‘My anthology of the year was Out of Sri Lanka: Tamil, Sinhala and English poetry from Sri Lanka and its diasporas (Bloodaxe), edited by Vidyan Ravinthiran, Seni Seneviratne and Shash Trevett, which is everything an anthology should be: conscientious, archival, surprising, world-building, full of voices and lives.’ – Jeremy Noel-Tod, Times Literary Supplement (Books of the Year 2023)

‘Out of Sri Lanka’s post-1948 verse defies Anglo-American marginalizations of ‘world poetry’ and demands we encounter this rich body of work as poetry without qualifying adjectives.’ – Orla Polten, New Internationalist

'There are angry waves crashing throughout this collection, the reverberations of colonialism and imperialism, swelled into a civil war, factions and the demonising of Muslim communities, yet amid all of this, each poem is a silent dewdrop shining on the Sri Lankan diaspora. A compilation of jasmine in full bloom and honey birds by day.' - Roy McFarlane, PBS Selector, Poetry Book Society Summer Bulletin 2023, on Out of Sri Lanka

‘This expansive and exciting anthology is edited by Shash Trevett, Seni Seneviratne and Vidyan Ravinthiran… and includes poems by new poets alongside older work, some of which was previously out of print.’ - Will Mackie, New & Recent Poetry from the North, New Writing North, on Out of Sri Lanka

‘There are too many books one might pick up to mark National Poetry Day this year, with its theme of Refuge. My recommendation is one of the most important anthologies to have appeared recently: Out of Sri Lanka: Tamil, Sinhala and English Poetry from Sri Lanka and its Diasporas. It’s a huge achievement by its three editors — Vidyan Ravinthiran, Seni Seneviratne and Shash Trevett — who have placed 400 pages of poetry into an enormous gap in Anglophone literary culture.’ – Jeremy Noel-Tod, Some Flowers Soon

‘A vast range of subject matter is included, from landscape-pastoral to the horrors of conflict. Valuable not just as a collection of admirable poetry, but also as a historical record, this should be on the shelf of every library.’ – Frank Startup, The School Librarian

‘The trueness of this anthology lies not just in its celebration of Sri Lanka’s multilingual traditions, but in its recognition that poets writing about the country in various languages and from different locations can converse and, at times, speak as one.’ – Manan Kapoor, Harvard Review

‘This generous, essential anthology of “Tamil, Sinhala and English Poetry from Sri Lanka and its Diasporas” is endlessly varied, moving and enlightening … While it is, of course, focused on specific histories and experiences, the suffering and the questions it raises remain painfully resonant for the wider world at the ruinous close of 2023.’ – Simon Barraclough, Broken Sleep Books (Books of the Year 2023)

'Generously edited by Vidyan Ravinthiran, Seni Seneviratne, and Shash Trevett, this 422-page mighty anthology features over 336 poems from 138 poets, with the vast majority of them translated from Sinhala and Tamil, set alongside a good sample of poems in English [...] given that this is the first ever anthology of Sri Lankan and diasporic poetry, I'm inclined to go with its ambition and let the chorus echo through and beyond this indispensable book, a Yeatsian singing school that not only bears witness to the past and present voices from the troubled island, but might inspire what's to come.' – Kit Fan, Poetry London, on Out of Sri Lanka

'Out of Sri Lanka: Tamil, Sinhala & English Poetry from Sri Lanka & its Diasporas, edited by Vidyan Ravinthiran, Seni Seneviratne, and Shash Trevett, is an anthology that gazes at the future — at inheritance, to be more precise. Prophetic at times, the anthology has been carefully put together, not to coerce readers into believing that what comes ‘out’ of Sri Lanka is homogenous, but to display stylistic innovations of a nation that is marked by its multiculturalism, whilst simultaneously defying prefabricated geopolitical narratives that the Western-anglophone world tends to reduce most Global South works into.' – Adrija Ghosh, Wasafiri

Seni Seneviratne, a writer of English and Sri Lankan heritage published by Peepal Tree Press, with books including Wild Cinnamon and Winter Skin (2007), The Heart of It (2012), and Unknown Soldier (2019), which was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation, a National Poetry Day Choice and highly commended in the Forward Poetry Prizes 2020. She is currently working on an LGBTQ project with Sheffield Museums entitled Queering the Archive and completing her fourth collection to be published by Peepal Tree in 2023.

