the icon’s entire body of literary work, including lyrics, poems, short stories and research papers.

“For Assam, Bishnu Rabha is an icon. But we feel that his literary genius can be appreciated by all. Our effort is to take him to a global platform,” Hemraj said over phone from Tezpur.

Tezpur University vice-chancellor Mihir Kanti Choudhury said the “university felt it is our duty to help preserve the cultural icon’s works. Hence, we accepted the proposal put forward by Rabha’s son”. He, however, said “it will take a day or two to complete some formalities. We have experts and a team will be formed to carry out the translation”.

Rabha’s creative genius lay in his soul-stirring lyrics, most of which he set to tune himself. In fact, his songs form a genre by themselves, known as “Rabha Sangeet”.

Hemraj said Rabha had written over 150 songs, of which he had set only about 50 to tunes. “There are around 100 that are yet to be set to tune,” he said.

Along with Rupkonwar Jyotiprasad Agarwalla and Natasurya Phani Sarma, Rabha formed the famous triumvirate that enriched Assam’s cultural landscape in the early 19th century.

Hemraj said Rabha’s literary works include short stories, which were published as a collection named Sonpahi, and two novels. “He also wrote articles on Sattriya culture which can be very useful for research scholars”, he added.

Hemraj has been striving to preserve Rabha’s works thro-ugh various means. A few years ago, he published a coffee table book compri-sing 19 of Rabha’s paintings. He also transferred three plays and two songs — in which Rabha had lent his voice — from gramophone to compact disc.

A very good actor, Rabha had also essayed a character in the first Assamese film, Joymati, directed by Agarwalla.