The naming of Gamini Dissanayake Reservoir, Kotmale
 Monarakande looms large over a valley
Redolent with a glorious past,
'Where in ages past Dedimunda Deva rested
Ere he was born to Alutnuwara in lands below
'Where once the sacred Dalada was hid
Safe from marauding alien bands
Who, as now, crossed shallow seas
To fatten on fair Lanka's lands.
Here prince Dutugemunu found refuge
Fleeing from Kavantissa's paternal ire
Here the prince sojourned in farmers hut
Tilled fields and found solace
In dalliance with beauteous Ran Menika
And watched as waters flowed
Down high hill and dale
To swell the torrents as they joined
The great sandy river as it coursed
Past cliffs, rocks and forests
In the plains below until it met
The raging ocean at Gokanna
Giving life as it moved by canals
Raised by noble sires to liven
Thirsty fields of Rajarata,
Which Gemunu came to free
From alien grasping hands
To guide life again on blessed soil
And see it aglow with sacred shrines.
* *
And now a large vision envisioned
A dam arisen in memory of another
Gamini, Prince of our times.
* *
In whose memory vast waters held
Throwing up to high heavens
A mirror of a new vaster dream
That will review the glorious past
When gold fields made our blessed isle
The granary of the East
* *
But his young life, the best of which
He gave this land was by cruel fate
And terrorists' hands lost to us.
* *
Yet each drop of water that falls
From high and flows past rustling
Ferns by pebbles smooth worn
And the woods that sigh
The birds sung soft their dirge
All tell the sad loss that fell
Upon the land by Gamini's demise.
* *
But yet all will live to see
In Samsara's long journey
Gamini come again
To review a lost dream
Of Lanka's storied past
Till with resonance his voice
Will be heard again and
He will smile upon this Rainbow vale
of Kotmale, nay
Of all our golden Isle.
- Nissanka Wijeyaratne
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