Poetry in Sri Lanka (a brief account)

Sri Lanka is enriched with valuable literature sources from ancient times. . They were mostly written by the rulers and monks as those were the category who had the opportunity to learn reading and writing..

The Siyabaslakara, (The beauty of own language) is the earliest poetry book written by the king Shilamegasena who ruled in the 9th century from AD 846 – 866. This volume is based on Kavyadarshaya which is written by the Sanskrit poet Dandeen. In Sinhalese literature, this volume plays an important role as it is the first main volume that can be seen that creates excellent poetic traditions. The volume, Siyabaslakara emphasizes how a poem should select its subject, qualities of a poem, qualities of a poet, poetic devices and lives, the outline of a poem, and the use of diction and language. Here we find both rhymed and unrhymed verses showing considerable metrical and poetical skill, a product of earlier training and influence.

The oldest Sri Lankan prose work in existence, the Dhampiya-Atuva-Geatapaday, has been written back in the 9th century.

The Sinhalese have, of all the arts, excelled in poetry. Sinhala, the language of Sinhalese, is a poetical language. It lends itself easily to meter and rhyme due to its grammatical flexibility and rich vocabulary comprising of a large number of synonyms. Sinhala itself is a mellifluous language with a high vowel content and is comparable to French and Urdu, widely regarded to be the two most romantic languages in the world.

Ancient Sinhala Verses and Sigiri Graffiti

Sigiriya or Sinhagiri is an ancient rock fortress located in the Central Province, Sri Lanka. It is a site of historical and archaeological significance. The ruins of the capital built by the parricidal King Kassapa I (477–95) lie on the steep slopes and at the summit of a granite peak standing some 180m high (the 'Lion's Rock', which dominates the jungle from all sides. A series of galleries and staircases emerging from the mouth of a gigantic lion constructed of bricks and plaster provide access to the site

The Sigiriya Rock Fortress Paintings are found on the rock face cut inside to create a depression about 70 feet lengthwise. There are around 21 paintings in this area and it is believed to be the Fresco-Lustro method used for these paintings. All these paintings are of young and old female figures and there are no two similar figures among them. These figures are popularly called as 'Sigiri Apsara' . These paintings stirred romantic thoughts amongst some of the visitors.

After King Kassapa's' demise, the people who came to see Sigiriya Rock Fortress wrote down verses in Sinhala scripts of that time on Sigiriya Damsels on the wall running below the Sigiriya frescoes. This literature consists of verses scribbled by visitors who admired the the beautiful bejeweled, bare-breasted female figures This wall is called as the ' Kedapath Pavura' or the Sigiriya Mirror Wall. It is done in brick masonry and has a polished plaster finish. Many of these 2 writings on the Mirror Wall belongs to the time period between the 7th and the 11th Centuries AD. some of these had been written by native women indicating the literacy among the females at that time. The expression made in the verses are refined and the beauty of the ladies had been much appreciated in a simple literal way. (Sri Lanka view .com)

Sigiri literature is a window that provides us with a glimpse into the feelings, ideas, customs, mores, nomenclature, rural landscape, sensibility, and linguistic features of a people who lived before the tenth century. A total of nearly 1500 writings have now been deciphered. The first study and publication was by Prof. Senerat Paranavitana which itself is a masterpiece of the literary, A few specimens of the graffiti are given below.

(trans. by S. Paranavithana )

(Sinhala:සෙනරත් පරණවිතාන) (26 December 1896 – 4 October 1972) was a pioneering archeologist and epigraphist of Sri Lanka. He became the Archeological Commissioner in 1940, Who deciphered 685 verses written in the 8th, 9th a,nd 10th centuries CE on the mirror wall. Further writing on the mirror wall now has been banned for the protection of the old writings.

Following are few of them.

ඇසිමි දුන් හසුන්
හසුන් සෙයින් විල් දුත්

(Like geese who have seen a lake, I listened to the message given to her.)

මුල ලා මා ෙැනැහි
පුල් පියුමන් සෙේය්
බමර් දුත්
(Like a bee who has seen full-blown lotuses, the bewildered heart of mine was consoled.)

Out of the 1500 plus poems, most are addressed to the ladies on the frescoes. Men praised their beauty and women shared their envy.
The lady on the wall is in a melancholy mood as though she is annoyed with the poet because she wants more of his love. Here is how the poet consoles her.

Abandon these melancholy thoughts.
I have already composed a verse.
What else have I got to say?'

This how a male admired the beauty of a painting.
The girl with golden skin entices the mind and eyes
Her lovely breasts cause me to recall swans drunk with nectar

The ladies who wear golden chains
on their breasts beckon to me.
Now I have seen these resplendent ladies,
heaven has lost its appeal for me.

This is written by a female visitor.

