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| Wednesday, 17 March 2004 |
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The irrepressible poet Dawasa Hetai Whenever I get a book of poetry for review I take a longer time to read it. This is not because I do not like poetry. The reason is that to write about poems you need to read them to experience them. Unlike prose, poems cannot be skimmed quickly to write about them. Even to discuss a short poem, the reviewer has to read it several times slowly and painstakingly. Meanwhile, you have to pay attention to connotations, the rhythm and the tone. Touches on a range of subjects: love, beauty, satire and the ugly side of human nature. Let's take a look at Senehasa (Love) Nisaru divi kathara meda You are the only flower Beauty In Sundarathvaya (Beauty) the poet looks at his fiancee or wife who sleeps peacefully. He opens the window and waits for the fragrance of Sepalika flowers.
He is also anxious to listen to bird songs. However, the unexpected happens. The fragrant breeze momentarily touches his bed and disappears. Similarly, the birds peep into his room and leave without singing. Even the morning sun rays refuse to enter his bedroom. Then he sees his beloved sleeping peacefully. Thus he shares a moment of bliss with his readers. Galappatty's treatment of subject matter and choice of words is quite different from the Colombo era poets, namely P. B. Alwis Perera, Meemane Pramatilleke, H. M. Kudaligama, Sagara Palansuriya, Wimalaratne Kumaragama and Chandraratne Manawasinghe.
They were followed by the poets who dominated the scene in the 1960s, G. B. Senanayake, Siri Gunasinghe, Gunadasa Amarasekara, Sarath Amunugama, Mahagamasekara and Wimal Dissanayake experimented with free verse and generated a new interest in poetry among the readership. Parakrama Kodituwakku, Monica Ruwan Pathirana and Buddhadasa Galappatty belong to the next generation of poets who came, to prominence in the 1970s. There were others who started writing poetry, However, only these three poets keep on turning out meaningful poetry even today. In the 50s the poets were writing on liberation, morals and religion. In the 60s the poets were influenced by nature, love and beauty. meanwhile, Mahagamasekara and Wimal Dissanayake, used folk idiom to embellish their poetry. Subject matter Galappatty's Dawasa hetai comes after five years of his earlier publication Thuru Liya Akuruviya (1998). The present volume harks back to the 1970s as far as its subject matter is concerned. It is often said that poetry has no market and publishers do not encourage poets. What is more, critics keep away from poetry. Against all such odds Galappatty and a few others are not discouraged. They keep on writing good poetry. As a seasoned poet Galappatty knows that poetic inspiration, like grace, is something beyond human control. He also knows that a good poet is someone who manages, in a lifetime of standing out in thunderstorms, to be struck by lightning five or six times. Most of the best lightning bolts tend to strike those poets who keep waiting patiently, writing and rewriting and discarding, keeping their lightning rods lifted as they work. - R. S. Karunaratne **** Back **** |
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In
the 1950s I used to read their poems published in Silumina and monthly
magazines like Meevadaya.
