Is death so sad and birth so joyous;
does birth give mirth, and death just pain?
yet,
in birth and death, contrasts I see,
for one does cry, others do smile.
One’s misery is another’s mirth;
victory for one is defeat for another.
The born does cry; his dad does smile;
her mom does cry while the dead does smile.
In a naming ceremony,
a man first cried, and then he smiled;
a message one received,
which made her smile,
yet soon she cried.
A reality
in such contradictions
is
one comes alone; s/he suffers alone;
s/he cries alone, and s/he goes alone.
ප්‍රිති විරෝධතා
විපත දුකක් ලු,
උපත සැපක් ලු.
එකෙක් හඬයි,
කොක් හඬළයි.
එකෙක්ගෙ දුක
අනෙකගෙ සැප
එකෙකුට ජය
අනෙකට ……?
උපන් එකා අඬයි
උගේ පියා …..?
මවක් වැරෙන් අඬත්
මැරුණු එකී ….?
නම් දුන් මගුලේ
අති පණ්ඩිතයෙක්
මඳ හස නන්වා
ඉකි බිඳ ඇඬුවා.
අසා විපත මයිලනුවන්
මහ හයියෙන් කොක් හඬ දී
තත්පරයක් ගිය සැනෙකින්
ඒ උන්දැම විලාප දෙයි.
අරුම – පුදුම, සංසාරේ
මට දැනෙනා ඇත්ත තමයි
අයෙක් මෙහෙට තනියම එයි,
තනියම මර ළතෝනි දෙයි,
මොහොතක් මෙහි රැඟුම් රඟා,
තනියම හැර යන්නට යයි.
නි.රණවීර (A translation to “Contradictions” in Love, Lust & Dust (2019).
Copyright © August 3, 2018, Newton Ranaweera
Image source: Pixabay
Love philosophy and poetry when they go hand in hand, which is the case here. This piece is deeply existentialist. I like how you deal with the two sides of the same coin with all the contraditions that form part of human existence. Also, I like the final powerful and clear message: We walk alone in life. We also die alone. We can only accompany a person in their joy and pain, but that person is still walking alone toward death since the moment of birth. That slightly reminds me of Heidegger’s philosophy and the existentialists. Here is again another contradiction: You accompany someone holding their hand until they die and yet the person is alone at the same time. However, although we walk alone in life I consider the accompaniment essential. Otherwise it would be even worse. I like the double rhyme “does birth give mirth”. These lines are very beautiful:
“One’s misery is another’s mirth;
victory for one is defeat for another.
The born does cry; his dad does smile;
her mom does cry while the dead does smile.”
“
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Thank you, Marta, for this amazingly great comment!! Thank you for reading it and writing such a detailed, encouraging comment. Also, I would agree with your comment that if we were left without any accompaniment, our miseries would be far worse!! 🙂
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The conundrum called life contained in verse.
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Thank you very much, Punam!! 🙂
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This is so well written. Indeed what is joy to one, is sorrow to another.
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Thank you very much for this great comment! 🙂
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Beautiful philosophy
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Thank you very much for your read and comment!! 🙂
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My pleasure
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You are welcome!! 🙂
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…
……j
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Wow!👍
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Thank you, Sona!! 🙂
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Reblogged this on Alessandria today.
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Thank you for reblogging this on Alessanria today! 🙂
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