Veteran poet, critic, and a leading scholar of Asian cinema, Asian communication and cultural studies Prof Wimal Dissanayake launched his latest poetry book The Kingfisher recently. He also launched his latest critical writing book in Sinhala named ‘විරිත හා අරුත’ (Meter and Meaning), both published by Sarasavi publishers. The Sunday Observer got the opportunity for an email interview with Prof. Wimal Dissanayake who has been awarded honorary D.Litt. professor and is also professor of the Hawaii university in America and a visiting lecturer in many other prominent foreign universities. Prof. Dissanayake was a student of Prof. Ediriweera Sarachchandra in the Peradeniya University in the 1960s and has written more than 30 books, in Sinhala and English.
Excerpts:
Q: Generally, your literary medium is Sinhala. How did The Kingfisher as a poetry book, come about in English?
I have been writing poetry in Sinhala for the past six decades. I have published nine volumes of poetry in Sinhala some of which have won national awards. During this period, I have also been writing poetry in English that have been published in prestigious international journals such as the Cambridge Review. I decided to collect these poems and publish in book form under the title The Kingfisher.
Q: How do you feel when you write a poem in your mother tongue and in a foreign language? T.S. Eliot says no one can write poetry in his second language.
Writing in a foreign language is always a formidable challenge. At the same time, I have been deeply interested in the interplay between English and Sinhala in my poetry. I call it cross - writing. Writing in a foreign language in a way forces one to re-assess one’s attempts in one’s mother tongue. Some writers have opted to write in a foreign tongue in later life. Milan Kundera who 
initially wrote in Czech began to write in French, later. Similarly, the Nobel Laureate Joseph Brodsky who initially wrote in Russian later on began to write in English. The Indian-American writer Jhumpa Lahiri who initially wrote in English now writes in Italian. Interestingly, Joseph Conrad is regarded as a master prose stylist in English. But English was his third language after Polish and French.
Q: It is somewhat difficult for a poet or short story writer to name his collected works. How did you name this book as The Kingfisher? What do you mean by The Kingfisher?
I agree. Naming a poetry collection has to be done with great care. I chose to name my poetry collection in English as The Kingfisher, because it is the title of the opening poem in the collection and it allegorizes the function of poets in general. This is indeed a theme that is explored in many of the poems in the collection. The kingfisher looking at the water below from a high branch with the aim of picking up a fish is like the poet observing the expanse of language in order to pick up a metaphor.
Q: There are two main themes of this book, which are life under society and life under the life. Eminent poet Dr. Gunadasa Amarasekara says poetry is not suitable for expressing socio-political themes. How do you view this idea?
It is indeed true that much poetry deals with intensely personal experiences and emotions. This is, of course, not to suggest that one cannot write good poetry devoted to social themes. Many poets have accomplished this task of writing excellent poetry based on social experiences and issues with remarkable success. For example, the Nobel laureate Pablo Neruda wrote brilliant intensely personal poems as well as works dealing with larger social and political themes.
Q: Do you accept the Hada Basa concept on poetry (කාව්යeයේ ‘හද බස’ සංකල්පය) by Gunadasa Amarasekara?
I think Gunadasa Amarasekera’s concept of the ‘Hada Basa’ is an important one. It focuses on the importance of having an emotionally resonant language for poetry. At a time when much chopped up prose passes for Sinhala poetry, Gunadasa Amarasekera is seeking to draw attention to the need to fashion a metaphorically rich language for poetry. In a similar vein, T.S. Eliot once said, “the poetry of a people takes its life from the people’s speech and in turn gives life to it; and represents its highest point of consciousness.”
Q: Generally ‘Peradeni poem’ (type of poetry the University of Peradeniya represented in the 1960s) does not favour socio - political issues in poetry. As a former member of the Peradeniya School of literature, what is your opinion on this?
I think you are right. By and large, writers associated with the Peradeniya School sought to avoid burning social issues of the day. A remarkable collection of stories like the Jeevana Suvanda, written by Gunadasa Amarasekara testifies to this fact. The Peradeniya School which did so much to re-vitalize modern Sinhala literature did not engage sufficiently with the social and cultural predicaments of the time. Critics such as Martin Wickramasinghe and Gunadasa Amarasekera pointed this out.
Q: Do you still consider yourself as a member of the Peradeni School of literature?
No. I do not now consider myself a member of the Peradeniya School. It is true that in the earlier part of my career (1960-1970), I was a very active member of this School. However, later on, after I received advanced training in literary analysis and literary theory at the Cambridge, Pennsylvania and Hawaii universities I began to move beyond the Peradeniya School. I felt that the Peradeniya School failed to move with the times. It was stuck in the sixties. It did not engage adequately with the modern literary theory. During the last fifty years there has been a remarkable growth in literary theory with the emergence of deconstruction, post-modernism, new historicism and so on. It seems the Peradeniya School is untouched by these advances and newer theoretical positions.
Q: In this book there is a poem called Drowning. But we see a Sinhala poem by you named ‘දියෙහි ගිලුණු අයියාට’ (‘To Aiya Who Was Drowned’) which is a similar kind of experience, in your earlier poetry book Nawa Kavi Saraniya. How did the English poem come about when the same experience was written by you?
