Capturing trends in contemporary Sinhala verse

An anthology of Sinhala poetry - Thoragath Nava Sinhala Padya Rachana - is the third in the series of the publications by the Cultural Affairs Department commemorating the Independence Golden Jubilee. Compiler, Professor Mendis Rohanadheera does not restrict his selections to the fifty years after Independence in 1948 but has quite justifiably included selected pieces of poetry from 1815 onwards.

Rohanadheera sees the poetry created during the freedom struggle as vital ingredients in tracing the development of literature in the country. To begin the anthology he thus selects the famous verses by an unknown poet portraying the thoughts of the last King of the Sinhalese, Sri Wickrema Rajasinghe on his being deported from the country on 24 January 1816 taken prisoner by the British. These verses have been identified over the ages with the last line Ithin Ayubowan Lak Mavuni Garu' - the king bidding farewell to Mother Lanka.

Degaldoruwe Nayaka Hamuduruwo's verses 'Ane Koobinne' are equally famous - the monk addressing the ants that even though the ants have a king, the people don't have one. That's their Karma. The monk is believed to have recited these verses somewhere around 18 February 1815 (the day the king, his queens and the retinue were captured by the British at Bomure). He was sweeping the temple garden when he saw a procession of ants and recited the two verses.

In all, 100 compositions are included in the anthology giving a wide representation of the prominent poets in the country. The compiler divides them into different periods starting with the early period from 1815 - 1950 followed by the period 1950-1965 (which he calls 'mid-day'), 1965-1980 ('transition') and 1980-1995 ('new hour').

The works of well known poets like Piyadasa Sirisena, Ananda Rajakaruna, V D de Lanerolle, G H Perera, A Mahinda Thera, Mullapitiye K H de Silva and Sugunapala Samarasekera are featured during the early era. National independence was the theme of most of these poems. These pioneers also formed the core of a whole generation of poets. Those who followed them were the 'Colombo poets' whose themes included natural beauty, love, and the downtrodden. Among these poets were P B Alwis Perera, Meemana Prematilaka, Sagara Palansuriya, Wimalaratne Kumaragama and H M Kudaligama. Those from the Hela school led by Munidasa Kumaratunga followed a different form. Raphael Tennakoon, Alavu Isi Sabihela, Wellala Jayamaha, Mahanama Dissanayake and Arisen Ahubudu were among the Hela poets.

In a comprehensive review of modern Sinhala poetry, Rohanadheera points out that the introduction of contemporary Sinhala literature to the University curriculum in the forties (under Dr Ediriweera Sarachchandra) helped to critically evaluate the quality of the Sinhala verse. Meanwhile, the publication of certain compositions which were "neither prose nor verse" by G B Senanayake in his first collection of short stories ('Paligeneema' - 1946) created quite a sensation. They were the first glimpses of the western tradition which was gaining popularity as Free Verse and Blank Verse.

- Ranat

'I am content with my life'

By Roshan Peiris

Surrounded by beautiful antique furniture which belonged to his grandmother lives Earle de Fonseka, conductor for 40 years of the musically prestigious Symphony Orchestra of Colombo (now termed Sri Lanka).

There is a touch of urbanity and savoir faire about the slightly built greyhaired man.

"I celebrated my 75th birthday on April 22 with a mass at St. Mary's Lauries Road where I often play the organ as well," he said.

On December 12 he will conduct the Symphony Orchestra, at a concert at the Ladies College hall at 7 p.m. to raise funds for the orchestra.

As a young man Earle grappled intellectually with two love affairs. One was music and the other medicine. He won prizes at the Trinity and Royal Colleges of Music examinations, but continued with his medicine.

"You see, we were encouraged those days to listen to music rather than get overpowered by examinations, so much so that often my parents and I forgot we had to attend the prize giving.''

Earle was firm when he said, ''Today over 4000 pupils sit for music examinations at a time, but I'm concerned to find that most of them don't even attend concerts- whether it be the local orchestra or a foreign orchestra.

"Today pupils want to pass examinations and their priority is coming first with distinctions. They have no real feel or love for music.''

As a boy, he said, his parents made them play by ear songs such as 'O Sole Mio' and also waltzes at family gatherings. He also said as children they had to get up every morning at five and spend twenty minutes at the piano.