Shash Trevett is a Tamil from Sri Lanka who came to the UK to escape the civil war. She is a poet and a translator of Tamil poetry into English. Her pamphlet From a Borrowed Land was published in 2021 by Smith|Doorstop. Shash has been on judging panels for the PEN Translates awards and the London Book Fair, and was a Visible Communities Translator in Residence at the National Centre for Writing. Shash is a Ledbury Critic, reviewing for PN Review and the Poetry Book Society and is a Board Member of Modern Poetry in Translation.

        E = written in English
        S = translated from Sinhala
        T = translated from Tamil

     19     Introduction

Aazhiyaal (b. 1968) T
    37     Unheeded Sights
    38     Manamperis
 
Bashana Abeywardane (b. 1972) S
    39     The Window of the Present

Packiyanathan Ahilan (b. 1970) T
    40     Days of the Bunker III
    41     A Poem about Your Village and My Village
    43     Corpse No. 182
    43     Corpse No. 183. Newborn No. 02

Alari (b. 1976) T
     44     When Someone Is Killed
     44     A Lifeless Sea
     45     The Sun Wanders, Searching for Shade

Liyanage Amarakeerthi (b. 1968) S
     47     Once Upon a Foreign Country
     49     Will We Find the Strings of the Veena?
     52     A Poem’s Plea

Premini Amerasinghe (b. 1933) E
     52     The Matrimonial Column
     53     A Rustic Scene

Indran Amirthanayagam (b. 1960) E
     54     The Death Tree
     55     Not Much Art

Anar (b. 1974) T
     58     Killing a Woman
     58     Woman
     59     Zulaikha

Jean Arasanayagam (1931–2019) E
    60     The Wasp
    61     The Poet
    62     A Country at War
    63     Ancestors

Parvathi Solomons Arasanayagam (b. 1964) E
     67     Identity
     68     A Familiar Terrain
     68     Human Driftwood

Thiagarajah Arasanayagam (b. 1934) E
     69     Kappal Matha – Kayts

Ki. Pi. Aravindan (1953–2015) T
     72     Look at the Sky
     73     Directions
     74     The Night Approaches

Upekala Athukorala (b. 1986) S
     74     Snaggle tooth
     75     Some Yashodaras
     76     Crazy Woman

Avvai (b. 1965) T
     77     The Homecoming
     78     The Return

Thilakaratha Kuruvita Bandara (b. 1941) S
     80     The Gods Alarmed, Descend to Earth
     80     A Child’s Pestering

Ruwan Bandujeeva (b. 1983) S
     81     Earthworms
     82     A Tree to its Flowers
     82     A Joy – A Bliss
     82     What Answers from the Common Crows?

Briyanthy (b. 1985) T
     83     Sorrow Created and Sorrows Relieved

S. Bose (1975–2007) T
     85     My life in Books
     86     from The Veenai
     86     Now

Suresh Canagarajah (b. 1957) E
     87     Lavannya’s Twilight Bike Ride

Cheliyan (1960–2018) T
     88     Those Who Enter the Pit
     89     Untitled
     89     Merciless Ones
     90     On a Rainy Day

Cheran (b. 1960) T
     91     I Could Forget All This [1983]
     92     My Land [1981]
     94     Nandikadal [2009]
     94     Grave Song

Rienzi Crusz (1925–2017) E
     96     Song of the Immigrant
     97     Leaving – Michael-style
     98     The Elephant Who Would Be a Poet

A.P. David (b. 1964) E
     99     Fishermen

Megan Dhakshini (b. 1983) E
    100     In Lockdown
    101     21

Wimal Dissanayake (b. 1939) S
    101     Anuradhapura
    102     Strange Flowering
    103     Homecoming
    103     Anjali

Dushyanthan (b. 1964) T
    104     They Do Not Know

Patrick Fernando (1931–82) E
    106     The Fire Dance
    107     Aeneas and Dido
    108     Ballad of a River

Sandra Fernando (———) E
    109     … and in the middle
    110     Setting the Table for Dinner
    112     Shirt

Ru Freeman (b. 1967) E
    113     Erasure
    114     Loose Change
    114     In Your Hour of Need, God

Buddhadasa Galappathy (b. 1947) S
    116     I Am Not Sita
    117     Alms for King Vessantara

