From childhood,
my Crayola-trained American eyes
recognise
Cherry Red
Royal Purple
Robin’s-Egg Blue
Peachy Pink.
But here there is
Train Ticket Lavender,
Thambili Orange,
Milk-Tea Brown
which is creamier than
Spicy Pahe Brown.
Paddy Field Green is a favorite,
as is Floor Polish Red.
Poya Day Whites
a shade crisper than
Jasmine White.
Indian Ocean Turquoise
endless, shimmering.
But nothing is brighter
than Little-Boy-School-Shorts Blue.
How can I begin to understand,
How can I allow myself to write,
When I am just starting
to truly see colour?
Sukhee Ramawickrama- Write to Reconcile, page 94
දිනමිණ, වසත් සුළඟ 27/06/2017
අමුතුම ලස්සන පරිවර්තනයක් මලී.
ReplyDeleteජයවේවා!!!
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Deleteදිනමිණ' e-news එකෙත් කියෙව්වා.
ReplyDeleteEnglish එක දැක්කේ දැනුයි. තැඹිලි orange, පහේ brown, පෝය දින white සහ කලිසමේ blue වගේ යෙදුම් හරි අගෙයි නෙ.
හොඳට කවි ලියන කෙනෙක් වගෙයි.
මම සුකී රාමවික්‍රම ව හෙව්වා, එයාගේ කවියක් පරිවර්තනය කළා කියලා දන්වන්න. සුපුරුදු සමාජ ජාල වල වත් වෙන වෙබ් අඩවි වල වත් එයාගේ තොරතුරක් හොයාගන්න බැරිවුණා. ලංකාවෙන් පිට ඉන්න කෙනෙක් නම් ලංකාව හොඳට හුරු වගෙයි මේ කවියෙන් තේරෙන්නේ.
Deleteඅන්තිමට යෙදෙන 'colour' කියන වචනේ පාට කියන එකට වඩා අරුතක් තියනවා කියලා මට හිතෙනවා. නමුත් ඉතින් ඒවා පරිවර්තනය කරන්න බැරි දේවල්නෙ.
ReplyDeleteඔව් තිසර, නිකම් 'ඇත්ත දකිනවා' වගේ තේරුමක් නේද? ඒත් පරිවර්තනයට මගේ අර්ථකථන වැඩියම නොදී ඉන්න මම උත්සාහ කළා. සමහර වෙලාවට මට හිතෙන දේ කිව්වොත් ද නොකිව්වොත් ද මුල් කවියට අසාධාරණයක් වෙන්නේ කියලා මටම හිතාගන්න බැහැ!
DeleteI think you should give a chance for transliteration now and then. This question of 'colour' here is an obvious case why you should try it. Honestly, when I first read the Sinhala words I didn't get that last bit. Most times I tend to like your translations more than the original or as much, but here the original is just 'wow!' :)
Deletetrue, Hiranya.. I guess sometimes I should be a bit more lenient with saying what I feel things mean..
DeleteFloor polish red...that is definitely one of the most unforgettable memories from my childhood days. The brilliant red when the polish is still fresh....
ReplyDeleteRonuk or Cardinal the brand names as I remember...Of course we had no electric polishers back then. Appachchi bought a hard coir brush with a long handle from "Laksala" for polishing.
I can still hear my unending laughter sitting on that brush holding on to my dear life as my Punchi Mama ran from one end of our rather large living area polishing the floor...Oh dear those were the days....
(Note - I had to sit on the brush to give some weight, so the polishing would be done properly)
And there is a connected story too. Once I told about how we polished during my younger days to my Sister's son. he was mo more than 3/4 years old then. When next his mother was using a polisher that little rascal threw a tantrum literally rolling on the floor saying he wants to sit on the polisher too like his Mama heh..heh..
And you know what?... I was blamed ""මේ අයිය තමයි ඔක්කොම කරන්නෙ...මීට පස්සෙ ඔය පරණ එව්ව කියනවනම් මගෙන් අහල ඉන්ට කලින්.." That was the injunction issued by his Mother...heh, heh What to do? poor me...
Thanks Malee & Sukhee...I would be writing about all that soon. hopefully...:)
wow Ravi.. and all this is just about the 'floor polish red'! I remember Cardinal floor polish too, my sisters and I used to divide up the සාලේ to polish because it was so much work. you have to add Cardinal wax to finish up the job- remember? looking forward to see your write-up about this- knowing you, can this lead to a series of posts about 'remembered colours'? ;)
Deleteලස්සන නිර්මාණයක්... හරි අගෙයි
ReplyDelete