Picture by Badrika Nath Das
Cuttack, Oct. 3: At 87, Jayanta Mahapatra is busy doing what he likes the best - travelling, taking photographs and writing poetry.
The internationally acclaimed poet is, however, eagerly waiting for the release of Eight Tales from Fakir Mohan.
"I am excited about it. The work is dear to me as I have done the translation for the young readers, especially the English-medium ones, most of whom are little aware about the brilliant humour of Fakir Mohan Senapati, the father of modern Odia short story. The book is being printed and will be ready for release by the end of December," Mahapatra told The Telegraph in an exclusive interview.
The book has translations of the celebrated storyteller's eight masterpieces, including Rebati, Patent Medicine, Daka Munshi and Randi Pua Anta, which were written over a century ago "but still have the same attraction".
Mahapatra, the award-winning poet, who received the Padma Shri in 2009, said he was nearly ready to send to print a new collection of his English poems written since the publication of Land, his 19th collection, in 2013.
"It will be an anthology of around 60 poems, mostly on the decadence in the present-day society. But, I have not yet given a title to it," he said.
Around 30 of the poems, including The Climate of Loss, Late Autumn Afternoon and The Left Side of Life, have already appeared in The Times Literary Supplement, The New Yorker, The Hudson Review and other prestigious literary journals in the USA and the UK. He is looking forward to reading his poems at the four-day SAARC Literary Festival in Jaipur from October 9.
Mahapatra, who lives in Cuttack and loves to write about people and things around him, penned Gonasikha rah pheriba raasta reh, a poem in Odia, last week after travelling with his camera through areas inhabited by the Juang tribe in Keonjhar district. Not many know that among his publications are seven collections of Odia poems.
"What I see, what I hear and what I feel around me, whether in Cuttack or 100km away, form the substance of my poetry. The photographs I take help me remember things and take another look at them," he said, adding, "I have always loved travelling, and at this juncture of my life, I would like to be with the rivers, springs, hills and forests of this land in which I was born. And to see how my own people, still living in the remote hinterlands, have not till today been able to enjoy the so-called luxuries which I enjoy."
Mahapatra, whose first collection of poems, Close the Sky, Ten by Ten, was published in 1971, believes writing poetry helps him be "more alive than most people."
"It's only when I am writing a poem that I feel I have got back what I wanted, a sort of an award," he said.
A vegetarian for nearly two years now, he still gets up early in the morning and loves to eat his breakfast of idlis, upma or poori-kachori.
The poet believes in living each and every day to the fullest. "At this fag end of my life, I would rather not think about tomorrow, because every new day is a gift for me. So many new things are happening every day - a multi-coloured butterfly that I have not seen before, a strange bird from somewhere or the call of a pheasant - all these make my today something to be thankful for," he said.
He has given away all his prized possessions, around 40,000 books, awards, including the Padma Shri and souvenirs, to the Fakir Mohan University. They are now being displayed there at the Jayanta Mahapatra Heritage Gallery.
Mahapatra, who was a lecturer and reader in physics in government colleges in the state (1950-1986), has completed his autobiography in Odia, Pahini Rati. It is being translated in English by Madhumita Chanda, a lecturer in English.