Kapila M. Gamage (———) S
    118     Teriyum Kokila
    119     Prayers to Konesvaran

V.V. Ganeshananthan (b. 1980) E
    121     the faithful scholar dreams of being exact
    121     from The Five-year Tongue Twisters

Yasmine Gooneratne (b. 1935) E
    123     Horoscope
    124     Peredeniya Landscape
    124     The Brave Man Who Keeps Snakes as His Pets

Sunil Govinnage (b. 1950) E
    126     The City of Light
    126     My English Verse
    127     On Becoming an Intellectual

Amali Gunasekera (b. 1971) E
    128     How to Watch a Solar Eclipse in a Bowl of Water
    129     from Beloved
    130     Peace

Dayasena Gunasinghe (1936–96) S
    131     The Blue of My Eyes

Siri Gunasinghe (1925–2017) S
    133     A Memorial
    134     The Water Buffalo
    135     Renunciation

Yvonne Gunawardena (1926–2022) E
    138     Homecoming
    138     Ancestral Voices
    139     Thoughts on a Train Journey
    140     Letter to England

Romesh Gunesekera (b. 1954) E
    141     The Big Wave
    142     Circled by Circe

Rohitha Gunetilleke (b. 1954) E
    144     Eventually
    145     Cowboys

Aparna Halpé (———) E
    146     Poson
    147     5.45 at St George

Ashley Halpé (1933–2016) E
    149     the tale of Divnuhamy
    150     all our Aprils
    151     The Second Reading

Tashyana Handy (b. 1998) E
    152     C189

Lal Hegoda (b. 1947) S
    154     I’m a Man Because You Are a River
    155     Bhikku at the Ferry

Ajith C. Herath (b. 1967) S
    156     Last Station
    157     from Seven Dreams

Vipuli Hettiarachchi (b. 1968) S
    160     We Are Women
    161     Balachandran
    161     ‘Iron Lady’

Eric Illayapparachchi (b. 1954) S
    163     The Bomb at the Rooftop Restaurant
    164     Against Colombo

Faheema Jahan (b. 1973) T
    165     The Sea’s Waters
    166     After Catastrophe

V.I.S. Jayapalan (b. 1944) T
    167     One Night in Frankfurt
    168     Hope
    169     Blue
    169     from Song of the Defeated

Ramya Jegatheesan (b. 1993) E
    172     from The Ariel Collection, Or, Colonise my tongue and laugh at the irony

A. Jesurasa (b. 1946) T
    174     Under New Shoes
    175     In Memory of the Nameless
    176     Afterwards
    176     Yet, Time Remains

Ramya Chamalie Jirasinghe (b. 1971) E
    178     Food for My Daughter
    179     On Waiting with a Friend Getting His Heart Tested

Madri Kalugala (b. 1990) E
    180     Last night I dreamed your horse had died
    181     Sundowning

Karunakaran (b. 1963) T
    182     Along That Very Road
    183     Burning Nests
    184     The Warrior Who Could Not Part from His Shadow

U. Karunatilake (———) E
    185     Letter from Boralanda
    186     Hometown

Timran Keerthi (b. 1980) S
    187     The Forgotten Book

George Keyt (1901–93) E
    189     Kandyan Village

Parakrama Kodituwakku (b. 1943) S
    195     Court Inquiry of a Revolutionary.
    196     An Unfinished Lesson
    197     Little Brother

Senerath Gonsal Korala (———) S
    199     The Song of a New Shawl

Sita Kulatunga (1930s–2014) E
    200     Pitu padam namamaham (I worship at the feet of my father)
    201     Why

Neetha Kunaratnam (b. 1976) E
    202     The Afterlife
    203     Poppy
    204     Beeline

Latha (b. 1968) T
    205     from Untitled

Sundra Lawrence (b. 1975) T
    208     Gold
    208     Rassam

Mahakavi (1927–71) T
    209     Ahalikai
    212     from Birth
    213     from Excellence

Sunanada Mahendra (b. 1938) S
    215     The Mountain

Imaad Majeed (b. 1991) E
    216     arma christi
    217     ‘keppetipola mawatha’

