Saumya Sandaruwan Liyanage won the State Literary Award for
the Best Poetry Collection at the State Literary Award Ceremony held recently,
for his debut poetry collection Hate
Watte Magdalena
“Not in my wildest dreams did I think that I would win an award
for Hate Watte Magdalena,” Saumya
Sandarauwan Liyanage, the State Literary Award winner of this year for the Best
Poetry Collection said that it took him by surprise. “There is a procedure for
conferring an award in our country, either the poet should be renowned or he/
she should come from a renowned gurukula. I’m included in neither category.”
Liyanage said that he is just an ordinary person, who used to post poems on his
Facebook. “Receiving this award is out of my line of work even today.”
Saumya Sandaruwan is from Ratmalana and past student of Moratuwa
Prince of Wales College. “I am not sure when I started writing poetry. I was
not into poetry or writing during my childhood,” he said. However, he said that
although he didn’t write anything worth publishing ,he always had a passion for
art and literature. “I studied drama and art at school. My mother was a very
talented artist. Seeing her painting got me interested in painting too,”
Liyanage added.
After leaving school in 2004, he developed an interest in
television media. Therefore he joined the Sri Lanka Television Training
Institute to study program production and video editing. He is currently
engaged in this field of work. Another area he is willing to master is short
films and he said he is currently studying about film industry.
Poems included in Hate
Watte Magdalena, as Liyanage said, were written during the past few years.
He also said that it was very hard to be recognized as a poet in the
contemporary literary society, yet Internet gives ample opportunity to express
ideas. “Unlike us, the older generation had more opportunities to write and get
their poems published in newspapers. If you send 100 poems, maybe one would get
published. It’s hard to build a name via newspapers today,” he said.
Cyber space is open to everyone and a person is free to
express his/her views and ideas. “I didn’t have to wait for newspapers to
publish my work. I freely use cyber space to express myself,” he said adding
that the young generation would mostly prefer the Internet, since they are
framed inside a tight schedule and they do not have time and space to wait
until print media identifies their talents.
Demand is high on the internet for poems and young writers, who
use social media and their blogs to publish their writing. Once they build up
an audience for their work, the feedback is quick. Also their comments and
ideas will create discussions on the subject matter and criticisms along with
it. Liyanage also pointed out that this is another reason for young poets to
prefer Internet. “Feedback is quick and the demand is high. Also, it is free
for both the writer and the reader,” he said. “It is no surprise that the young
generation prefer this way over the old line of getting their work published in
print media,” he added.
He also said that cyber-space-poetry has traveled a long way
since its pioneers. “Cyber-space-poetry is a unique literary genre. It allows
the young generation who are trapped inside the current social system to free
themselves. It is developing on its own,” he said. He also identified poems and
writings published in social networks to be shorter in length than the writings
in print media. “I suppose it happens because they are quick responses to a circumstance,”
he opined.
He noted that veteran poets and artistes tend to condemn
cyber-space-poetry. “Some question whether they can refer to writing on
facebook as poetry. I think they should read and decide whether those can be
considered poetry or not,” he said. “I don’t think there are specific criteria
to identify a poet or poems. Who can give a person the authority to say this
poem is good and another is bad? Any honest attempt at writing what a person
feels cannot be condemned,” he said.
Started out as a cyber-space-poet, Liyanage had given thought
to becoming a print-media-poet as he identified that his poetry are too long
for cyber space and more suitable for print media. “People don’t usually like
long poetry in cyber space. They always appreciate shorter ones, which they can
grasp quickly. Poems included in Hate
Watte Magdalena are more suitable for a book,” he elaborated on what made
him publish his poetry in book form.
Hate Watte Magdalena includes 47 poems, and most of them speak about current social issues and
hardship of life. Liyanage said that most poems speak about the pain and
hardship simply because ‘pain and hardship’ are universal. “Many suffer inside
this social frame. All of them have stories to tell. Some find a medium to
express the pain they feel, like poetry or photography,” he said. “Most of
these poems are based on my experiences or stories I’ve heard that made me to reflect
on the incidents,” he said, adding that a literary creation is always born of
experience, observation or something the writer heard of. “There is always an
incident behind a creation. The writer enhances the quality and the feeling
through his creative skills.”
The collection deals with several aspects of society
including politics, poverty and the ethnic issue. Compassion towards
Ramachandran Master (Nagaralankaraya, Pg 15), Raman (Sellam badu Raman, Pg
17), Surangee’s companion (Diyamatiyo, Pg 23), Mary Amma (Mary Ammage Nattala,
Pg 33), Gnanasundaram (Sahurdaspandanaya, Pg
42), Magdalena (Hate Watte Magdalena, Pg 53) and Ranjini (Ranjini, Pg
77), where he takes a humanistic angle of the commonly spoken social issues,
exemplify the writers ability to empathize.
His political ideologies are clear, where he laments about
the ignored social values through his writing. Haikara Parawiyo, (Pg 64) speaks about powerful people among the
ordinary, who take advantage of their power.
Saamayada ungeya
Neethiyada, jaathiyada ungeya…
Premayada ungeya,
Theeranada, waaranada ungeya…
(Peace is theirs; laws as well as the castes are theirs. Love
is also theirs. Decisions and prohibitions are theirs…)
Mai Mal Sadaya (Pg 51) mocks the current May Day
celebrations. He elaborated on the idea behind the poem.
“When you watch news on TV on May Day, you’ll see what I mean.
One May Day rally is blue, one is red and another is green. Only the langama buses (SLTB buses) which bring
the crowds to these rallies are truly red,” he said. “This is an unfortunate turn
of event where people just do things for the sake of doing, just because they
were asked to do so. We should stop and think about what we do and whether we
are conscious about what we do,” he added.
Sanuhare naya gewana mai data
Mai mahe mal piyasi harunama
Langame bus pamani rathu paata…
(On May Day when the clan’s debts are paid…Except for the
canopy of May flowers only the CTB buses are red)
“Not only May Day, many other things that take place in our
country are the same,” he said. “We heard
about many things in the recent history; a policeman assaulting a woman for
example or religious extremism. We discuss these things from time to time and
just let it pass. We never think of what went wrong or future consequences,” he
further said. “We follow shallow political trends, but never realize where we
are headed.”
Liyanage believes that the writer should be honest to what he/
she writes. “Whatever the writer writes should come from within him / her. They
shouldn’t write what contradicts their view or opinions,” he reiterated. “There
are people who are capable of doing this. But, when the audience finds out this contradiction,
their idealism fades away. Their work will not be considered authentic,” he
said.
When asked whether he believes an artiste’s work should help
a person grasp reality, he said that it is secondary for him in writing. “The main
goal should be to keep everything written down; what a person experiences in
contemporary society,” he stressed. “History will be written officially like it
happened in the good old days. But an alternate history too should be written,”
he added.
Moreover, he explained the difference between folklore and
folktales and official historical sources. “It’s imperative to keep a record in
any form, despite the situation. It could be a novel, poem, short stories or
any other genre,” he reiterated. “I believe it is a responsibility. Previous generations
did the same. We know what happened during certain eras. Now it’s our turn to
do the same.”
Pic by Venura Chandramalitha
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