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Saturday 17 December 2016

Menaka

Clutching a posy of coffee flowers
at the foot of the mighty Uthuwankande
Mammale my friend,
there's sobbing I can hear --
it's Menaka

By the Hingula waters
to sit you down,
with a silver hairpin
I once from a bungalow took
decorate those locks
already bedecked with coffee-flowers,
step back and admire, 
another day will not dawn
Menaka,
not for me

Clutching a posy of coffee flowers
at the foot of the mighty Uthuwankande
there's sobbing I can hear --
it's Menaka.

[At Bogambara, on the 7th day of May in the year 1864]


[translation of "මේනකා" from the collection "මීළඟ මීවිත" by Ruwan Bandujeewa]

Friday 16 December 2016

Dry lullabies

Where’s your mother gone?
To the chena of course
The loner was already there
they say

When I heard
to the chena I ran
and saw little beads of milk
all over its trunk

Where’s your father gone?
Why, to sell the rice
No, no, I lied
to gulp kaneru seeds he went

Look! A she-elephant
Peeping through the electric fence
Where’s my baby,

with a broken voice she asks

[translation of "වියළි නැළවිලි" from the collection "මීළඟ මීවිත" by Ruwan Bandujeewa]

Thursday 15 December 2016

The Canal

The well-dressed canal
walks through the paddy-fields

That an insomniac reservoir
had these clothes stitched
the canal has not
to a single rice stalk whispered
as yet


[translation of "ඇළ" from the collection "මීළඟ මීවිත" by Ruwan Bandujeewa]

Wednesday 14 December 2016

The Gardner

The princess 
to the rose garden came
and sought the gardner out

Pull out the weeds
burn them all
ordered she

Upon the small weed flowers
unnoticed 
but to an up-close gaze

The gardner stood
and saw

and heaved a heavy sigh. 

[translation of "උයන්පල්ලා" from the collection "මීළඟ මීවිත" by Ruwan Bandujeewa]

Tuesday 13 December 2016

Dear Grackle, how happy you must be!

“The Devi Ulakudaya
to a boy has given birth
Dear Grackle
how happy you must be!

The king will no doubt reward you now
and shower veneration on the author-bikkhu
for seven full days from now in Kotte
all manner of celebration there will be”

“The journey was nothing like the poem
no food, nothing to drink, no place to sleep
of what was described nothing did I see
I could not an order disobey
and to the God Vibheeshana passed the note

Listen, friend! While I was away
a rat-snake of formidable size destroyed my home
my daughter’s feathers were all over the place
and my love, of grief and a broken heart did die

The Devi Ulakudaya, the king and the haamuduruwo
they send three messages of condolence, this is true
but did not visit, said not one small word
at the funeral my sorrow to ease…”

[translation of "සැළලිහිණියෝ උඹට කොහොම සතුටක් ඇත්ද?" from the collection "මීළඟ මීවිත" by Ruwan Bandujeewa]

*The reference is to the Salalihini Sandeshaya (or 'The Grackle Letter') and epic poem written by Ven Thotagamuwe Sri Rahula Thera in the 15th Century during what is often referred to as the Golden Age of Sinhala Literature at the time King Parakramabahu VI reigned in Kotte.