Pretty lady
Why your heart became a stone?
Is it you stayed here alone?
Whatever it is
This was written by
Another lady
Who was enchanted by your
shining eyes

A contemporary female, clearly less enamored with the frescoes, records differently

A deer-eyed maiden of the mountainside
arouses anger in my mind.
In her hand, she holds a string of pearls,
and in her eyes, she assumes rivalry with me.

බුදල්මි
සිස ාර ආමි සිහිගිරි
බැලීමි ගි සබාසහා ජන
ලිතූස න් සනාලිමි

"I am Budal (the writer's name.)
Came with hundreds of people to see Sigiriya.
Since all the others wrote poems, I did not!"

These remarkable short poems are brief with a great poetic format and in their meaning with aesthetical values and create ecstatic wisdom consisting of wonderful qualities resembling the features of haiku poetry.

Early Sinhala Poetry

One of the greatest literary monuments of the medieval period is the "Kavsilumina" (The crest gem of poetry), a 13th -century "maha-kavya" (lengthy, ornate poem taken after the Sanskrit model) composed by King Parakrama Bahu II (1234 - 1269)

The Kotte period (15th " 16th centuries) marks the efflorescence of Sinhalese poetry. The largely secular "Sandesha" (message) poems gained immense popularity during this period. The Sandesha poems are based on Kalidasa"s Meghaduta (cloud messenger). The essence of the Sandesha poem is the dispatch of a message through the agency of a living being, very often a bird. The oldest Sandesha poem of which we have any evidence is the "Mayura Sandeshaya" (Peacock"s message) dating back to the 13th century The "Thisara Sandeshaya" (Swan’s message) is dated to the 14th century, while the "Gira Sandeshaya" (Parrot’s message), "Hansa Sandeshaya" (Goose’s message), "Parevi Sandeshaya" (Dove"s message), "Kokila Sandeshaya" (Cuckoo’s message) and "Selalihini Sandeshaya" (Starling’s message) belong to the 15th century.

A specimen from a late 18th century poem, the "Kalingabodhi Jataka-Kava composed by the poet Dunuvila will bear this out. Cited below is a quatrain from the poem describing the prince"s journey to the forest.

නිල් දිගු වරල කුසුමන් බැද ස ාතාලා
පුල් රතු උපුල් මල් ෙවනට ෙදාලා
ඇල් ස වි කල් කි න ලි ගී අොලා
සලාල් හැර ගිසය් කුමරිදු මන පිනාලා

(The prince heard the heart-captivating songs of the pretty women in the fields of rice who had arranged their long flowing hair with flowers and tucked full blossomed red lotuses behind their ears, and went away, full of joy, but not captivated by them).

You can have a glimpse of Sinhala culture from this poem. The prince enjoyed it but didn’t think of taking advantage.

Poetry in Sri Lanka from the Colonial Era

Another class of Sinhala poetry is the war poems (hatan kavi). These are more or less panegyrics in praise of some king or general. One of the earliest known hatan kavi is the "Kustantinu hatana" (the war of Constantine) describing the war the Portuguese Captain General Constantine de Sa (17th century) waged, and won, against a Sinhalese rebel named Antonio. The "Maha hatana" (Great War) tells of the defeat of Constantine de Sa and his successors at the hands of the Kandyan King Rajasinghe II (17th century)

Other notable war poems include the "Parangi hatana" (War with the Portuguese) describing the famous battle of Gannoruwa (1638)
The "Ingrisi hatana" (war with the English) describes the Kandyan King Sri Wickrama Rajasinghe"s victory over the British army in 1803.

Gajanan Nona : The Legendary Poetess….

Gajanan Nona is regarded as Sri Lanka’s greatest poetess. Born in 1758 and was baptized Dona Isabella Koraneliya Perumal according to historians. She is said to have been a ravishing beauty, with grace. Her love for poetry was immensely great, To learn under a monk, she posed as a male. At that time monks were forbidden from associating with females. She married a chieftain named Gardiarachchi when she was 21. He died a few years later, leaving her and her children impoverished. In spite of a pathetic life story, she composed hundreds of poems using quality language.

Hundreds of poets in Sri Lanka participated in the independent movement in Sri Lanka Most conspicuous among them is S. Mahinda Thero who was born in 1901 in Gangtok, Sikkim,Came to Sri Lanka during his childhood. He was a Bhikkhu (Buddhist monk) who became a well-known Sri Lankan poet and writer, and did an immense contribution to the independence movement of Ceylon (Sri Lanka). Before becoming a Buddhist monk, his name was Pempa Tendupi Serky Cherin and he is acknowledged as a national hero.

Through his poetry, he enhanced the public spirit against British rulers through his strong addressing through poetry. He has written over 40 books, most of them poems inspiring patriotism. He wrote many inspiring poems such as “Nidahase Dehena”, “Nidahase Manthraya”, “Lanka Matha”, “Jathika Thotilla”, which became extremely popular among many generations of the reading public.

