The Hill Myna Messenger

In this reflection, Ven. Samitha lingers with a single stanza from the Sinhala poem The Hill Myna Messenger. By slowing down with just a few lines, he invites us into the gentle work of contemplative reading. Poetry, he reminds us, is not something to be solved for meaning, but a doorway—each verse casting light, allowing the world to be seen anew.

Ven. Samitha

The Hill Myna Messenger

A fence of arecas with their fruits and flowers,

a woman’s necklace of corals, bright emeralds, and pearls,

surrounds the village,

hanging on her neck.

Though there’s no time for fun

the sight will entice you,

so glance at Velandagoda, even stay a bit

but be sure to go on your way.

“For me, this is the most captivating description among all of Totagamuve Shri Rahula’s descriptions of nature. What comes in this verse is a description of a village called “Velandagoda.” For the poet, the most beautiful thing he sees in relation to this village is the row of marvelous areca nut trees which seems like a fence and functions as a border for the village. Then the poet sees the village as a woman and that the row of areca nut trees is like a necklace that she is wearing around her neck. And, most charmingly, that necklace is made of various kinds of jewels such as emeralds, corals, pearls, and beads. What are these different types of jewels in that necklace? It is all about the different stages of the fruits of that tree-fence and comparing them to all those jewels. Before they start to bear fruits, as they come into flower, they are like beads; at the very beginning when the flowers produce fruits, they are like pearls; when those small fruits start to grow and swell, they are like emeralds; and finally, when they mature and ripen, they are like corals. This description is tremendously wonderful because, if we could go observe those stages of areca nut fruits, we would absolutely see that the areca nut flowers are like beads; they are as small as beads and white in colour when they are young and black when they wither and thus we know that, because there are both new and withered flowers, we have two kinds of beads, black and white, on the necklace. Then, the small areca nut fruits are as white and small as pearls. And then, very nicely picking up a new simile, the young areca nuts are like emeralds that are very green in color. And finally, the ripe fruits are like corals, and maybe they are in red, orange, yellow, and maroon colours. Isn’t that necklace that the village-woman wearing a gorgeous one? Of course, yes! Because, when all those fruits with different attractive colors are there, it undoubtedly looks very beautiful! So, now look at the advice to the hill myna: “since it is so beautiful, it could probably attract your mind, so make sure you leave for what you are meant to do after spending only a very little time there!”