Lawyer, poet and lyricist – rare combination

His passion was to become a journalist. He went to England to follow a one-year course and return to Sri Lanka. That was 40+ years ago. He was then a 25-year-old lad. By then he had written a book of poems in Sinhala which received favourable comments from critics.  He changed course and became a lawyer, not a journalist. Then moved to Australia.

Now a mature adult, Maitri Panagoda has been a practising lawyer, an academic in the School of Law in the University of Notre Dame, composing poems during his spare time and trying his hand in writing lyrics. The mild-mannered individual has been successful in his endeavours. He is a University Professor and recently he won recognition by the Australian Government when he was conferred the title ‘Order of Australia’ awarded to outstanding members of the community.

After being silent for some time in his creative efforts, he recently staged a comeback with the release of a book of poems titled ‘Hada Mumunana Handa’ – his second publication (the first was ‘Vasantha Udanayak Nova’ released in 1975), and a CD titled ‘Mahamera Se’. Prior to the recent launch of these in Sydney, he launched them in Sri Lanka.

The well-organised launch in Sydney had a good mix – recorded material from the Colombo launch, a few of the numbers sung by Sri Lankans domiciled in Australia and a talk on Maitri’s latest creative efforts. The presenter did a fine job with short introductions rather than lengthy ‘lectures’ which most presenters are fond of. 

The singers at this end showed that their talent is not second to most of the singers we are used to hear back in Sri Lanka. A batch of kids singing numbers specially composed by Maitri (he released a children’s songs CD a couple of year back), proved how Australia-born little ones pick up Sinhala. Parents obviously speak Sinhala at home and send them to Sinhala classes. 

The CD (really dual CDs with 25 of Maitri’s compositions) shows the acceptance of Maitri’s lyrics by the leading singers in Sri Lanka – a clear sign of their satisfaction on his ability to produce meaningful songs. Among the singers are Pandith Amaradeva, Nanda Malini, Victor Ratnayake, Sanath Nandasiri, Sunil Edirisinghe, Jagath Wickremasinghe, Rohana Siriwardena, Nelu Adikari, T.M. Jayaratne and Neela Wickemasinghe. 

Upul Mahen leads the list of singers here. Among others are Justin Gallage, Lalith Kalupahana, Duleep Jayakody, Aruna and Tamara Kannangara. Rohana Weerasinghe and Indrajith Mirihana (from Australia) have provided music for most of the songs. 

Maitri’s skill in highlighting nature, love and affection of parents, rural setting, birds and bees are shown in both his lyrics and poems.  The influence of the village environment where he was born and bred is clearly visible. So is the simple language he uses. Just a single poem shows what a keen observer he is of what goes on around. On a very warm day he sees a kid drinking water from a roadside pipe down Narahenpita road at noon and is moved to compose a poem addressing the girl ‘Obada diyaniyaki’ (You are also a daughter). 

‘Abhiyaachanayak’ (Appeal) is a plea by a poor female who has no money to pay a lawyer in a case where her husband fought a case for seven years against the neighbour on a boundary fence. The husband is now dead, she has pawned the daughter’s gold necklace to pay the lawyer and appeals to him to close the case. 

These are just two of his creative efforts with the pen I was impressed with. There are many more.