Martin Wickramasinghe at 120

by Kalakeerthi Edwin Ariyadasa

"The world of books is the most remarkable creation of man.
Nothing else that he builds ever lasts... Volumes live on, still young, still as fresh as the day they were written, still telling men's hearts, of the hearts of men, centuries dead"
- Clarence S. Day

The multi-layered domain of Sri Lankan literature, originated in the hoary past. Some volumes of high literary stature and the personalities of distinguished wisdom who produced those volumes, still address as across the chasm of long centuries. The verbal resonances of Gurulugomi as he sedately recites his "Amavatura", the quaint rural idiom of the Venerable Monk, who is behind the gem of Sinhala prose " Saddharma Ratanavali", still continue to fill us with joys of literature.

The poetic effusions that enrich the alliterative lines of "Selelihini Sandesaya", thrillingly mudge the souls of today's lovers of pleasing compositions.

The erudite monk Ven. Totagamuwe Sri Rahula, who authored the message poem, is even today, a literary force to be reckoned with. The sharp barbs of wit, in "Guttilaya", are keenly felt even in our own day.

Leonard Woolf, is not strictly a product of Sri Lanka's indigenous literary tradition. But, his classic "Village in the Jungle", located in a wilderness setting in the deep south of Sri Lanka, speaks to moderns eloquently about the eternal verities, that dominate human life.

Significant work of literature, have a surprising way of living on for decades, scores and centuries, after they were originally created as young and as fresh, as on the day, they were first written.

Vagaries of time

Shakespeare, Kalidasa, Dante, Voltaire, Tolstoy to name only a handful of the geniuses who brilliantly illuminate the firmament of world literature, withstood the assaults and vagaries of time to emerge into the lives of men and women of our day. But, most of those awe-inspiring physical edifices of their contemporary world, have vanished, some without even a trace.

This brings us to the central theme of our current discussion - Martin Wickramasinghe at 120.

Gurulugomi's name and fame, have travelled through centuries, to reach us with their original vigour.

Will Martin Wickramasinghe's amazingly varied oeuvre, survive over time, regaling the aficionados of the future years?

A highly positive and creatively entertaining answer is offered by an admirable publication that has made its dramatic appearance recently.

The work, one feels privileged to talk about, is W. A. Abeysinghe's Three-Volume study of Martin Wickramasinghe. His secondary title for this study is, Maha Gatkaruvata" (The story of the Great Writer).

The physical encounter itself, of these three volumes, is so daunting, that one cannot help but scamper around seeking the right adjectives to characterize them.

Lyrical profile

The total work is a strange product. You could describe it as biography, partial autobiography, multiple biography and even as a lyrical profile of the literary - life of Martin Wickramasinghe.

It departs substantially from the conventional biographies, focused on individuals of varying achievements.

Writer Abeysinghe, demonstrated an admirable literary courage, when he resolved too plunge headlong into the vast quantity of material, related to the life and works of Martin Wickramasinghe.

Biographer Abeysinghe's study reveals, (most of the time between the lines) the commitment of Martin Wickramasinghe's immediate family to foster the domestic "Hero".

Those who esteem art, culture - especially literature, in this instance - should feel a sense of humane gratitude to Mrs. Prema Wickramasinghe - his spouse and to their sons and daughters for the affectionate support they jointly provided to Martin Wickramasinghe in his creative activities. Their surprising adeptness at articulating their experience, make them virtually co-biographers.

Biographer Abeysinghe resorts to a very effective technique, that imparts to his study the flavour of a highly readable work of compelling fiction. In his first volume, he quotes Martin Wickramasinghe sumptuously, to elicit the multiplicity of influences, that nourished his formative soul. When you come to think of it, this goes beyond being a "technique". It is, in effect, a benevolent stratagem, that persuades the sensitive reader, to glean for himself the factors that shaped his childhood, enabling him to mature into a writer with a global profile. Explaining why he was able to address the task of writing this book with ardour and earnestness, biographer Abeysinghe states in his introduction, that he had been an avid reader of Martin Wickramasinghe's works in his early youth and was subsequently an associate. This, incidentally, is an insight into why Martin Wickramasinghe's works appealed to youth groups so keenly. Incidentally, this compels me to deviate into my own reminiscences, briefly.

