‘Mirrored Images’ pave the way for authentic Sri Lankan poetry

The anthology of Sri Lankan poetry “Mirrored Images” edited by Rajiva Wijesinha and published by the ‘National Book Trust of India’ is a very commendable book when it comes to the translations of the Sinhala and Tamil poetry in Sri Lanka. This book succeeds to introduce many Sinhala and Tamil writers and their poetry to the world. However, even more than the Sinhala poems, the Tamil poems stand out in the anthology as deep sorrowful experiences or narrations of a political ideology of a group of citizens whose lives were trapped in a 30 year old brutal war.

Speaking at the launch of “Mirrored Images” which was held last week at the Indian Cultural Centre in Colombo, the editor of the book Rajiva Wijesinha said that the intention behind “Mirrored Images” was to ‘bridge connections.

In the preface he states that this “collection is intended to showcase Sri Lankan poetry of the period since independence. Though I have included several recent poems, I have tried in the case of all three languages to highlight trends, and this has meant greater concentration on particular periods in which there were significant developments in the different fields.

However, when considering the three sections of the poetry collection, the Sinhala and Tamil sections appear to consist of more strong and effective poetry than the English section. For example the poetry in the Sinhala section, particularly: ‘Once Upon a Foreign Country’ written by Liyanage Amara-

Though this book is not perfect, “Mirrored Images” can certainly be considered as an opening to Sri Lankan poetry Mirrored Images” is certainly a valuable anthology. It is definitely an anthology of poetry that all poetry lovers should read

keerthi, ‘The Last Poem’ written by Sarath Amunugama, ‘Court Inquiry of A Revolutionary’ and ‘I Will Not Come’ by Parakrama Kodituwakku, the two poems by Yamuna Malini Perera: ‘ The Personal Messenger’s Conscience’ and ‘Following’, Ariyawansa Ranaweera’s ‘ Raja Rata’ and ‘India or a Bad Dream’, the poems ‘A poem Takes Life’, ‘My Grief’, ‘ Wife Lamenting’, ‘Love’, ‘ The Twenty Year Balance Sheet’ by Monica Ruwanpathirana and the two poems ‘Killing God’ and ‘The Silence’ by G.B. Senanayake, the poem ‘I Do not Know If ’ by Ajith Thilakasena are a few poems in this anthology which are very emotional and beautifully written. They stand out from the rest of the Sinhala poems in “Mirrored Images”. Especially the love poem ‘The Last Poem’ written by Sarath Amunugama is a very intense and beautifully formatted and written poem that captures the attention of the readers with its first sentence itself. Aiming the argument With that sardonic smile In the corner of my mouth

In a moment, I fire the shot

Bursting your heart into two” This extract taken from the poem explains the poet’s skillfulness in writing. His ability to craft on the page with words is excellent and solid. He not only fires (shoots) the words at his lover, but also shoots words at the readers of the poem too. Effortlessly the readers become deeply engulfed by the words on the page.

Reading Amunugama’s poetry made me think that perhaps he is a better creative-writer than a politician, because how he has simply transformed his personal emotions into words and their execution on the page is simply magnificent. Nevertheless when considering the Sinhala poetry section in “Mirrored Images”, it is sad that the compiler has failed to choose better, creative poems written by the Sri Lankan great poet Mahagama Sekara or even better poems of Siri Gunasinghe for that matter. The poems which are consisted in “Mirrored Images” of these poets are only some of their ‘average’ creations. If the anthology had included works by Sinhala established poets such as Sagara Palansooriya (Keyas), Rafael Tennakoon and Dayasena Gunasinghe.