Jorhat, Feb. 14: A retired scientist of the North East Institute of Science And Technology (NEIST) has undertaken an initiative to translate poems of famous Assamese poets into French.

Binod Gogoi, who was the chief scientist in the bio-technology department of NEIST till he retired in 2010, has translated 123 poems of 63 Assamese poets and got them published in a reputed French e-magazine, www.poeme-france.com, in the past 11 months. The latest was posted in the first week of this month. His translated poems have drawn appreciation for Assamese poetry from French poets.

Nilamani Phookan, Hiren Bhattacharyya, Nalinidhar Bhattacharya, Harekrishna Deka, Nirmal Prabha Bordoloi, Ajit Barua, Hem Barua, Samir Tanti, Bhaben Barua, Lakhyahira Das, Kabin Phukan, Jatindra Nath Duwara, Nilim Kumar, Bipul Jyoti Saikia are among the poets whose poems have been translated into French.

In another French e-magazine, Poesie pour tous, three poems each of Nilmani Phookan, Hiren Bhattacharyya and Harekrishna Deka, translated into French, were published last year.

Gogoi told The Telegraph today that he would continue with his translation project. "I am enjoying the job," Gogoi said, adding that the there have been plenty of comments by French poets and literary critics appreciating the quality of Assamese poems. He said the themes of the poems he had translated vary from love, romance, revolution to socio-political depiction of the state in different periods of time.

According to Gogoi, the aim behind the initiative is to present Assamese poetry before French literary audience as it could help Assamese poems get international exposure. "There are many countries where French is the primary language." he said.

Gogoi said after retirement, he undertook a project to translate 34 Assamese poems of Nilamani Phookan and 77 poems of Hiren Bhattacharyya in French and a book named Splendeurs de la Poesie Assamaise was published by Partridge India as paperback and e-book in 2014.

Since his school days he had heard about richness of French literature and always tried to know more about it from whatever material he could get in Assamese or English, Gogoi said.

He said though he had pursued science, his first love was French literature. It was during 1991-92 - when for about a year he had gone to Glasgow in Scotland to do a fellowship - that he took classes in French for a few months. "I started studying French literature in original."

He said he had undertaken another project to translate poems of French poet Charles Pierre Baudelaire into Assamese and the project is nearing completion. He added he had translated 32 poems of Baudelaire and in the next few months the book would be ready for publication.