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Residents and residency of heart and mind
Liyanage Amarakeerthi in Nava Kavi Salakuna, a theoretical survey of contemporary poetry, mentions that the poem is not anyone’s birthright but a territory visited by all kinds of people, some of whom...
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The word as a sword held to the throat of truth
Kaduwa. That’s the Sinhala word for sword. Kaduwa in certain contexts is a reference to English. Whoever came up with the idea was truly inspired. English is a weapon. Cuts. Divides. Puts down....
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Dung-lies and flower-truths
Witness stands are court-appendages. That’s where we are questioned about whether or not we witnessed and, if we did, we are called upon to describe what we saw. Not all witnesses have to testify in...
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The poetry of resistance
The tenses are inhabited by one and all, one way or another. There are things in the past that we visit and which visit us. We travel to futures with hope and trepidation. We inhabit a present that is...
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The naked truth
Whenever I visit the Aukana Buddha Statue, look at a photograph of what an exceptional sculptor extracted from a rock face or even think about it I remember Mr Ilyas.Mr Ilyas was my scout master. Years...
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Texts are ancient, transcription error-ridden
About fifteen years ago, when I was a visiting lecturer at the Mass Communication Department, Kelaniya University, I gave the students a simple exercise. They were required to write down all the...
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Autumn days and nights thirteen centuries apart
Somewhere, on a day like today or maybe even a morning, afternoon or night that is decked in very different colours, someone must have coined a name for that threshold, neither-here-nor-there moment,...
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Rukshan does not age
The 30th of November, 2014 was a Sunday I wish never came. The 29th of November, Saturday, was a long day but not atypical as those who work for Sunday newspaper know. Sunday was therefore a day to...
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Reflections on things left unfinished
[pic by Ruwan Balasooriya]My sweetest childhood memories are of Kurunegala. ‘Kurunegala’ was not the capital of Wayamba for me. It was not a bustling township, not for me. Kurunegala, to me, was the...
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The virtues of an empty canvas
What are the essential ‘carry-ons’ when it comes to traveling? Many answers to that question. ‘Nothing,’ is one. ‘The bare minimum’ is another. It could be responded to with demand for a qualifier:...
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Love-residue on benches that have disappeared
I am fascinated by seats of any kind including parapet walls and steps on which you can sit and watch the world age and regenerate. It’s the same with roads, especially byroads, un-tarred and uneven...
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No shortcuts to direct hits
Kusal Janith Perera was right-handed. Is right-handed could also be correct. I have not read anything that indicates he is ambidextrous. And yet, he bats left-handed. Most cricket fans would know why....
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Pity the all-knowing and naïve as they stutter grandiose alibis!
Aimé Césaire I first came across the Francophone Martinician poet, author and politician Aimé Césaire (1913 to 2008) while reading Frantz Fanon’s Wretched of the Earth. Since then I’ve always looked...
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The residences of Refaat Al Areer
Where is Refaat Al Areer, do you know? It’s quite alright to say ‘no,’ for no one is holding a gun at your head demanding that you answer ‘yes,’ only to insist, again at gunpoint, that you show the way...
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Semitism: unadulterated, unclothed and unvarnished
Words have meanings. Names have meanings too. Words and names have values. Words have definitions. Not always is there agreement on what they mean. String words together and you get sentences....
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Gauze-kites in intemperate skies
A single kite way above the tree-line seemingly adrift against rain-threatening clouds is a sight to behold. If there is lightning and thunder promising a torrential downpour it is even more...
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Herculaneum of the 21st Century
Herculaneum, buried under volcanic ash and pumice in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 1973, was discovered in 1709. Pompeii, the better known Vesuvius city was discovered 39 years later and identified...
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In the delirium of my insomnia
In The Book of Embraces Eduardo Galeano wrote,‘I can't sleep. There is a woman stuck between my eyelids. I would tell her to get out if I could. But there is a woman stuck in my throat.’Reading it, I...
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Sarath Karunaratne can't stop teaching
More than twenty years ago, around 15 students, all senior scouts, spent almost a week at the Naval Dockyard. The logbook entry, written by President’s Scout Kanishka Goonewardena, the designated...
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Anthony Courseault’s tryst with grapes
Anthony Courseault (Snr)Grapes make me think of Eduardo Galeano’s Book of Embraces which is full of thought provoking reflections on everyday things. This:'On his deathbed, a man of the vineyards spoke...
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The IDF and Rules of Engagement
IDF affirms 'rules of engagement' by killing over 18,000 unarmed Palestinian civiliansMore than 20 years ago, Mutaamba Maasha, then an undergraduate at Cornell University, contributed a column titled...
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Calling Kapila Bandaranayake, wherever he may be!
Kapila Bandaranayake wowed teachers and fellow students while at Royal CollegeMost students have favourite teachers. Some teachers are liked by many, but it is hard to think of anyone who was loved by...
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Of masks, skins and the best poetry in the world
Clockwise from top left: Udayasiri Wickramaratne, Vajira Mahakanumulla, Chaaminda Rathnasuriya, Irvin Weerackody, Harith Gunawardena, Kapila Kumara Kalinga and Athula KaldemullaAlmost twenty years...
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Passwords to unimaginable grace
A few months ago I wrote about Colleen Kinder’s Letters to a Stranger: essays to the ones who haunt us. This is how I described the book: ‘Letter to a stranger is a book of fissures where contributors...
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Three hundred two-way mirrors
I took a slow road in another lifetime, in another century and a different continent. When I started, there were things I knew or thought I did. I carried with me notions of roads. I kept notes. I...
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