Yes, the English poem Drowning is a commentary on my very popular Sinhala poem To Aiya Who Was Drowned and the response of readers to it. Some felt it was based on a true incident which it was not. The English poem is a kind of reaction to these responses. Readers familiar with my Sinhala poem would understand better the intent of the English poem.
Q: Environment or nature play a big role in your poetry. How did that happen?
Yes, that is correct. From my early days as a poet I was deeply interested in nature – nature not as something given but as a human creation. I find this phenomenon fascinating and many of my poems deal with this theme. This has, of course, metaphysical implications that invest the poems with a greater weight of meaning. The interface between nature and humans presents myriad possibilities for poets.
Q: In this poetry book we feel a scent of Sri Lankan, not American. Why?
Many of my poems deal with my childhood experiences growing up in a remote village in the North Western province of Sri Lanka. My deepest and most memorable experiences are connected to these childhood experiences. Therefore, it is hardly surprising that my poetry bears the imprint of Sri Lankan culture. I have written some poems dealing with my experiences in America. But the bulk of my poems exude what you call a Sri Lankan scent.
Q: What is your definition of poetry? What is your advice to aspiring poets?
It is difficult to define poetry. Any attempt to do so would result in a partial, not a total characterization of this very important medium of expression. I see poetry as a feat of language, a triumph of language. Two definitions of poetry, incomplete as they are, have made a deep impression on my sensibility. The first is by Coleridge who says poetry is the best words in the best order. The second is by the American poet Robert Frost who says a complete poem is one where the emotion has found its thought and thought has found the words.
As for the second part of your question, I would recommend aspiring poets to read as widely as possible both modern and classical works from the east and the west. A careful reading of outstanding poetry would have the effect of sharpening one’s poetic sensibility. Good reading is a pre-requisite for good writing.
Q: What are the reader’s responses to The Kingfisher so far? Especially, by your American colleagues?
The response to my collection of poetry The Kingfisher has been extremely positive and encouraging. Critics such as Lakshmi de Silva, Namel Weeamuni, Sunil Govinnage, Dilshan Boange, Sachitra Mahendra, Ranga Chandrarathne have commented on it with great insight. The response to the book in America has been equally positive and gratifying.
Q: Your recent Sinhala book on poetry, which is a co-authored book, is ‘විරිත හා අරුත’ (Meter and Meaning). How did this book come about?
I co-authored Viritha ha Arutha (Meter and Meaning) with Srinath Ganewatte, the leader of Hela Havula. He is an expert in Sinhala, Sanskrit, and Prakrit prosody. It is interesting to note that he and I come from two different academic traditions, but both are profoundly interested in the functionality of meter in poetry. Our aim was to highlight the vital interconnections between meter and meaning. Our efforts have proved to be successful, judging by the laudatory comments we have received. For example, Gunadasa Amarasekera thinks very highly of our book. According to him it fills a vital gap in Sinhala critical analysis.
Q: Though the meter in Sinhala poetry is such a wide spanned field, you present it here in just 144 pages?
Yes, ours is a very compact book that deals with certain important theoretical issues on the intersection of meter and meaning in poetry. The concept of meter is capacious and many-sided. Our aim was not to chart the growth of meter in Sinhala literature in which case it would have had to be a much longer work. Our aim was much more limited and specific, but we think it is extremely important – to discuss the role of meter in poetry in the light of the paradigm shift in prosody discernible in the works of scholars such as Alan Holder.
Q: Do you think meter poetry is better than non-meter poetry or free verse?
No, one cannot make a categorical statement like that. There are excellent poems written according to meter. Equally, there are indubitably successful free verse poems as evidenced in the work of poets such as Walt Whitman and D.H. Lawrence. Meter is a crucial element in poetry. Some thinkers such as the Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben have argued that meter is the defining characteristic of poetry because it promotes enjambment. Not everyone agrees with this proposition. In our book, that is why we chose to devote an entire chapter to Agamben’s thinking on the subject.
Q: I believe, this book indirectly looks down upon the present day free verse or Nisandesa and highlights the Sinhala classical poetry and ‘Poem of Colombo era’ (කොළඹ කවිය). Do you agree?
No, it is not an attempt to look down upon free verse. On the contrary ours is an attempt to preserve the integrity and importance of free verse by pointing out the deep discipline and imagination needed to compose free verse. Unfortunately, chopped up prose often passes for free verse in Sinhala. Free verse needs great self-discipline. Robert Frost said that free verse is like playing tennis with the net down. T.S. Eliot claimed that no verse is free for a man who wants to do a good job. I have a deep interest in free verse. After all, I am a pioneer in the free verse movement, I was a co-editor of the Free Verse (Nisandasa) magazine and I continue to write free verse both in Sinhala and English. My attempt is to underline the fact that free verse, if it is to succeed, needs discipline and great imaginative power.
Q: What are your new literary endeavours? Are you working on a new book?
At present I am working on two projects which will, I hope, end up in two books. The first is a book in English on Asian theories of communication. Second, I am writing a book in Sinhala on literary criticism that deals with the newer developments of literary theory. In addition, I continue to write poems both in Sinhala and English.