The male nightingale sang during day and night
So did great Amaradeva sing when it is dark and light
He was Lanka’s human form of sweet nightingale
Your passing our caused Lankans a long tearful wail
Your name Amaradeva suggest an undying God
In Lankan minds you will always remain the poetic Lord
Your lilting verse, we’ll hear even in our dreams
While your departure in the dailies is written in reams.
Pandit! Sasara Vasana Thuru you made Lankans happy
Now your departure made us Lankans very, very unhappy
In this ‘Ran Derana’ your many a pupil shedding tears
When to the tall beautiful pyre coffin bearers near
Goodbye melodious one, but it’s a beckoning farewell
While your sweet melodies forever with us will dwell
Will Lankans ever again be gifted with one of your calibre
The days and nights you were with us, we’ll ever remember.
An ardent admirer
Mahendra Samarasinghe
Dehiwela
RETIREMENT!
1976 - A young buck, in compulsion, did rush into work life
2016 - So swiftly come to pass retirement presently in rife!
Was I caught in a 40 year bubble dream?
Capsuled in a variety of roles down life streamPuny Clerk in
the Corporate cage, to Inspecting Cop
Zigzagged many a slot in Khaki and civvies to occupy a momentary top
Travels did take me round the globe
Thrusting images vivid up the temporal lobe
The Good, bad, ugly and the beautiful I meet
Souls, white, black, brown and yellow did greet
Adventures here and there a galore
Not realizing the stallion in me would mellow!
Passing the nearby Palk Straits
To find friends fair, beyond and around the Malacca Straits
Opportunity to rub shoulders
With Officials, Officers, and Diplomats as big as boulders!
With decades four, of vocational labour
Reflecting what memorable images in mind harbour
Not knowing whether to sing or cry out in wonder
Memories good and bad in retirement to ponder!
Fresh lifestyles dreaming to pursue in Health
The new revised version in wealth
Zones of comfort lived off to date, seem to recede backward
With a pension from the state, to look forward!
In retirement, am I on the starting blocks for another run?
What awaits the track ahead, only the Good Lord knows, but none!
- Wazir Sourjah.