This is a review of the poetry:

'Plead Mercy' for G.C.E. O/L.

By Asha Senevirathne

Sabbe Saththa Bhavanthu Sukhitattha
(May all beings be happy)
- by Anne Ranasinghe

Plead Mercy

We pass a bullock yoked to a cart
Straining uphill. He shivers
With effort, his bones
Protrude and the taut skin quivers
At each whip of sharp-throned stick
There is no expression on his face
Only his eyes plead mercy
Foam slavers from his lips
As he travails to increase his pace
And slips. My daughter asks
Does he think life is worth living?

I tell her what I know
Is not true, that life
Is always better than death
She frowns
If there is revolution, she says
I'll kill myself. All those horrible things
They do to people
The bullock has fallen on the rough
Edge of the road, He tries
But in spite of the
Stick he cannot rise
Lord have mercy on his eyes
My daughter is just thirteen.

Anne Ranasinghe, a German lady who had experienced revolution and its horrible effects in her own country, seems to make an appeal to the Buddhist philosophy to find out an answer to the larger issues of the younger generation.

By birth she was German but later married a Sri Lankan and has written many poems to the Sri Lankan poetry lovers.

In this poem the writer presents a very common theme, that is cruelty to the animals. She selects the situation of a bullock cart where the carter inhumanly beats the bull, until it falls down; unable to move a step further.

'As he travails to increase his pace and slips.'

The pathetic scene is watched by the poet and her daughter who questions her mother and is not satisfied with the answer she gets.

Anne Ranasinghe clearly brings out the inhuman qualities of human beings. The bull is begging for mercy from his master with his eyes and he is insensitive to the pleas of his own animal.

The daughter becomes sensitive to the painful suffering experienced by the animal while the carter is not.

The girl represents the innocent merciful younger generation while the carter represents the merciless adult world. The mother is between these two. She is conscious of the girl's natural feelings and troubled by her age. She wonders about her daughter.

However, "Sabbe Sattha Bhavanthu Sukhitattha" this epigraph is taken from the Buddhist scripture which means 'May all beings be free from sorrow and pain' makes us aware of our Sri Lankan Buddhist culture which forbids any kind of torture and cruelty to all living beings. This is a common wish of the Buddhists.

In a primarily Buddhist country such as Sri Lanka, the Pali line is frequently uttered, it being associated with one of the principal teachings of Buddhism - loving kindness. But the irony of it is that in Sri Lanka, cruelty to animals and inhumanity prevail.

This is presented very dramatically through a single episode where a thirteen-year-old girl who witnesses the scene, questions her mother:

'Does he think life is worth living?' which means 'Is life worth living if it's full of such suffering?' Mother tells 'that life is always better than death'. But the daughter is not satisfied with the answer she gets. The mother who has experienced such cruelties committed upon animals is helpless and all she can do is to plead mercy and pray that human beings become compassionate and merciful.