I find myself in a situation where there’s peer pressure on me to consume alcohol. It so happens that I’m having a cup of tea with someone who’s loyal to me who’s aware of my situation. I’m engrossed in the conversation, then inconspicuously I’m asked the question,
“Bonawadha?”
I’m able to catch this as a Grice’s flout [1], a curveball as some call it. Because when I consider the preceding conversation (in content and intonation), this sentence brakes the maxim of relevance. So I translate it to mean,
“So are you going to consume alcohol?”
I consider what's available to me to respond in the same manner, and noticing my tea has gone cold I say,
“Dhang nimila, ee nisa bonne na” which given the context can be translated to,
“I’m of low affect, so I can’t be made to drink” and also implies I did drink when I was hot tempered and young.
This anecdote is an instance of an acted out allegory. Allusion and symbolism are two other popular literary devices.The main benefit of using such metaphorical language is, given all parties involved in the conversation understand the medium (metaphor), communication can be made discreetly with repudiation.
As metaphor gives the user the power to deny what was communicated, it should be used responsibly. Not accepting a person’s ability to use metaphor is a great injustice. In my next book (a retelling of the Narcissus and Echo myth) I hope to touch on this topic, specifically how when it is misused (by society) tragedy may follow.
Dumidu Handakumbura © 2026.
[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooperative_principle
