Young talents among English writings

by G. A. Mathupema

I have been going through the poetry columns of Sunday papers during the past few days and I am very much impressed by the young talents.

Most of those who contribute to these poetry columns seem to be teenagers and their common themes appear to be love. Occasionally they also write about mother's love and the cruelty of war due to the ethnic conflict. Good number of them appears to be possessing considerable creative power.

Look at the images employed by a young poet. Her theme has been parental love.

"If you are the sun
I am a little primrose
If you are a shady tree
I am the little vine"

Although the metaphors are commonplace, they are impressive.
See the romantic feelings of an adolescent
"Sometimes I like to sing aloud
But sometimes I like to
think alone
To dance in the rain"
The whole psychology of adolescence is revealed through the above lines. Note below the adventurous spirit of the teenager.

"I wish to count the stars
in the sky
To kiss the moon over a
hundred times
To sleep on a rainbow...."

Also note how a young poet is contemplating seriously on love.
"The sunshine is one single
journey,
When it wakes up it is morning,
When it shines it is noon,
When it hides it is evening.
I got you in the night
I lost you in the day
I wake up through your eyes"
It feels from sound of every step
That you have come
There is sunshine after me
And the shadow is before me"

Here the poet conveys the intensity of her feelings of love. The poet has successfully employed the central image of the sun. In another instance the young poet depicts the smile of her young lover as "hot chocolate smiling eyes."

How novel is this image with its tinge of gustatory sensational! Also look at the bitter feelings of fear and anxiety of a girl whose mother has flown away to Middle East.

Mother
While you are taking care of
two babies there
We are so helpless here
Father drinks more
Liquor everyday
Mother, please come back
Not because of me
Because of my little sister"

Note the contrast between the two girls in the rich Middle East family, who are looked after by the mother of the narrator poet and the two poor girls, left motherless in Sri Lanka. When I was going through this poem, I was reminded of the award-winning short story Anoma by Punyakanthi Wijenaike.

There the tragic fate of a girl whose mother has flown to Middle East has been depicted convincingly. In this short poem, the same experience has been conveyed succinctly.

Now, see how a young Sri Lankan poet senses the emptiness around him,
"Don't ask me about empty,
Empty is a string of dirty days,
Held together by some rain,
And the cold wind drumming,
At the trees again,"

These lines resound with overtones of the poetry of T. S. Eliot - Preludes and the poetry of Lakdas Wickremasinghe - "Don't talk to me about Matisse"

Sri Lankan writings in English date back as far as early nineteenth century when James Alwis was a pioneer English writer and was followed up by writers like J. Wijetunga whose creative writings such as Grass for My Feet which opened up vistas of Sri Lankan life hitherto unknown.

We also can be proud of Sri Lankan poets writing in English. There was Patrick Fernando who was conveying Sri Lankan experiences in immaculate English. Then there was Lakdas Wickramanayake, whose poems are noted for their originality and boldness, using the local image and idiom, often challenging the white Sahib.

There is the poetry of Yasmin Goonaratne noted for the restraint and calmness and Jean Arasanayagam, whose themes have a bitterness of cultural conflict.

We also can't forget poets such as Richard de Soyza, Ashley Halpe, Regie Siriwardane, Alfreda de Silva, Kamala Wijeratne, Anne Ranasinghe and a host of other names.We can't forget the fact that Sri Lankan poetry has been fostered by the gurus of the English Department of Peradeniya University, to a great extent. In this respect, one cannot forget names such as Professor Ludowyke, Professor Posse, Doric de Souza, Thiru Kandiah, Professor Ashley Halpe and Regie Siriwardana, in this respect.

I remember Professor Walsh, an American critic, once remarking that future of English literature lies in Commonwealth literature and Sri Lankan creative writing forms a strong strand in Commonwealth literature.

As Walsh rightly perceives English literature might have been impoverished and languished if not for the contributions made to it by Commonwealth writers such as Chinua Achebe, Naipol and R. K. Narayan.

So young Sri Lankan writers have to make their contribution to enrich the literature of a language that has opened the gates for many of us to gain access to world literature, to enjoy the poems written in other European languages by world renowned poets such as Machado, Akhmatova, Malraux and Vallejo.