Darkness was falling on Mt. Lavinia Hotel and clouds were sailing across the sky from the East to the West.
Absorbed by Malinda Seneviratne’s profound knowledge and poetic language, I felt myself being dragged into his vibrant world of literature.The grating of the iron wheels and the distant hooting of a train at the Mt. Lavinia station brought me back to the real world from Malinda’s world of rich literature.
Malinda Seneviratne came to be known as a poet, writer, critique, translator, columnist, journalist and political commentator. In a word, he is multifaceted. Surprisingly, his simple lifestyle and high-minded thinking are testaments to his insight into the vanity of the materialistic world.
Malinda Seneviratne came to be known as a poet, writer, critique, translator, columnist, journalist and political commentator. In a word, he is multifaceted. Surprisingly, his simple lifestyle and high-minded thinking are testaments to his insight into the vanity of the materialistic world.
Born in Colombo to Gamini Seneviratne and Indrani Seneviratne, Malinda grew up as the second child in the family. His elder brother is Arjuna and younger sister, Ruvani is an acclaimed novelist in the United States. Both Gamini Seneviratne and Indrani Seneviratne were English Honours graduates from the university of Peradeniya. Malinda’s father Gamini Seneviratne is a poet and has published a collection of poetry.
His mother, Indrani was an English literature teacher by profession, who paved the way for thousands of students at various schools including Royal College, Colombo.
Malinda had his education at Royal College and had garnered popularity among Royalists as a talented sportsman. For instance, he had captained the school chess team in 1983 and Royal won the National Championship in 1983 under his leadership.
He also distinguished himself in his academic activities. Malinda pursued his Advanced Level studies in the Maths stream. However, he switched his A/L subjects to Arts later and got admission to the University of Peradeniya. He took me down memory lane to his amazing childhood and family.
“There was no ‘Must’ in our home. No one insisted us to do this and that. I switched my A/L subjects to arts after sitting for my A/L exam in the Maths stream. One day my father asked me why I had not switched the subjects earlier. So, I said that my mother wanted me to face the exam first. Then, my father said, “Why didn’t you ask me?”
This was the environment where Malinda grew up. Displaying his extraordinary performances both in academic and extracurricular activities, he got selected to an exchange program at Carleton College, Minnesota for a Trimester. Regrettably, as a result of the violence in the country at that time, all universities were closed. Then, Malinda decided to apply for scholarships to study in the US. He was selected for Harvard University in December 1988. Upon the completion of his Bachelor’s Degree, he returned to Sri Lanka in 1991.
Later, he held the position of Editor at the Agrarian Research and Training Institute in March 1993. As time flew by, with the intention of pursuing his higher studies, Malinda applied for the University of California’s School of Urban and Regional Planning in 1994. Miraculously, he was selected to the university. Later, he moved to Cornell University, to read for his PhD.
As a journalist
Malinda unfurled the sails for a long voyage as a journalist after his return from Cornell university in October 2000. He received an opportunity to join the ‘Sunday Island’ newspaper. However, he did not continue working with the ‘Sunday Island’ and left over a dispute with some journalists attached to its Sinhala paper, the ‘Divaina’ in 2004.
Unstoppable and unshaken, Malinda joined Phoenix Advertising upon an invitation from its Chairman, Irvin Weerackody. In 2006 he was hired as the Deputy Features Editor and Editorial Writer at ‘The Nation’ upon an invitation by the founder CEO of Rivira Media Corporation. As if through a miracle of his destiny, Malinda received another golden opportunity to hold the position of the assistant consultant director of the Secretariat for Coordinating the Peace Process for three months in 2007 and as the consultant director of the Special Media Unit at the Government Information Department from November 2007 to November 2008. Significantly, Malinda’s long and vibrant journey as an influential journalist began to bear fruit between 2007 and 2011. He penned 14 articles a week to six newspapers such as the ‘Rivira’, the ‘Resa’, the ‘Mavu Bima’, the ‘Divayina’, the ‘Daily Mirror’ and the ‘Daily News’.
Later he assumed the duties as the Chief Editor at the ‘Nation’ newspaper. During his tenure, he enriched its columns and pages with insightful contents and elevated the quality of the newspaper.
Creative writing
“Creative writing is a word play. It is an Imaginative and flowery use of language. Words have multiple meanings. Some combinations of words convey something more powerfully than the other combination of words. Words can be lyrical, musical and poetic. If you take poetry, you convey a lot of things with few words. If you are writing an essay, you have enough freedom. It is poetic license. We use a little poetic license in creative writing,” noted Malinda.
In 1993 Malinda Seneviratne’s maiden newspaper article on the 20th anniversary of Peblo Neruda’s death appeared in the ‘Sunday Island’. He had written poems to the school magazine as well. If you delve into the poet Malinda’s life, it is crystal clear that his father was the biggest source of inspiration for Malinda to write poems. It was his father who planted the seed of poetry in his mind at his tender age.
