In a world of new horrors Anne’s latest book reminds us not to forget
By Adilah Ismail
“Four things I need / to live complete: / Friends to share / The fragile mood; / A passionate love. / Knowledge pursued / And the luxury / of solitude” reads the title poem which adorns the cover of Anne Ranasinghe’s latest collection of poetry. The book brings together a selection of the well-known writer’s poetry along with some German translations and was launched at an intimate ceremony at the writer’s residence last week.
The evening was filled with dialogue and poetry readings, interwoven with music while the soft-spoken writer looked on with evident pleasure at the gathering of friends, family and well-wishers in her living room. Anne’s poetry was bought to life with skilful readings by Ashok Ferrey, Lianne Houben, Ramya Jirasinghe, Petra Morhard, Hasitha Pathirana, David Rose, Rajiva Wijesinha and Myrle Williams. Performances by Hasitha Pathirana and Surekha Amerasinghe segued both classical music and poetry, providing a fitting postscript to the evening.
The book, sponsored by the German Embassy, was nine months in the making and brings together selected poems chosen by the author from a vast corpus of writings.The author conveyed her gratitude at the book’s genesis through a speech delivered by a friend. Addressing the gathering, German Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Juergen Morhard, spoke about the importance of Anne’s work. Presenting a token of appreciation to the writer, he added that Anne’s poetry was more relevant than ever before in a world filled with unimaginable horror and new atrocities.“Reconciliation means remembering,” emphasised Morhard, noting that Anne’s writing was important not just for the current generation but also for the next. Memory and remembrance is a recurrent trope in the writer’s poetry - “It is evil to forget / It is necessary to remember / For memory is our only shield”, notes the author in one of her poems.
The launch of the book was a fitting occasion to honour the celebrated poet while bidding adieu to Morhard, who completes his diplomatic posting in Sri Lanka this week. Morhard highlighted the poet’s influence on him personally, smilingly acknowledging that without Anne, he would probably not have read much poetry over the last four years.“I think you still have a lot more to tell the world,” said Morhard. Born Anneliese Katz in Germany and the only child of Jewish parents, 13 year old Anne was sent by her parents to England to escape the horrors of Nazi Germany. Marrying a Sri Lankan professor, she moved to Sri Lanka and became a Sri Lankan citizen in 1956. Her first collection of poetry And the Sun That Sucks The Earth to Dry was published in 1971. Since then, she has published several short stories and essays which have been translated into nine languages across 17 countries.