Sharanya Manivannan (b. 1985) E
    219     The Mothers
    220     River

Arji Manuelpillai (b. 1981) E
    221     credit card
    221     after the Sri Lankan bombing that kills 360 (after the 20-year war that killed significantly more)
    222     after being called a paki

Mishal Mazin (b. 1994) E
    223     Rajagiriya
    224     Té Kadé

Ciara Mandulee Mendis (b. 1991) E
    226     The Dancing Woman at Embekke
    227     SWOT Analysis on Marriage

Tyrrell Mendis (1934–2021) E
    228     Pivot
    228     Spring Morning

Carl Muller (1935–2019) E
    229     Deiyyo Saakki!
    233     Que sera, sera

R. Murugaiyan (1935–2009) T
    234     Variations
    236     Toil
    236     Aboard a Van

Neelaavanan (1931–75) T
    238     Sleep
    239     Murungaikaai
    240     Faster, Faster

Nilanthan (b. 1970) T
    241     End of an Age 2
    241     Kanji Song 1
    242     The Mother of Two Martyrs
    243     Pina Koorai

S. Niroshini (b. 1984) E
    244     Neruda’s Last Word(s)
    245     Period Party /
    246     Girl, Ceylon

M.A. Nuhman (b. 1944) T
    249     from Saluting Heroic Vietnam from the Corners of Our Little Village
    250     Last Evening, This Morning
    252     Buddha Murdered

Michael Ondaatje (b. 1943) E
    253     Letters & Other Worlds
    255     The Cinnamon Peeler
    257     House on a Red Cliff

S. Pathmanathan (b. 1939) T
    258     See Through
    259     A Thorn in My Flesh

Vihanga Perera (b. 1984) E
    260     The Playwright
    261     The Memory of Fragrance

Kasro Ponnuthurai (b. 1995) T
    262     Amir’s Lover

S. Porawagamage (b. 1993) E
    265     My Kinda Name
    266     The Wings
    266     The First Name

Pramil (1939–97) T
    268     The Desert
    268     (your) Name
    269     The Great Wind Tamer

Shirani Rajapakse (b. 1967) E
    269     Unwanted
    270     Chant of a Million Women

S. Rajasingham (b. 1927) T
    272     Lizards

T. Ramalingam (1933–2008) T
    273     The Future

Anne Ranasinghe (1925–2016) E
    275     Judgement
    276     At What Dark Point
    278     July 1983

Ariyawansa Ranaweera (b. 1942) S
    279     Today’s Lion
    280     The Giraffe
    281     Paintings at Gothami Vihara
    282     The Intersection

Eva Ranaweera (1924–2010) E
    283     In the Street of the Pearl Tree

Chalani Ranwala (b. 1991) E
    284     The in-betweeners

A.M. Rashmy (b. 1974) T
    285     from Songs in a Time of Confinement

Sahanika Ratnayake (b. 1989) E
    287     from Murmur
    288     from Case Study #1: Vocabulary Lesson
    289     Case Study #3: Chariot

Vidyan Ravinthiran (b. 1984) E
    290     Uncanny Valley
    291     Ceylon
    291     The Annupoorunyamal

Monica Ruwanpathirana (1947–2004) S
    293     My Grief
    293     Wife Lamenting
    294     from Your Friend She Is Woman

Pubudu Sachithanandan (b. 1980) E
    295     Anthem: The war is over

Minoli Salgado (b. 1960s) E
    297     Blood Witness
    298     Telegraph

A. Sankari (b. 1948) T
    299     Living and Dying
    300     In Their Eyes

Dipti Saravanamuttu (b. 1960) E
    301     Among the Icons
    302     Landscape Art
    304     Line Drawing
    305     Flying North in Winter

Peter Scharen (———) E
    306     Landscape
    306     Winter Lines
    307    Transitory

Mahagama Sekera (1929–76) S
    308     The Moon and New York City.
    309     No. 16
    309     No. 24
    310     See Yourself in My Poetry

Selvi (1960–91) T
    311     Summertime
    312     Raman, like Raavanan
    312     Within Me

G.B. Senanayake (1913–85) S
    314     Philosophers and Pundits

Dishani Senaratne (b. 1986) E
    316     Dreams
    316     Lament

Gamini Seneviratne (———) E
    317     Tune for Ariel
    319     Nangi
    319     Arjuna

