Litterateur U Soso Tham of Meghalaya remembered on his 80th death anniversary

A REPORTER

SHILLONG: Noted Khasi poet and literary icon of Meghalaya late, U Soso Tham was remembered on his 80th death anniversary on Friday.

The anniversary was commemorated by various organizations in different parts of Khasi and Jaiñtia Hills of the State as people went to lay wreaths at the bust of the legendary poet and paid their tribute.

The Khasi Students' Union and Hynniewtrep Achik National Movement (HANM) also paid their tribute on the occasion. A function to commemorate the death anniversary of U Soso Tham was also organized at Soso Tham Auditorium, Shillong.

The State government declared a State holiday every year on December 18.

The marble bust of U Soso Tham was built by the Soso Tham Birth Centenary Committee in 1973, on his 100th birth anniversary in the premises of the State Central Library.

Tham had made lots of contribution not only to uplift literature but to wake up the Hynñiewtrep community through his words of visions and cautions in the form poem.

The KSU had also built the bust of U Soso Tham at Pongkung village in East Khasi Hills.

KSU general secretary Donald Thabah said, "The poetry of Soso Tham has inspired the present generation to be aware and defend their rights from outside forces."

He also said that the government and all the 60 MLAs are only satisfied with passing a resolution on Inner Line Permit (ILP) and inclusion of the Khasi language in the 8th schedule of the constitution of India. "Our language has a rich history hence there is an urgent need to include it in the 8th schedule of the constitution at the earliest," he said.

He further informed that the KSU will be inaugurating a school at Lawsohtun which is named after the poet as a mark of remembrance for his great work.

It may be mentioned that Tham was born at Ryngkew Wahïajer Nonglba also known as Nongsawlia at Sohra in 1873. His father was Hat Tongper and mother, Lyngkien Tham.

U Soso Tham was the only son of poor parents in a family of six. The poet died on December 18, 1940. He became the first person to make use of Khasi idioms in a form taken mainly from English poetry.

He started with his students by translating the poem of W. E. Hickson, 'Drive the nail aright boy – Sah beit ïa u prek hep' in his class.

The first edition of his collection of poems 'Ki Poetry Khasi' (1925) is lost forever. What many including students read today is the enlarged edition 'Ka Duitara Ksiar (The Golden Harp) or Ki Poetry Khasi". Another important work which could be considered as a classic of Khasi literature is "Ki Sngi Barim U Hynñiew Trep – The Olden Days of U Hynñiew Trep (1936).

Soso Tham had also translated into Khasi language Aesop's Fables, Charles Dickens's 'The Life of Our Lord' and the great Shakespearean comedy 'The Tempest', with title given as 'U Kyllang'. However the manuscript of this translation was lost.

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