Purist movement

From my early youth on, I too was fascinated by his books. I lived in Unawatuna, a village adjacent to Koggala. When we were young, Unawatuna was a centre of the purist (hela) movement. I was not part of that. But, the favoured hobby of our peer - group was reading and critiquing. I read most of the available books by Martin Wickramasinghe but had never met him.

I saw him for the first time when I came over to the University in Colombo. One day, while I was in the balcony of our hostel, someone said that Martin Wickramasinghe was down there. There he was under a lamp-post, wearing a darkish fedora and with a walking-stick in his hand. We (Siri Gunasinghe, Vinnie Vitharana et.al.) would visit him occasionally, as he lived in our close neighbourhood, then.

I joined the Editorial Staff of Lake House, on March 3, 1949. The theme of my first book-review for the Daily News was "Yugantaya". On the March 23, 1949, my review appeared under the title "A landmark in Sinhala literature". From them on, I wrote extensively about Martin Wickramasinghe and his words.

In a way, it is fairly strange to note, at this stage, that I introduced Gunadasa Amarasekera to Martin Wickramasinghe.

At the Junior University, Dehiwala, where Communication and Media were taught for the first time at higher education level in Sri Lanka, on a syllabus formulated by me, Martin Wickramasinghe addressed the students, at my invitation. In a new break-through in practical Media Education, I took my

students to Martin Wickramasinghe's residence. There, the media students had a day-long discussion with the "sage" some seated at his feet.

Appeal to youth

I referred to all these, to highlight Martin Wickramasinghe's appeal to youth,

Martin Wickramasinghe's writing life began when he was just 13. When his last article appeared, he was 86.

To my mind, Martin Wickramasinghe's creative evolution, can be seen as moving through two distinctive phases. Initially we have a phase in which he is fully totally involved in life. Growing up in a family of doting female-folk young Martin Wickramasinghe savoured a childhood of unrestricted freedom. His somewhat elevated social position, provided a built-in safety. By temperament, he was an out-door child. He relished his treks through the jungle. His strolls along the sea-shore were voyages of discovery.

This seeming care-free attitude to life was leavened with an ultra-sensitive capacity for observation. The eccentricities of people, the shapes and colours of objects, behaviour of living entities fascinated him.

The deep impression created in his inner being by a photograph of a Venerable Monk and the deep respect paid to this portrait, by the Teacher-monk, attracted him to the study of Buddhism and associated Pali Literature. Biographer W. A. Abeysinghe, highlights this transforming movement.

His give-and-take with rural-folk, endowed upon him a fluency in the use of language. Their idiom, would later enrich his sophisticated prose, giving it a liveliness and verve.

During this initial phase, he took to writing as well; his first work of fiction titled "Leela" appeared when he was just 24. His second phase can very well be characterized as "The days of Nostalgia".

Feeling of nostalgia

This feeling of nostalgia acted as a highly potent creative force within him. In the city, his mind continued to haunt the rural sites that delighted his untrammelled childhood.

To begin with, he looked back upon his early childhood, casting a nostalgic glance over what nature had to offer in his native village.

This nostalgic survey of his personal past eventually evolved into the probing of the bygone ages of the total culture. That is how he re-discovered the Buddhist heritage of story-telling.

He had the advantage of being able to feel the pulse of the searchers for knowledge. His early essays for Dinamina on such subjects as animals and plants, roused a curiosity among those youthful groups, who were hungry for knowledge.

Martin Wickramasinghe could dominate that kind of readership, because he read their yearnings. He had a canny empathy with his readers.

His cameos on rural life, the ways of the villages, brought along a new genre.

Most other writers too discovered they had a childhood and it too, took place in a village.

