Poems of J. P. De Fonseka - II

MOTHER AND DAUGHTER IN CEYLON

St. Anne doth keep a shrine beside the sea, 
A track of arid sands surrounds her home;
St. Mary, ‘mid a forest dense is she
Where glint-eyed leopards sometimes prowl and roam.
Here, mother fair and daughter fairer still
From old have kept some heaven-appointed tryst;
Here did His kingdom come, was done His will,
And hallowed was the name of gentle Christ.
And here from old they’ve wrought some wondrous deeds.
A-forest one, the other ‘mid her sands;
The one, she bartered Heaven away for beads,
The other gifteth Earth to folded hands.
Mother of our Lady, keep your empery;
Mother of our Lord, be mother unto me.

OUR LADY OF MADHU

Queen of heaven’s saints and angels, Queen of every realm of God
Queen of the sun and moon and of the stars in ways untrod,
Deign receive our faithful homage, deign, O, deign to be Queen of all our hearths and homesteads,
Queen of this Pearl of the Sea.

Queen of the winds and of the cloudlands, Queen of earth and of the sea,
Queen of snows and of the sunshine, forest dense and grot and tree.
Reign over us ‘mid palm and fragrance, reign anew and ever be,
Queen of all our hearts’ emotions, Queen of this Pearl of the Sea.

Queen of Goodness and Beauty, Queen t-f spotless Purity,
Queen of humble Wisdom, thou, and Queen of soft-eyed Charity,
O, how tenderly and meekly should we own thee, crowning thee,
Queen of this fair Orient island, Queen of this Pearl of the Sea.

Uno, U Don't

Uno
Unesco
Unrra
U all hunger for Unity,
Unaware of universality,
U may wonder (we don’t) why U are unsteady,
Unsound, unstable and unready.
U should lever up your little syntagma
Upon a bit of creed-and-dogma.
(U mayn’t like it, which is a pity;
U lose thereby the grip-fix of unanimity)
U can’t understand how a symbolum can unite,
Unlike the milk-and-water slogans U recite;
Unitrinoque,
Unigenito,
Unam Sanctam,
Unam cum Papa Nostro,
Unus Dominus, Una Fides,
Unus Pastor, Unum Ovile.
U have only to call out thus and thus;
Universal consent tells us U it means us.
Up to now solidarity (so U call it) is wanting to U.
U may yet try, anyhow, can’t U ?
U may stand to gain by doing so,
U know !
                                                                                                                 {Aquinas 1947)

.

Epiphany in Ceylon

Behold the lowly palm-thatch’d stall,
      And roof astreak with gold;
The oxen come from Point de Galle
      And kneel as those of old.

With stuffs made in Trincomalie
      The Child lies swathed about;
And Jaffna that is northerly
      The midnight Mass sings out.

And seventy thousand men who live
      In mild Negombo breeze,
Hear the sweet chant and, rising, view
      The lode-star through their trees1

And in the City of Ninety Kings2
      Now old and lone and wild,
Some eyes like Simeon’s leave all things
      To gaze upon the Child.

And bearing gifts the Kings ride down,
      Three Kings of Kandy’s line;3
With gold and gems they seek the town
      Quiet ‘neath its starry sign.

Scions of Royal Sun and Moon,
      Sprung from the Epic Age,
Would rather beg a humble boon
      Than speak as King and Sage.

With them a courtly chivalry
      Of Prince and Warrior Kin;
Uparaj, Eparaj, Pattabendi,
      Don, Dona in palanquin4

So too, high Servitors of State,
      Adigar and Nilame press;
Dissawe, Mantri, Magistrate,
      Kneel to a Child’s caress5

O Babe of God, divinely wise,
      Bless man and bird and beast,
And fruit and grain, and seed and spice;
      The greatest things and least.

And bless and smile again as when,
      O Heavenly Innocence,
They brought their gold, those Orient men.
      And myrrh and frankincense,

The blessing speeds from home to home
      From coast to Korle town;
From Pedro’s point to Dondra’s foam
      God’s Peace is wafted down.

Lo, past that high Epiphany,
      The Babe’s asleep in crib
Hush, Lanka or Taprobane,
      Ceilao or Serendib6

    1. 70,000 of the Kaurava or Kuru clans, old Aryan-Kshattriya or Warrior’ Folk of India, now numbered among the Sinhalese, were in a body made adherents of the Faith by St. Francis Xavier.
    2. The City of Ninety Kings is Anuradhapura, the most famous city of the Sinhalese Kings, now in ruins.
    3. The Kings of Kandy were the last of the Sinhalese Royal Houses. The last King surrendered to the British in 1815.
    4. Uparaj is Sub-King,—Eparaj is Viceroy. Pattabendi is a Royal Paramount Chief whose special insignia consisted of a gold thread bound round the forehead,—Don, Dona, the old Portuguese titles of nobility which were often bestowed by them on the Sinhalese and meant Lord and Lady.
    5. Adigar is Prime Minister,—Nilame is Minister.—Dissawe is an administrative officer,—Mantri is a Person of Rank.
    6. Lanka, Taprobane, Serendib, Ceilao, are historic names for Ceylon.

The Fulness of the Time

‘When the fulness of the time was come, God sent his Son,
made of a woman, made under the Law.’

— Gal. iv., 4.

The ages waited and the aeons passed,
The centuries desired, the epochs yearned:
Hoar patriarchs and seers their visions cast
To one divine event their faces turned;

         And every coast and every clime
         Hoped for the fulness of the time.

There was no pomp of Kings in Israel,
When high fruition crowned their age-long quest.
In swaddling clothes there lies Emmanuel,
PUER NOBIS NATUS EST, ET FILIUS DATUS EST.

         Sing then His lauds, ring then His prime
         To mark the fulness of the time.

Rule from Thy crib this earth, O Adonai,
O Babe, O Heir to all Creation’s throne.
Let joyous Mary sing the lullaby,
And Angels quire at terce and sext and none.

         But haste Thee, Sweet, redeem, our slime,
         Lord, in the fulness of the time.