Farewell poem for Anne
View(s):| Well known poet and author Anne Ranasinghe who passed away on December 17 had asked for Jewish and Buddhist rituals at her funeral and her friend, writer Ramya Chamalie Jirasinghe read the poem Anne herself had chosen before the cortege left her Rosmead Place home. Anne, born Anneliese Katz was a survivor of the Holocaust and made her home in Sri Lanka after marrying a Sri Lankan Doctor, Prof. D.A. Ranasinghe whom she met in England where she had escaped from Germany. |
Photograph taken by Ramya Jirasinghe on October 2, this year, at Anne’s 91st birthday party
The Last Journey
And I shall pass on, and the birds
will remain, singing.
And my garden will remain,
with its green tree and its white well.
Every evening, the sky will be blue
and tranquil
and in the belfry the church-bells will ring.
As this evening they are ringing.
Those who loved me will die too,
and the town will renew itself every year.
In this corner of my white-washed and flowering garden
I once wandered, nostalgically.
And I shall pass on, and I shall be alone
Without hearth, without green tree,
without
white well.
Without blue and tranquil sky.
And the birds will remain, singing.
-Juan Ramon Jimenez
( Translation from Spanish into English by Regi Siriwardena – with a few words
amended by Ramya Jirasinghe)