His intellect was always raring to go. Each new book he studied, each new article he came upon was ready material for his own pieces. That way, he was an enterprising intellect, who knew the mind of the reading public. His self-imposed mission was "telling people downstairs what was happening upstairs".

The trilogy

His major work of fiction, the trilogy made up of Gamperaliya, Kaliyugaya and Yuganthaya, elevated the totality of contemporary Sinhala literature to a higher level.

His contribution to the intellectual discourse in Sinhala, was unparalleled at that time.

There is hardly any literary genre Martin Wickramasinghe left untried. He was bilingual. He has authored several English books as well.

His translation of "Theri Gi" (The Psalms of the Sisters) is the only work that could be considered a book of poetry. He has written a play.

W. A. Abeysinghe's Biography of Martin Wickramasinghe is a classic by itself. The ultra-conscientious biographer W. A. Abeysinghe has not given even the least room for anyone to say that the biographer has left such and such aspects of Martin Wickramasinghe's works unrecorded.

In his prolonged and sustained effort, biographer W. A. Abeysinghe has added to Sinhala literature of our day, the most exquisite biographical work, todate. The three-volume-biography is illustrated with a series of photographs, that imparts an ardent feel to the total work.

In a gesture that substantially establishes the comprehensiveness of Martin Wickramasinghe's literary effort, the biographer devotes a section to Martin Wickramasinghe's posthumous publications. What comes through unmistakably and starkly in W. A. Abeysinghe's "Martin Wickramasinghe Biography", is the quality of support provided by Dr. Ranga Wickramasinghe and the dedicated researchers Dayapala Jayanetti and Nuwara Eliye Hemapala of the Martin Wickramasinghe Trust. They earn national gratitude.

Assiduous commitment

Had it not been for their thoughtfulness, their assiduous commitment and their meticulous attention to the significant detail much of the material related to Martin Wickramasinghe's life and works would have disintegrated as fugitive pieces.

The inescapable bottom - line is, in the versatile writer W. A. Abeysinghe, Martin Wickramasinghe has found (posthumously, though) the perfect Boswell.

His extensive biography, will invariably evoke an intellectual response from many a reader. But, there will be some, who would be emotionally moved by the concluding words of writer W. A. Abeysinghe. The 32nd and the ultimate segment of the Three-Volume Biography, is titled the "Finale". Displaying his skill at the adept use of evocative language, Biographer W. A. Abeysinghe, recounts the ordeals Martin Wickramasinghe had to go through and the challenges he had to cope with in his arduous trek through life. What matters is that Martin Wickramasinghe asserted himself and triumphantly evolved into global stature.

In spite of the status, he reached in contemporary Sri Lanka, he was never a social reformer or a political activist.

His achievements are all built solidly on his literary works-the written word.

As W. A. Abeysinghe records it, Martin wickramasinghe's life is the odyssey of a creative hero. With no attempt whatsoever at resorting to a cliche, I must state that no other writer would have been able to do the kind of justice W. A. Abeysinghe has done, to the near-legendary life of Martin Wickramasinghe.

I feel the need to add a little special note here.

There is a widely used portrait of Martin Wickramasinghe in which he is shown holding his reading glasses in his hand. He has a quaint white shirt on. (This specific photograph adorns the cover of the Third Volume of the Biography).

This photograph was taken by Nimal Perera, who accompanied me, when I interviewed him on the day his aotobiographical work "Upanda Sita", was brought out. This was a central event in his writing life.

But, let this be said to set the proper perspective. Biographer W. A. Abeysinghe as a verbal prestidigitator has rejuvenated the totality of Martin wickramasinghe's being, imparting a living and pulsating freshness to his works.

Those in the older generation will relive their original experience of the writer who charmed their youth. And the new generation discovering him, will absorb the wonder and the mystique of a by-gone era.

As for me, I will always remember him as the ageing sage, who chatted uninhibitedly with my media students, who sat on the ground at his feet.