Malinda Seneviratne (b. 1965) E
    320     Nangi
    321     Oil-bullets
    321     Mitsi

Seni Seneviratne (b. 1951) E
    322     Dear Mum
    323     Opus Tesselatum
    324     Slave Lodge, Cape Town

Natchathiran Sevvinthiyan (b. 1974) T
    326     Until My Wineglass Was Empty
    326     Kokkatticholai 166

Sharmila Seyyid (b. 1982) T
    327     Three Dreams
    328     Keys to an Empty Home
    329     Fire

Alfreda de Silva (1930–2001) E
    330     Grassfields in Sunlight
    331     Cormorants and Children
    331     The End of Something
    332     Kotmale

Lakshmi de Silva (b. 1936) E
    333     Tangalla, 9th April 1971
    334     Addition and Subtraction

S.J. Sindu (b. 1987) E
    335     Gods in the Surf
    335     For Sale: 1997 Christmas Barbie, $600

Regi Siriwardena (1922–2004) E
    337     Birthday Apology and Apologia
    340     Colonial Cameo
    340     To the Muse of Insomnia

Shirani Situnayake (b. 1957) E
    341     Beginnings

Shanmugam Sivalingam (1936–2012) T
    342     Nowadays
    342     Unsung Songs
    343     In Memory of Our Songs

Sumathy Sivamohan (b. 1959) E
    345     on reading the astonishing novel ‘mm’ by shoba shakthi

S. Sivaramani (1968–91) T
    347     Oppressed by Nights of War
    348     [Untitled]

S. Sivasegaram (b. 1942) T
    350     from Faces of War

Solaikili (b. 1957) T
    353     The Story of a Golden River
    354     A Refugee Poet Talking to the Moon

Isuru Chamara Somaweera (b. 1981) S
    355     The Little Fellow
    356     My Pillow Is Wet
    357     Mother’s Actress Friend
    357     The Meaning of Life.

Sandaresee Sudusinghe (b. 1984) S
    358     from Gini Wadunu Piyapath

Pireeni Sundaralingam (b. 1977) E
    360     Lot’s Wives
    361     Fugue
    362     Times Two

Yasmin V. Tambiah (b. 1961) E
    364     The Civil War
    365     Sandalwood

M.J.T. Tambimuttu (1915–83) E
    366     My Country, My Village

Theepachelvan (b. 1983) T
    369     The Lost Kitten
    370     A Friend Stands Behind Me
    371     An Unpublished Poem

Ajith Thilakasena (b. 1933) S
    371     Where
    372     I do not know if…

Thiru Thirukkumaran (b. 1978) T
    373     Resurrection
    374     This Is How the Buddha Disappeared
    375     A Detached Feather

Thirumavalavan (1955–2015) T
    376     Mullaitivu
    376     Living

Shash Trevett (b. 1974) E
    377     Uduvil, Nightfall
    378     The Sinhala Only Act, 1956
    379     My Grandfather’s House

Urvasi (b. 1956) T
    380     Do You Understand?
    381     Why Must We Wait?

Vivimarie Vanderpoorten (———) E
    382     Cadaver
    383     Traditional
    384     Diplomatic

S. Vilvaratnam (1950–2006) E
    385     There Was a Time
    386     The Echo of Moonlight

S. Vinothini (b. 1969) T
    388     The Mask Maker
    389     The Night

Nandana Weerasinghe (———) S
    390     The Moon-shadow
    390     Full Moon on a Dewdrop.
    391     Kalidasa and the Moon
    392     Something Square-shaped

Rushika Wick (b. 1973) E
    393     Hair
    393     Ultramarine Pink PV15
    394     Yellow Phone in the Yellow House

Illavalai Wijayendran (b. 1961) T
    395     To Those Who Bear Sticks
    395     The Missing Children
    396     The Veenai and the Sword

Ratna Sri Wijesinghe (b. 1953) S
    397     Two Teardrops
    398     from The Motherless Two

Lakdasa Wikkramasinha (1941–78) E
    400     Don’t Talk to Me about Matisse
    400     The Flames, 1972
    401     Luis de Camoes
    402     Middle

Richard de Zoysa (1958–90) E
    402     Animal Crackers
    404     Corporation Love Song (1)
    405     [as Angela de Silva] Gajagavannama
    406     The Poet


    409     Translators
    415     Acknowledgements