![]() ![]() ![]() I remember the author of the sketch (our Sinhala teacher) describing in it the trials the man had to undergo and the choices he had to make in his teenage years. One of the first sketches about the man I went through was an essay we had to read in class, in Eighth Grade, before we got started on that year’s prescribed text, Madol Doowa. Martin Wickramasinghe was mostly self-educated. The answer was obvious, but not to someone of his age. “He didn’t limit himself to Sinhala,” I pointed out, “He wrote over 2,500 essays and many of them were originally in English.” It didn’t take long to realise he was thinking that it was a set of translations of Wickramasinghe’s Sinhala works. It was actually a volume of seven collections, including Aspects of Sinhalese Culture, Sinhala Language and Culture, and The Mysticism of Lawrence. Just the other day, foraging through piles of books at Tisara Prakashakayo, I, who was there with a friend of mine, came across an old edition of Martin Wickramasinghe’s English essays. Some of the most unexpected insights come at the most unexpected moments. In one sense, he does not seem to have passed away. Martin Wickramasinghe was born on May 29, 1890. The image we have of the man is, very naturally and as expected.In Sri Lanka, moreover, writers tend to get immortalised after their deaths.He was critical of attempts made by misguided nationalists. ![]()
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