Some words just cannot be translated. Not in a word-to-word sense anyway. Like ‘vakkada.’ It’s that place somewhere along the ridge separating one liyadda (again hard to translate) from the next in tract of paddy or a vel-yaaya where the earth is pushed aside or ‘broken’ to release water from a higher liyadda to a lower one. That’s a lot ...
Pic by Tharindu AmunugamaI’ve read many Russian short stories that end with a short description of the landscapes in which the storied lives intersect. To me the authors are just taking the sentiments that torment the reader, elevating them to a plane soft enough for sober reflection. ‘The rain fell faster and the wind sang a sad and solemn dirge ...
May. It’s the month of the themagula. Hard to miss. Vesak is also the name of the month. In English, ‘May.’ It is the name of a month, a tree and its flowers: maei gas, maei mal. Brings to mind Milton Mallawaarachchi. Phoenix Flower, Flame of the Forest, Flamboyant and Maei Mal. Appropriate names, all. It’s already June, but even ...
A few months ago, Indian wrestlers launched a protested demanding investigation into the allegations of sexual harassment by Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, a BJP member of parliament, during the time he headed the Wrestling Federation of that country. The wrestlers, after they were unceremoniously removed from the protest site, vowed to toss their Olympic gold medals into the river Ganga. ...
There are words that seem to be very popular among politicians and political groups when it comes to naming a new part or coalition. ‘Jathika’ or ‘National’ would top the list. We have the Eksath JATHIKA Pakshaya (United NATIONAL Party). Whenever this party led coalitions, ‘pakshaya’ was replaced with ‘peramuna’ or ‘front,’ but ‘jathika’ was left intact. There are others. ...
‘Sulang Kurullo (Windbirds)’ is possibly the most popular song by Harun Lanthra and Angeline Goonetileka. The melody has always appealed to me, but not being quite the connoisseur of music of any kind, I had never listened to the song with any degree of attention. A few years ago I did. And I told my wife it is one of ...
Kahlil Gibran once urged someone, presumably someone he loved, to ‘feed the lamp with oil and let it not dim.’ He explained, ‘so I can read with tears what your life with me has written upon your face.’ This is a verse from the poem ‘The life of love,’ in his collection, ‘A tear and a smile.’The poem has been ...
There are trends and they are referred to as raeli in Sinhala. A back translation would give us ‘frill’ interestingly, like the frills of a kite, sarungale raeli. When I think of waves, it’s always in relation to water. And when I think of waves, I think of the marks they leave on the sand. Ocean waves do that. Waves ...
A few years ago when people were debating the merits and demerits of two official versions of the national anthem, i.e. in Sinhala and Tamil, I argued against a ‘Sinhala Only’ version. The notion of an official national anthem did not exist one hundred years ago, I argued. I have also argued that ‘nation’ is not contained or containable in ...
In the late 1980s, during a theatre workshop at the University of Peradeniya, Gamini Haththotuwegama got the participants, all undergraduates, to do a simple exercise. He wanted them to pick a word or simple phrase and say it in different ways, using different tones, to convey different meanings.It is something we do all the time, but unconsciously. We say the ...
‘Say when’ is something you tell someone when serving that person, typically a drink. The receiver is expected to say ‘enough’ or indicate in some other way that the required amount has been poured. It is about what’s sufficient, what’s ideal, what’s appropriate even. Less wouldn’t suffice and more would be just too much. It is about proportions. About having ...
The Brahmin Akkosa Bharadvaja angered that a member of the Bharadvaja clan had taken refuge in the Buddha Dhamma is said to have gone forth to meet the Buddha and had thereafter proceeded to curse and insult him.Now it is not hard to understand the Brahmin’s agitation. He may have felt betrayed by his clansman. He may have felt that ...
This happened almost two decades ago. It was a game, one could say, that a father played with his daughter. He was no special father but for him the little girl was special. A princes, no less. He adored her and would want to smother her with kisses all the time.The problem was that the little girl wasn’t too interested ...
Rasika Jayakody, one of the more informed and articulate political activists of his generation with whom I don't always see eye-to-eye, having read with great interest Lakshman Piyasena’s biography of D B Jayatilaka (බාරොන්: මඟඇරුණු මඟ or ‘Baron: the pathway missed’) comes to an interesting conclusion: ‘When looking back the political history of Sri Lanka, I think that D.B. Jayatilleka ...
Years ago, a friend, in love, was impatiently waiting for some signal from the ‘beloved’ indicating requited love. I can’t remember whether or not he had declared to her his feelings or if he had asked her a question and was awaiting a response. He wanted a word. One word. ‘Vachanayak denna kiyapang,’ he told me, essentially appointing me as ...
Cousins are the first besties we have, provided of course they are roughly around the same age. Sibling rivalry there is and I suppose in a culture where parallel cousins are considered siblings there could be rivalries among cousins too. Again, provided they are roughly the same age. They may develop into abiding rancour or worse, in the case of ...
More than ten years ago my friend Lasitha Yasanga Herath offered the following observation on unity: Unity = kneeling down ‘together’ in front of freaks, trying to intimidate others who have different views ‘together,’ and waiting ‘together’ silently until perverts shit on their heads.Political ‘unities’ tend to be just as Lasitha describes them above. Yes, even those unities that have ...
The return key is made for poetic architecture, I sometimes tell poets and sometimes tell myself. Take a paragraph, move the cursor and at appropriate places press the return key. There! You have a ‘poem’! In fact if the prose is lyrical, it might even read as a decent poem. It’s a trick. We know what a poem is supposed ...
The late Lanil Kalubowila once offered some interesting reflections on language and politics. The last time I met him, along with our mutual friend Kanishka Goonewardena, he informed us that he had restricted reading to the perusal of encyclopaedias. They were, he observed, to the point. No frills, no editorialising, no propaganda, he said. True, for the most part. He ...
Pic: www.roar.lkOn the 31st of July, 1989, a 42 year old man was dragged out of his house by a group of armed men. His bullet-ridden body was found some 100 m away from the house.How many men born in the 1960s and early 1970s in the main and how many who were older suffered a similar fate? Sixty thousand ...