Earle recounted how as a little boy dressed in his Sunday best he listened to the military band playing and decided he wanted to be a band master himself.

"We had our dreams of having a professional orchestra, choirs and operas. But," he said shaking his head sadly, ''those dreams did not materialise as thousands of students, some very promising among them concentrated only on passing exams."

In the past forty years of the Symphony Orchestra's existence did Earle ever give up being its conductor? "No never, I will always continue to conduct the orchestra until I die. For a short period in 1995 I was seriously ill with a ruptured aneurysm aorta, a disease that was rare and chances of survival were doubtful. But thanks to Dr, Sheriff Deen I recovered. During this time the Colombo Orchestra was conducted by Ajith Abeysekera, Lalanath de Silva and Ananda Dabare. When Hussein Mohammed left the country and I was then playing the violin for the orchestra I took over in 1958 and have remained as conductor. Only death will remove me.''

He also recalled that in the early days of the orchestra there were not many to man the orchestra only around 30, Sometimes even less. "We asked those embassy personnel who played music to come and help us out.''

Earle de Fonseka, refined in many ways with his pewter coffee jug, milk bowl and sugar bowl became angry as he said with a shattering veracity ''I don't believe in those men and women who say they don't find the time to do various works or even just stand and stare at nature as we used to do as children. Today I do gardening, take photographs of my adopted son and daughter. I used to find time even to take part in motor racing in my tourer sports car. I did well,'' he said proudly "coming second often. Those who say they can't find the time to do things are missing something. That's my opinion.''

Even today he communes with the birds in his well groomed garden and finds time to take a walk every morning at 6.30

Earle spoke briefly of his rewarding medical career. He has been the Professor of Community Medicine, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and a W.H.O. consultant to the Dangerous Drugs Control Board. He is also on contract to the Post Graduate Institute of Medicine.

"Some of us doctors will soon celebrate 50 years in the profession. Some of these doctors are Bede Muller, Terence Perera, Rienzie Peiris, and myself. We will have a dinner in this house. It is much more personal than having one in an impersonal place like a hotel."

Dr Earle de Fonseka crowns his musical career by starting to organise the Faculty of Music at the Kelaniya University.

"We have not still worked out the details of how we will recruit would-be students to the Faculty.'' But with firm candour he said, ''we will give, ofcourse, a music degree to perform, to teach and to do research in music. But no emphasis whatever on music examinations.

"Our lecturers will be dedicated men and women ready to lecture and teach the art of appreciating music, not passing examinations just to do better than someone else."

There is nothing contrived about him, he still drives his car and now in the evening of his life he says ''I am content with my life.' What more could a man of seventy five ask for?

• Reaching the century mark
• What is the director's role?
• Commercial that won many hearts

Reaching the century mark

A man of many parts, W A Abeysinghe (teacher, journalist, lawyer, novelist, poet, lyric writer and critic) launched his hundredth piece of creative writing last week. A commendable achievement indeed.

He had chosen the well known Indian writer Mulk Raj Anand 's 'Two leaves and a bud' to reach this landmark. It's a milestone in the field of Sinhala literature. It's the first time that one of Anand's books has been translated into Sinhala.

'Abey' (that's how we call him since the 'Dinamina' days when we were colleagues nearly four decades ago) calls his book `Te Dalle Kandula'. As the title indicates, it's the story of the tears and toils of the tea pluckers.

Mulk Raj Anand, now going on 93, made his name as a writer about the downtrodden. He portrayed the very poor and took up their cause through his books. Prior to writing 'Two leaves and a bud', he wrote 'Untouchables' and 'Coolie'.

Along with Te Dalle Kandula Abey also launched a second book - Sahitya Sansara Charika - a collection of articles written by him to the 'Silumina'. Both are Godage Publications.

Abey has been writing on numerous topics since the late fifties. Many of them are translations. He has over forty children's books to his credit. He continues to be a regular contributor to newspapers.

Beginning his career as a teacher, Abey had a short stint as a journalist and moved over to do law. But writing has always been his first love. He has been rewarded with two State Literary Awards. Between 1965 and 1991 he published nine collections of poems.

"I have virtually given up practising as a lawyer. I am concentrating on re-editing some of my writings for release in the coming months", he says.

What is the director's role?

How much does a director contribute towards his creation - be it a film, a teledrama or a drama - becoming the best in its chosen field? Or can such a creation be the best unless the director puts in a great effort towards its success?

