Translated from the Sinhalese by Chamini Kalathunga
May Be So
For comrade trees
to come to fruition
the toxic niyagala vine
might have sucked
the venom from the soil
***
Vestigial Mountains
Their eyes brimmed with prairies
there are vestigial mountains
that mumble alone
oblivious to the clouds
***
Gardener
Approaching the
rose garden
the princess ordered
the gardener
to grub and burn
every weed
staring at
the barely visible
grass flowers
that mean no harm
he released
a heavy sigh
***
Ruwan Bandujeewa is a contemporary Sri Lankan poet loved by many Sinhalese readers. His poetry collection මීළඟ මීවිත (Next Sweet Wines) was first published in 2013 and is a best seller, now in its sixth print.
Chamini Kulathunga is a Sri Lankan translator, working with contemporary Sinhalese literature. She is a graduate of Iowa Translation Workshop. She was a visiting fellow at Cornell University's South Asia Program in the Summer of 2019, and is the blog editor and a staff member of the editorial board of Exchanges: Journal of Literary Translation. Her works have appeared in Exchanges and DoubleSpeak (forthcoming), literary journals dedicated to translated literature.
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