“One day my father played a tune on piano and asked me to explain the meaning of the tune. So, he said, “why don’t you write a poem on the tune?” Malinda awakened his memories.
Malinda’s mother who was an English literature teacher, had created the atmosphere for him to thrive in the world of literature by giving great literary creations including Russian novels written by Alexander Pushkin.This is how she gave him words. In addition to books, she had given Malinda enough freedom and liberation and had not insisted him to do anything.
As a poet
Gifted with words, as if by birth-right, Malinda carries the legacy of his father’s pen. No wonder that Malindais a colossus in the sphere of Sri Lankan English literature. His maiden poetry collection Epistles was published in 1999. The most prestigious award that one can win in creative English writing is none other than theGratiaen Award. Malinda’s “Edges” went on to win the Gratiaen Award, displaying his inborn skills. He has submitted his poetry collections in manuscript form on six occasions between 2007 and 2023 and five of his collections were shortlisted for the Gratiaen Award. The shortlisted creations were ‘Threads’ in 2007, ‘The Underside of Silence’ in 2008, ‘Some texts are made of leaves’ in 2011, ‘Open Words are for Love Letting’ in 2012, and ‘Edges’ in 2013. Not only that, Malinda has been immortalized in gold not only as a poet but also as a translator.
He has translated Sinhala literary creations including Mahinda Prasad Masibula’s ‘Senkottan’ (Indelible), Simon Navagaththegama’s ‘Sansaaraaranyaye Dadayakkaraya’, which enabled him to win the H.A.I. Gunatilleke Award. Interestingly, he has started translating Mahagama Sekara’s Prabuddha upon the request of Mahagama Sekara’s son. When asked about the story behind the English translation of ‘Sansaaraaranyaye Dadayakkaraya’ (The hunter in the wilderness of Samsara), he unfolded the inspirational story.
“I first read the novel in 1998, when I was a student at Cornell University, NY. That semester I took a class with Geoffrey Waite of the German Studies Department. It was titled ‘Marx, Nietzsche and Freud’. As graduate students, we were required to maintain a journal, commenting on the lecture and assigned literature.
While jotting down my weekly journal entry I realized that a passage from Simon Navagaththegama’s ‘Sansaaraaranyaye Dadayakkaraya’ captured in pithy terms the point I was trying to make. Geoff didn’t know Sinhala.
“I translated the paragraph. It was a pleasurable exercise and I thought I would try my hand at translating the entire book. It was tough throughout. Simon’s lines have several layers of meaning and I found that I would be lucky to get more than one of these down in English. More often than not I would end up adding my own ‘layer’.
“It was, as one would expect, a transliteration. I translated two chapters and emailed them to my friend Liyanage Amarakeerthi who at the time was reading for his doctorate at the University of Wisconsin (Madison).
“He strongly encouraged me to complete the translation. I did.Upon returning to Sri Lanka in 2000, I gave the manuscript to the author, along with a soft copy. He liked it and urged me to publish it.
“I said it needed to be ‘cleaned up’. Time passed. Simon lost the only soft copy I had and more than half the manuscript. He returned what was left and I duly lost it too. I will always regret the fact that he will not see this. This re-transliteration comes more than a decade after the first attempt. It will be different, I know. Hopefully it would do more justice to the original than the first.”
As a father
A poet, guiding the whole world on the right path and instilling virtues in human hearts, scatters light and sows the seeds of love like a father. If such a poet becomes the father of two daughters, you will marvel at how Mother Nature could find space in a single heart for a sea of love.
“I am not the best father or the perfect father. But I try to be the perfect father that I can be. The greatest fulfillment in my life is being a father of two girls, Mitsandi, Dayadi. One day they will have to move to different cities, even though we live together under one roof. It is piyehivippayogodukkho.
Advice for budding writers
“Read and write.Whether it is a novel, a short story, a biography, a newspaper article, a lobby column or an advertising copy, there are fascinating things for you to learn. Reading is the most important element. In addition to reading, you should maintain a journal.
You can write down something you heard, something you read, something you questioned, something you felt or something you observed. Writing things down clarifies a lot of things in your mind. So, when you start writing a short story, a poem or a novel, they will come to your mind. The best writers have amazing diaries. For instance, diaries of Albert Camus.
Be a good observer. You have to observe people, situations, and incidents. Keep your eyes and ears open and your mind free.”Malinda stressed. As the sunset, wisps of dark clouds covered the entire sky. With the waves of smiles and happiness on their faces, people walked to their homes.
With just a sip of water from the oozing spring of literature, I got on the ‘Ruhunu Kumari’ express train.
