Avaaz
Chapter Two
Guest edited by Gaya Nagahawatta
Island Tongues: The Coexisting Literary Voices of Sri Lanka
Friends, I’m delighted to present the second instalment of Avaaz, featuring these literary offerings from Sri Lanka in our own languages. This time, alongside Urdu and Majhi Punjabi, I’ve also translated one poem into Shahpuri. The Majhi translation is by Rabia Malik, while the rest are my own.
All the introductions below, as well as the translations from Sinhala, are by the writer and translator Gaya Nagahawatta, to whom I am deeply grateful for her collaboration. Without exaggeration, this instalment would not have been possible without the generous time and knowledge she devoted to it.
– Hammad Rind
This compilation explores contemporary Sri Lankan literature originally written in Sinhala and Tamil, the island’s two national (and official) languages.
To give you some history, Sinhala (also called Sinhalese) is an Indo-Aryan language with its early forms dating back to the third century BCE. It is the first language of the Sinhala people of Sri Lanka. Tamil belongs to the Dravidian language family, and is one of the world’s longest surviving classical languages. The Sinhala script evolved from ancient Brahmi, as did the Tamil script. Sinhala and Tamil are both diglossic languages, meaning there are distinct differences in the written and spoken varieties of the language.
The early forms of both languages originated in the Indian subcontinent, but their isolation in the island of Sri Lanka has resulted in the development of distinct features unique to Sinhala as a whole, and also in Sri Lanka Tamil and its local dialects. Coexisting for centuries within the confines of the island, Sinhala and Tamil have influenced each other, borrowing and adapting words and even grammatical features.
The works that are represented here are by six contemporary Sinhala and Tamil writers based in Sri Lanka. They are gathered from diverse sources, as noted alongside each piece. I am grateful to all the writers and translators (especially for Tamil) who readily provided these to be translated to selected Pakistani languages. All Tamil content was read by me only in English translation, and the introductions to the Tamil writers have been compiled from individually shared information.
Regional translation and collaboration is always much desired, and I am greatly indebted to Hammad Rind for presenting Sri Lankan writing with this wonderful opportunity to reach a much broader readership within our subcontinent.
– Gaya Nagahawatta
The Writers
Packiyanathan Ahilan
Packiyanathan Ahilan (b. 1970) is a Senior Lecturer in Art History at the Department of Fine Arts, University of Jaffna. He holds a PhD from Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi, and an MA from the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda. He has published four collections of poetry and writes about visual art, theatre, cultural politics, and minority heritage practices. Ahilan’s poetry is known for a minimalist style that captures the nuances of decades of conflict in Northern and Eastern Sri Lanka.
The poem included in this edition of the column is based on the English translation (titled ‘The Defeated II’ written in 2013) by Geetha Sukumaran, included in Then There Were No Witnesses (2018).
Eric Illayapparachchi
Eric Illayapparachchi (b. 1954) is a key contemporary Sri Lankan writer whose work spans fiction, poetry, art criticism, and cultural commentary. He is the author of well over thirty books and the recipient of twenty-two national literary awards. He wrote the opera Agni for a Sri Lankan maestro and adapted Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis to the screen. He has also written treatises on Rabindranath Tagore and Saadat Hasan Manto.
The poem included in this column is from the collection Vesathuru Sirithak (A Tale of King Vesathuru, 1996), and explores the impulse to migrate and the nostalgia for the lost homeland.
Nillanthan
Nillanthan (b. 1970) is a Tamil poet, an artist and a political analyst who lives and works in Jaffna, in the north of Sri Lanka. He has published five collections of poetry in Tamil and his artwork has been exhibited widely across the sub-continent. Nillanthan was a witness to the final days of the civil war in Sri Lanka, mid 2009.
Nillanthan’s poem recalls that dark moment in Sri Lankan history, when the decades of conflict in northern and eastern Sri Lanka violently ended on the beaches of Mullivaikkal. It is based on an unpublished English translation ‘Mullivaikkal 2011’ by Geetha Sukumaran and Shash Trevett.
A Sankari
A Sankari (b. 1947) is the pen name of Sitralega Maunaguru, a Tamil poet, critic, feminist and activist. A crucial figure in the women’s movement in Sri Lanka since the 1970s, she has worked for organisations such as Poorani Illam which supports women affected by the civil war. During the war years she travelled around the country documenting the stories and trauma of the Tamil women she met. She was Professor of Tamil at the Eastern University in Batticaloa until 2013. She has edited four groundbreaking poetry anthologies by Tamil women including Sollatha seithigal (1986) and Uyir veli (1999).
The poem included here is based on the English translation ‘In Their Eyes’ by Sumathy Sivamohan, published in Out of Sri Lanka (2023).
Ajith Thilakasena
Ajith Thilakasena (b. 1933) is a Sinhala short story writer, poet, scriptwriter, and critic. He has published over sixteen books and received two national awards, among many other accolades. Thilakasena chose to use colloquial Sinhala in his writing, as opposed to the prescribed written form which had exclusively been considered appropriate for publication. Addressing the complexity of the Sinhala writing system, Thilakasena discussed streamlining certain practices to ease printing – a system he adopted in his own publications.
The poem included here ‘Ko?’ (‘Where?’) is from the poetry collection Mariyawa (A Gale, 2008).
Much like in his stories, here too Thilakasena captures a fleeting moment from life to give us profound insights.
Piyal Kariyawasam
Piyal Kariyawasam (b. 1971) is a Sinhala writer, theatre practitioner, and lecturer. He has published six works of fiction, staged more than five theatre productions, and written and directed films across various genres, winning over fourteen national awards for his work. Originally written in Sinhala, several of his works have appeared in English translation, with more forthcoming.
The short story reproduced for this column, ‘Uk peni suwanda’ (‘The Scent of Sugarcane Honey’), is from his latest collection of stories Ridee reyaki kalu diviyeki [Silver night black leopard, 2025] published in December 2025. Accompanying the translation is an excerpt from the Sinhala original. Written in colloquial, rural Sinhala, it examines the environmental and social impact of industrialization on remote agrarian villages.
Gaya Nagahawatta is a Sri Lankan writer, educator, and theatre practitioner. She works in both Sinhala and English. She has translated and edited acclaimed collections of stories, poetry, and plays, and has also subtitled award-winning films. She has served on state theatre and literary juries. Her extensive communications experience spans international, state, and private sector organizations. Her writing has appeared on Commonwealth Writers’ adda, Literary Shanghai, and the SAARC Journal, and in books published by Women Unlimited (India), Bloodaxe Books (UK), and leading Sri Lankan presses. She has also served as non-fiction editor for Rowayat. You can find her at kathakiyanno.org and on Instagram as @gayanagahawatta.