Issan Maguran Lyrics by Anton Rodrigo

(Prawns and magura fish,
big sand-dweller fish,
these are the fish I just landed,
they’re cheap, come buy them, friend….//)

Three rupees fifty a string,
I just sold some to Magi madam in the house up the road.
I’ll knock ten cents off for you,
will you take them, sister Magi?….//

Prawns and magura fish…../

The scaly bala fish,
it builds up the blood in your body.
I’m not talking nonsense.
Why do you keep on haggling?
Should I wrap them up and hand them over?….//

Prawns and magura fish…./

She always bargains me down,
the lady at the manor house.
I don’t even make a cent’s profit
from people like you….//

Prawns and magura fish…./

This is a market song, the call of a fish seller making his rounds through the village, and almost the whole thing is him hawking his catch. He sings out what he’s got, prawns, magura, the big bottom-feeding fish from the sandy shallows, and tells everyone the fish are fresh, he’s only just landed them, so come and buy while they’re cheap. The whole feel of it is the noise and back-and-forth of a Sri Lankan village market, the vendor shouting his prices and coaxing customers over with the friendly call of “yalu,” friend.

A lot of the charm is in the small everyday detail. He drops the going price, three rupees fifty for a string of fish, then offers to shave ten cents off as a favour. He addresses the women of the houses by name and rank, “Magi nona” (Magi the madam) and “Magi akka” (sister Magi), the way a seller flatters the regulars he sells to door to door. He even throws in a health pitch, telling them the scaly bala fish is good for the blood, and swears he isn’t making it up (“I’m not talking nonsense”). It’s the same patter you’d hear from any salesman trying to close a sale.

Underneath the playful selling there’s a gentle complaint that anyone who has worked for a living will recognise. The lady from the walawwa, the grand manor house, always beats him down on price, and by the end he’s grumbling that with customers like these he doesn’t clear even a cent of profit. So the song is a little portrait of the small fishmonger’s life, the cheerful shouting on the surface and the thin margins underneath, where the well-off bargain hardest and the seller still has to smile and hand over the fish.