Poems of violence and suffering

In 2007, the National Book Trust published a collection of Sri Lankan Short Stories I had edited, entitled 'Bridging Connections'. Typically, it has not sold well in this country. This is a pity, because it also introduced stories written originally in Sinhala and Tamil. It would have been good for at least the English speaking who did not know one or other of those languages to appreciate thoughts they otherwise could not register.

In India the book has done very well, and is being translated into all the other official Indian languages. I have since been asked to compile a similar collection of poetry, a task I was more worried about, given the much greater knowledge required to judge the merits of poetry in languages in which one is not a literary expert. However, I have received much assistance from friends, and strangers to whose kindness I am indebted. I will try over the next couple of months to introduce some of the poems I have chosen, juxtaposing poems from two or three different languages each week. I should note that I have not as yet got permission from all the writers, which is essential before the book is finalized, but I hope they will not mind my introducing some of them through these columns.

R. Cheran

Many poems deal with violence and suffering, understandably enough for times of tension stretch creativity to its limits. The insurgency of 1971 revitalized Sinhala poetry, as has happened with Tamil poetry since the conflict in the North flamed up. English poetry too took on new life with the riots of July 1983 that brought suffering home even to groups that had been immune from such problems previously.

I thought I would begin however with something more lyrical, and present different accounts of the appeal of the rivers that make our landscape so luscious.

The first poem here is by R Cheran, who teaches now at the University of Windsor, Canada. He comes from a distinguished family of poets, being the son of Mahakavi, arguably the most important of 20th century Sri Lankan Tamil poets, and the brother of Avvai, one of the younger women poets who came into prominence in the 1980s. Cheran is perhaps better known now as a political activist, and has most recently produced a paper on 'Empowering Diasporas' for the Berghof Foundation. His poetry however conveys a wide range of thought and emotion. The placing here of the adjectives 'wet', 'bitter', 'unhushed', prepare us in the idyllic scene for the lovelorn loneliness of the poet.

Dry Season: Riverside
Boatman,
You paddle away into the distance ...
And I still sit on the bank

Before me green eddies in the river;
mid-day, and the wet sun glints
in the paddle strokes

The etti trees that survived the storm
are laden with bitter fruit beside the bank;
and scattered coconut palms guzzle the sun
On the bridge the crowds pass, still unhushed ....

Boatman, you paddle still further away
and lovelorn
I sit on the bank alone

Tr. S. Pathmanathan

As a pendant to Cheran's poem is that of Lal Hegoda, who approaches life at a
tangent that compels attention to life's many ironies. This poem moves lyrically to
celebrating a self-denying union with the river, that takes the poet away from
'samsaric bonds'.

I know even less of Lal Hegoda than of Cheran, though I have just written to him. I
can only say that he is a photographyer as well as a poet, who is concerned with
interpreting the private man, in the socio-political setting of the present day, to
quote his translator.

I'm A Man Because You Are A River

On this river bank
in a most pleasant seat
under a cool canopy
of Kumbuk trees
I will rest awhile
for a brief respite in life

Here and there in the high canopy
caressed by long fingers
red leaves rustle in the breeze
they move and show
the blue sky in a floral pattern.
its shadow falling on the water
breaking into a thousand little fragments.

When the sun's brassy rays
flow along with the river
the jeweled lights
float in the soft darkness beneath the canopy
the grandeur is beyond words
and only a poet can sing of it.
Free from other 'samsaric bonds'
my mind falls in love

As with a language so familiar
I understand what you say so coyly
smiling like the foam
as you go winding along
amidst the rocks
breaking into a symphony

I will throw away the watch in my hand
I will throw away the shoes on my feet.
Leaving you where else can I go?
As I shed my clothes
one now and then another
I see my own body's image
like a dark shadow

Because I am a man
and you are a river
let's melt softly
in a loving embrace.

Is there another way?

Tr. A T Dharmapriya

Finally, since there are no rivers in the English poems I have chosen, I will include something by Richard de Zoysa that also uses an image from nature. It may need some explication, for those who do not know the cult book of the seventies called Jonathan Livingstone Seagull, which became a byword for the urge for self-expression of those more innocent days.

Having read recently, in a thought-provoking essay, that Richard's fame as a poet is owing in part to my celebrations of him since his death, I will not say more about him, or this poem. Happily, the writer, who was sad that Lakdasa Wikkramasinha did not enjoy similar fame, grants Richard's excellence. All I can say here, nearly 21 years after Richard died, reading again the last few lines of this poem, is that Richard continued to be Jonathan L all through his far too short life.

But every gull is not called Jonathanl

When first love dies, it is like a sea-bird
plunging from the wheeling heights of ecstasy
into black waters.
There is a moment, as you rip through the heaving surface
when sensation is all
abandonment to the depths is complete
and there is no thought.
No words. Then down down,
chasing the winking gleam of a fish
until reality clasped firmly in your beak
you emerge .......... rocket-like
you burst into the day's hard glare
climb once more, but to a more conservative height.
And
(the day goes on, but the thrill is gone)
soon comes night.
And as you turn and head for home
there is a sad salt tang in the breeze
that draws at your consciousness, saying
No more the high-flung heights. No more
the light fantastic on the gusty winds. Security is all