 Tracing
the fingerprint
We the associates of the Sri Lanka press Council moved our office
from the Horton Place to Castle street, right opposite the Castle
hospital in Rajagiriya. As we started our work with some of our
customary religious rituals, a security official informed me that there
is a person waiting outside to see me and his name is one Jayawardhana.
 Then I took time off to see this visitor. To my surprise I saw R D K
Jayawardhana, a longstanding friend of ours, and I never thought that he
stays closer to our workplace. Jayawardhana needs no introduction to the
writers, dramatists, painters and administrators of the sixties and
seventies, as he was a well known personality, who was busy in the field
of arts and culture. After a chit chat on the bygone days and the
current trends in literary and cultural activities, I felt that he is
still aware about most happenings around him.
This, I felt, is one fine sign of a writer. Over the years he has
written several books in both English and Sinhala and had kept abreast
with the cultural activities. Even in his retirement he has compiled a
collection of English poems titled as ‘Fingerprint’ to mark his 87th
birthday which fell in 2008.
He walked back to his house situated close by and brought a copy of
the collection of poems as a gift. He did not want me to write any
review or any such thing. But I felt that on reading some his poems,
they need to be discussed with other literary enthusiasts known to me.
Prior to this collection of poems he had written two more books: ‘Beyond
the Mirror Wall’ and a novel titled ‘The Maze’. RDK is the winner of
three arts council awards during our younger days - that is about fifty
years ago, during the formative stages of the cultural ministry.
In 2003 his work ‘Beyond the Mirror Wall’, a work that revolved round
the legend of Sigiriya, received the state literary award. As an
administrator he had plenty of duties to perform. He recollects them
with a certain degree of satisfaction. Looking back he says that he had
the chance of introducing several cultural projects inclusive of the
cultural triangle restoring the historic monuments and places.
This happened as a result of his being the secretary general of the
UNESCO commission He has travelled in most parts of the countries from
which he had drawn inspiration and experience for his literary works,
especially some of the creations embedded in the collection of poems
titled ‘Fingerprint’. To his credit he has exhibited some of his
paintings in other countries.
In his poem titled ‘a question paper’ he raises these questions which
I feel as a welcome variant to the existing pattern of poetic creations.
In order to share the bliss, I present these lines for your scrutiny.
Why did Socrates
decline to defend himself
and prefer hemlock?
Why did Mark Antony
who wept at Julius Ceasar’s corpse
fail to punish Brutus ?
Why did Shakespeare
desert his wife and home
to become a playwright ?
Why did John Milton write
“Paradise Regained “
only after going blind?
Why did Leonardo da Vinci
so keen about details
fail to paint Mona Lisa’s eyebrows?
Why did Napoleon
wear his regimental cap
in the wrong way ?
Why did Alfred Nobel who discovered
Dynamite, a serious threat to peace
set up the prize for peace?
Why did Hitler hurried marry
his long term mistress Eva Braun
just before they committed suicide ?
Why did Kawabata in his heyday
After winning the Nobel Prize
Commit suicide?
As regards this question paper It happened to be a fine exercise in
creative communication to observe some of the reactions of the
recipients of diploma in journalism and communication studies. Some of
them felt that this is more than a question paper written in the form of
a poem. Some others were of the view that this could be extended to a
lengthy feature illuminating facades of historic significance giving
vent to some inner studies of human nature. A discourse on this work and
the other experiences of RDKJ will be held at the Sri Lanka Press
Council premises in Castle Street on January 20 from 3.30 to 5 pm. You
are welcome to meet RDKJ and a few others to share the experiences
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