Poetry in Modern times

Poetry events called Kavi maduwas ((an interactive poetry session where people who are present are free to recite their poems or debate with each other in verse) was a popular form of communicating in poetry.

There were a number of monthly poetry magazines being published in the country. They were Dedunne (Rainbow), edited by P.B. Alwis Perera; Suwanda (Fragrance), edited by Kapila E. Seneviratne; Meewadaya (Honeycomb), edited by John Rajadasa;

The poetry practiced was metrical and the most popular meter was samudraghosha (The sound of the ocean.) every line has about 17-time units and ends with the same syllable and every stanza has four lines).
[Source: Asiff Hussein, Explore Sri Lanka]

Janakavi (Falk poems)

Being a sensitive, cultured nation Sri Lankan people used poetry in their day-to-day activities such as pel kavi (poems sung at night while guarding fields), paru kavi (those sung while paddling boats) and goyam kavi (those sung while reaping paddy). Those were composed of very beautiful Verses with rhyming as they were supposed to be sung while working. Starting from lullabies that were present in all walks of life. Here is an example from thousands.

බඩගිනි සවලා මා ගි කළ පුතුස ස ට
මැනලා වී ටිකක් දුන්නයි මල්ලකට
න්සදෝ සනා න්සදෝ කි ලා සිතුනි මට
මැනල ද පුසත් කිරි දුන්සන් මා නුඹට

I went to see my son
As I was so hungry
He measured some paddy
to a bag
Should I take this or not
were my thoughts then
Did I measure the milk
when I breastfed you?

This is how graphite miners exhibit the difficult life they had to spend.

ඉන්සන් දුම්බරයි මහ කළු ලක් ට
කන්සන් කරවලයි රට හාසල් බතට
සබාන්සන් සබාර දි යි පූරුසව කළ පවට
න්සන් කවදාද මව්පපිස ා දකින්නට

Living under a huge stone
Eating dry fish with foreign rice
Drinking muddied water due to sinning in the last birth
When would I pay a visit to my parents?

Freestyle verses

G.B Senanayake was a prominent Sinhala author He is credited with introducing free verse poetry to Sinhala. This is one of his popular poems.

අලුත ස නා මනමාලි
හිෙ නමා ති ඈ
සිහින් රතැඟිලි පටලවා ති,
ෙති කට සපර ස නා වර
විළිබර මස රන්වන් මනාලි .

දැල් තිර අෙේසෙන්

සපසනයි ඈ
ඔබ නු සමාබ එනු
පට පිළී ස න අබරණ සපට්ටටි ස න.

ඇසෙයි සනාසපසනන විටත්
ොලස න් කාමර ට
කාමසරන් ොල ට
න පා හඬ.

මා සවත එතත් ඈ
වුවමනාවන් කිසිත් නැතිවද,
සනාරැසෙයි, පලාස යි.

ෑ විලවුසනහි,
නැත,රන්වන් ෙසමහි
සුවෙ සනාව
සහළන සුෙේසමහි සුවෙ ඒ

ඈ බෙ සුවෙ
දැසනන්සන මට විතරද?

සපසනයි ඈ
ඇසෙයි
දැසනයි
මට සේ හැම තැන.

The new bride
Bowing the head thin fingers intertwining,
escorted a week ago
So shy is my golden bride.

From the side of the mesh screen
She could be seen
Going to and fro
With boxes of ornaments and shawls

Even when I can’t see
from living room to room
from room to living room
footsteps are heard.

She comes to me
without reason
does not stay, and runs away.

Is it the perfume she used
or the golden skin?
No it is her breath
Am I the only one
who feels it?

She is
Seen
Heard
Felt
Everywhere
in this house.

Mahagama Sekera (7 April 1929 – 14 January 1976) is a much loved Sri Lankan poet, lyricist, playwright, novelist, artist, translator, and filmmaker. He is considered to be a significant figure in Sinhalese poetry and literature. Sekara is best remembered as a poet and songwriter with several of his works even becoming popular songs in Sri Lanka. A few of his popular verses are following Translation by Lanka Siriwardana)

සිත්තරාසණනි
කි නු මැන මට
ඔබ අදින ැහැනු රූ සි ල්ල
හැඩූ කදුළින් කිමද?

ෙන්සතෝෂස න් සිටින ැහැනි ක්
මට සපන්වන්න
ඒවිට ඇ සේ
රුව අදින්නම්

( Dear artist
Why do all the women you draw
looks unhappy?

Show me a woman
Who is happy
Then I will draw her picture)

Prepared by Dr. Lanka Siriwardana
(Historical facts from Wikipedia and Sri Lanka view .com)