Voice of Tamil poets in Sinhala
Prof. Sunanda Mahendra
 POETRY: Sometimes a journalist can do literary creative
wonders as his profession permits within certain limitations. The young
lyric writer Nilar N. Cassim, with his experience in a Sinhala weekly as
a features editor had started translating some representative Tamil
poems into Sinhala as he is well versed in both languages.
As time passed on, he little realized that he has translated a
sufficient number of poems enabling him to compile an anthology. This
effort has proved now a bridge making impetus on understanding the pulse
beat of the Tamil poets mostly settled in North and East.
This may be the first serious attempt in the process of the sincere
effort made to know the conscience of the Tamil poets. As we scan the
pages of the anthology, the voices and the embedded experience seem to
emanate more intimately.
The much discussed war-torn lives and the fears woven within that
frame and the anticipations, attempts to understand the issues of
existence, the brotherhood, the loss of the human intimacies and the
failure to gauge the gravity of the spirits of living appear so familiar
in Cassim's poetry.
Living conditions
The compilation is aptly titled as Sahodara Piyapat (Comrade Plumes [Godage
2006]), which brings various meanings symbolically connected with the
issues raised in the visions of these poets.
Perhaps for the first time, we come across a collection of twenty-six
Tamil poetry translated into Sinhala without distortions in the
expression retaining the original flavour normally said to be lost in
translation.
According to Cassim, it is up to the reader to agree with the poetic
experiences or disagree with them depending on how you look at them, but
the actual fact being the honesty in the creativity that matters and the
transfer of dedication to a cause which may not be futile.
Many poetry, embedded and seen selected, centre round war-torn
experiences which themselves are symbolic of a stark embodiment of
humanity that needs to be eradicated from a human setup for the sake of
sanity in living.
The first poet T. Ramalingam's Tati Genma (The Flutter in
Bewilderment) looks like a preface to the entire collection where the
poet visualizes the shaky living conditions in fear fragmented by fires
and smoke in and around, locked up in uncertain human and animal
existences devoid of a clue to a better life.
The next in line is M.A.Nuhuman, a Professor of Tamil, whose poem
titled Budun Ghatanaya Kirima (Assassination of the Buddha) is one of
the most sensitive creations centred round the burning of the Jaffna
library which in turn pinpoints the symbolic tarnishing of the religious
conscience eternally handed over. This poem, I think, has been
translated into English some time ago.
Types of lootings
Saba Jayarasa, another Tamil Professor of Science, creates his works
in the observation of the types of lootings, riots, and various inhuman
atrocities taking place in human surroundings.
V.I.S. Jeyapalan, a traveller in most parts of the country and a
sociologist by profession, is seen as a sensitive observer of events
pertaining to the disastrous changing of natural conditions of the
greenery of not only the fauna and flora of a human surrounding, but
also the crude changes interlinked with the smoke filled devastated
climates with the turn of turbulent forces orchestrated artificially by
the man in the wild attempt to overthrow each other.
He seems to be sad about his inner nature where he used to address
the nature in the past as his friend, but presently a foe, as he laments
over the spring that he used to see in the past which is absent from his
living conditions gone forever.
The three poems Sisira Ratriya (Winter Night) Hiru Samaga Katha
Kirima (Talking with the Sun) and Vasantaya (The Spring) epitomize these
feelings. He also brings to our mind the ethical the moralistic impact
created via the political killing of the comrade Somapala which centred
round some of the fateful events in the social history of our country
(see poem titled Somapala Sahodarayata Upaharayak).
Religious tone
Antojata Bahijata by S. Vilvaratnam is a capture of the religious
tone intermixed with political thought which seem to say 'bouquets are
laid while killings go on and sermons are heard while killings
continue'. A. Yesurasa, a poet who has contributed several collections
of Tamil poems, is shown as dedicated to his task of creations
undermining the awards bestowed on him.
His poems are more of a protest type where he feels that the human
dignity is lost by the power greed. Humans and the brand names of
'Terrorists' have come to be household usages disrespecting the social
values and he makes ironical prayers (Deviyanta, pp62) to unseen gods
pleading to descend from their pedestals of living.
The compiler has also taken steps to include poems of a poet who
feels that he should support the moves of the unaccepted political
movements such as the LTTE.
Ironically enough, here one sees the underlying negative effects of
such movements (reference is made to the poet Rattinatturei and his two
poems included in this anthology).
S. Sivasekaram, born in Trincomalee and resident in Colombo, reflects
his past where he feels nostalgic towards his hometown and yearns to
return in order to just observe once again the splendour he visualized
as the wonder of the creation (see Samuganima, The Farewell and Modaya
Saha Punsanda. (The Fool and the Full Moon).
The late Muslim poet M.H.M. Shamis, though born in the South of Sri
Lanka, represents a generation of poets in the East and makes religious
references in his poems and anticipates a better living for all humans
irrespective of the place where he lives or the regime under which he is
made to live. His main theme is nostalgia (see Utura Harayamapp77).
Foreign strands
The other poets representing this anthology include U. Cheran,
Soleikili, A. Sangaree, Urvasi, Rudramurthi, Athma, Sivaramani,
Natpittamuni Falil, Selvi, Salma, S. Karunaharan, Sukumar, Dushyantan
Adavan and Sihivajini. In this list of names, there are some poets who
live in foreign strands nevertheless continuing their contributions to
Tamil newspapers and periodicals, and they have the links with the
nation in their publishing efforts.
The preface by the compiler Nilar N. Cassim is a mirror that reflects
the up-to-date conditions of Tamil poetic visions of the country. This
pioneering collection of Tamil poems in Sinhala poetic diction, up to a
certain degree, I am sure, will help the erection of the bridge that
gaps the cross-cultural links of the Sinhala and Tamil creative
heritage. |