These questions are being asked in the arts circuit in the context of the selections at the recent Sumathi Tele Awards when Durganthaya became the Best Teledrama of the Year although its director (Dharmasena Pathiraja) was not chosen the best director. Moreover, the teledrama, based on 'Wuthering Heights', won five awards in all - Best Script (Professor Nimal Senanayake), Best Actress (Vasanthi Chaturani), Best Photography (Lal Wickremarachchi), Best Supporting Actress (Padmini Diviturugama) and Best Teledrama.

Meanwhile, the Best Director's award went to Asoka Handagama for Diya Keta Pahana which also had the Best Supporting Actor (Mahendra Perera).

A feature of this year's awards was the emergence of creative work in private channels. Swarnavahini, in particular, got recognition when at least four of their teledramas were among the final 10 or 12 considered by the judges. In fact, the Best Actor award was won by Asoka Peiris for his role in Chala Achala telecast over this channel. Hitherto, Rupavahini dominated the show.

Commercial that won many hearts

No one will grudge the Sumathi award for the Best TV Commercial being given to UNICEF's call against child labour - the commercial which moved the hearts of many, created by JWT.

LDB Lintas bagged the two runner-up awards - one for Suntel's 'Hello' and the other for the Elephant House Orange Barley commercial.

Play it again, Sam, but this time with a happy ending

In one of the most famous final scenes in cinema history, Humphrey Bogart said it could be just the beginning of something. Now a sequel to Casablanca suggests there was more than just a beautiful friendship in store for Rick Blaine, the saloon keeper with a gift for one-liners.

The police chief who had ordered his men to "round up the usual suspects" rather than take Blaine away looked set to become his new best pal. But there were a number of unanswered questions as the Bogart character stood on the airport tarmac amid swirling mist at the end of one of the best-loved classic movies.

Ever since the film was first screened in 1942, audiences have watched the credits roll and wondered if Ilsa Lund (Ingrid Bergman) and her husband, the great Czech freedom fighter, Victor Laszlo (Paul Henreid), would really escape to safety on the plane just departed to Lisbon. And would Blaine, who had told Lund, "We'll always have Paris", ever see her again after his insistence that she accompany and help Laszlo rather than stay with him.

In a move that is likely to dismay purists, intrigue anyone who had dreamt up their own subsequent life stories for the characters and delight those who like a good story to end simply and happily, a novel was published last month that provides both a prequel and a sequel to Casablanca.

As Time Goes By was written by Michael Walsh, a former music critic. Taking its title from the signature tune to the original film the book goes backwards to explain how the characters wound up in Casablanca and forwards to show how their lives might have moved on. "There are a number of unanswered questions that the movie raises. That's why the movie is so popular. It's ambiguous. What I tried to do was tie up some loose ends," said Mr. Walsh.

He immersed himself in the original film, which won three Oscars, and concluded that Blaine might have been a Jewish gangster called Yitzik Baline tearing through the New York of the 1920s and 1930s. "His young manhood would coincide exactly with Prohibition. It was the days of the great gangsters, the nightclubs, the speakeasies," said Mr. Walsh.

He concluded that Blaine's unexplained comment in the film that he cannot return to New York was a reference to having been forced to flee a gangland bloodbath and head for Paris, where he and Lund had met, as we know, for the first time.

Projecting forward, Walsh constructs a "very complicated, twisty-turny plot" in which Blaine goes to Prague to conspire with Lund and Laszlo to kill the real-life Nazi leader, Reinhard Heydrich.

Mr. Walsh decided that Laszlo would never have gone to America, as he was intending in the film. "Victor Laszlo is a Czech partisan, what else could he possibly be doing besides plotting the assassination of Heydrich?"

Blaine, fearing Nazi reprisals if Heydrich is killed tries unsuccessfully to stop the assassination. Heydrich dies, but so does Laszlo, leaving Blaine and Lund to re-ignite their romance and marry. "I can't live without you, Ilsa," says Blaine in the book. "I thought I could. God knows I tried. But I couldn't. Not after Paris. Not after Casablanca. Not now. Not ever." Lund responds by returning his famous toast "Here's looking at you, kid" and so they live happily ever after. Or at least until the sequel to the sequel. Or the film of the sequel.

-London Times

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