“Those Mother and Child Moments” – A Mother’s Day reflection -By Niranjan Selvadurai
Mother’s Day is a time to celebrate the unique and irreplaceable bond between a mother and her child. Remembering those wonderful and poignant moments spent together evokes feelings of nostalgia and brings back fond memories of laughter, love, and shared experiences.
Sri Lankan author and poet Sri Chandrarathne Manawasinghe, immortalized a mother and child moment is his Sinhala song “Monawada amme akuru jathiyak.” This song was first recorded as a “gramophone record,” during the 1950s. The song captures a conversation between a mother and her little son. The son in his innocence seeks explanations to delightful observations in nature. The mother responds with much imagination and poise.
This conversation should not be limited to those who comprehend Sinhala verse. This is my attempt to provide a universal poetic interpretation of this magical conversation, to English readers. May you relive your own beautiful “mother and child” moment.
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Let this be in memory and appreciation of all mothers who showed the way to their children, including my own.
Who wrote on those flowers?
What are those letters mother?
So daintily printed on each flower
Who writes them mother?
In such pretty lines of many a colour
Of wonderful happening in the moon lit wood
You do not know my dear little son
When wise sages preach, how to do good
By forest angels this writing is done
To flowers from where do colours come?
Such beautiful shades we have none
Mother, mother tell me how?
I cannot not follow anything now!
When sun rises and when sun sets
Colourful clouds paint our sky
The dye from there, a flower gets
Such things son, happen on the sly
Mother, mother those little birds
Keep glancing at these words
Their excited chirp while speaking
Suggests they know the meaning
My sweet little son you are right
Bird songs give much delight
In different tunes what is said
Is recorded on each petal head
Flowers above and flowers below
And see little birds flying, galore
Why isn’t this observed every day?
Where do flowers and birds go-way?
During the life of our great sage
Nature’s beauty prevailed my son
Humans, animals and even foliage
All rejoiced together as one
Mother when I was saying my prayers
The great sage glanced down at flowers
Did you watch him calmly smiling?
As he recalls his past teaching
Niranjan Selvadurai
