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Reestablishment of the forgotten fact

Interpretations by A.J. Canagaratna

Reviewed by K. S. Sivakumaran

When I read the recently published two books in Thamil by the veteran Lankan Thamil literary critic and translator, A.J. Canagaratna , the name of Susan Sontag, literary and film critic came to my mind. And one of her books is titled Interpretations. What AJC is doing in these books is while giving the essence of western writings as near translation, he also interprets for the uninitiated Thamil readers in his own approaches.

The two books under review are " Sengavalar Thalaivar Yesunathar" (a collection of essays - a Red Guard Leader Jesus) and Maththu (a reprint of collection of essays). Both books are published by Mithra Books in Chennai.

Like the late A.J. Gunawardena, A.J. Canagaratna also studied English at Peradeniya and had a stint at Lake House working for the then Ceylon Daily News, some 40 years ago. And I believe he was a contemporary of Wilfrid Jayasuriya, Haig Karunaratna and the like. Initially he was not at ease with his mother tongue, which is Thamil (although his name sounds that of a Sinhala, AJC hails from Jaffna). And he is one of the famous brothers(academic and business turned journalist) and a relative of another exiled Lankan poet and critic in English, Guy Amirthanayagam.

Though faulty in Thamil in the early stages, he is now highly proficient in that language. And he says that the "Sinhala Only Bill " made him study Thamil with a vengeance. So, this hastily made legislation remains one of the root causes of the malady this country had been experiencing for more than four decades, had also done something good as far as A. J. is concerned.

Canagaratna's contributions as a translator of Sri Lankan fiction in Thamil into English is very valuable. And apart from that those readers, especially those youngsters who know only Thamil are grateful to him for introducing western writers and subjects to them. After retiring from the English department of the University of Jaffna, A J presently works for a communication firm in the northern capital.

Take for instance, his first book in Thamil published 32 years ago - Maththu. Here is an opportunity to learn what this word means: a wooden stick with a hemispherical bottom to mash or with a bottom to mash or with a bottom having grooves to collect butter). In other words, the writer is making an attempt to give the essence of once-famous writings by western thinkers on a variety of subjects.

His style of writing then was slightly likened to academic prose. The essays concerned are:

The Concept of Countervailing Power by J. K. Galbraith, Silent Spring by Richard Carson, The Origin of Love and Hate by Ian Suttie, The Triumph of the English Language by Richard Foster Jones, The New Class by Milovan Djillas, The British Constitution by H.R.G. Greaves, Literature in America by Philip Rahv, Drugs/Doctors/Disease by Brian Inglis, Film: a Montage of Theories by R.D. MacGann, The Hero With a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell, and Kingship by A.M. Hocart. As readers would have noted, the subjects chosen cover psychology, language, environment, politics, literature, medicine, mythology, film, constitution, anthropology.

The other book is of recent origin and here the style is more flexible. It includes a long introduction by Thamilnadu Marxist critic S.V. Rajadurai.

The first essay itself is really the title of the book. It introduces the Russian poet of the last century Alexander Blok and his poem "The Twelve". Paanaiyum Chattiyum" (Pot and Pans) talks about an English film titled "The Family Life" and parodies the fallacies people have in labelling others as 'aberrated' and relates the quintessence of R.D. Laing.

The Rumanian Film Festival held in Jaffna in 1979 is his subject in the next piece and says that some of the then East European films he had seen in Jaffna and doubts the relationship between Art and Marxism. A Russian Miner Vlatislav Tithov's novel " A Challenge to Death" is a fine literary work contends AJ reading a Thamil translation of this work by P. Somasundaram. The next article introduces the left and right sides of the brain based on a book on Picasso by F.Gilo and C.Lake.

A review on "Godfather 1" appears next. Then there is humour as expressed by Arthur Koestler in his "Darkness at Noon". The next piece is on Journalism and literature and says journalism could be Literature as well. Literature is related to the theory of Evolution in yet another interesting piece. Eric Danickan's "Returning to the Stars" is then explored by A J.

The author in a short piece discusses four Lankan Thamil writers in the next article. The four anthologies he has chosen are: Nellai K. Peran's "Oru Paatathari Nesavukkup Poahiral" ( A Woman Graduate Goes For Weaving), A.Saanthan's "Orae Oorilare" ( In a Certain Place), A.Yesurasa's " Tholaivum Irruppum (Distance and Existance_ and L. Murugapoopathy's "Sumayin Pangalikal" (Partners in Burdens ). The next article throws some thoughts on Plaigiarism in Literature.

The classic film "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest'" is next seen through the eyes of A. J. who dismisses the film as not authentic as the novel on which it was adapted. David Craig who taught English at the University of Peradeniya in the 1970s edited a Penguin book titled "Marxists on Literature", remember? A.J. Canagaratna summarizes one of the articles by Craig in the next article. The next is a summary of Henry Moore' s on the Human form and sensitivity to form.

The other articles include one on Picasso, a translation of an article by Walter de La Mare, a translation of Rainer Maria Rilke's letter to a young poet, a translation of an article by Raymond Williams on films published in "The Listener", translation of a few verse libre of Charles Baudilere translation of a Guy de Maupaussant's article on realistic artists, an adaptation of an article by Arthur Koestler, a translation of a conversation Gustav Yanuch had with Franz Kafka published in the "Encounter", a translation of an article by a Russian poet Robert Rostavezki, a wrap-up of an interview with Akira Kuruzova published in "Newsweek", reviews of Lanka-born A. Sivanandan's English novel -"When Memory Dies" (translated by M.Ponnambalam) Rohini Hensman's novel (translated by M.Ponnabalam), and finally an English article by A.J. himself on realism and magical realism (translated by Ponn. Ganesh).

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Writing for fun

Ceylon of the Early Travellers
by H.A.J. Hulugalle
Sinhala Translation by Srilal de Silva
Published by Arjuna Hulugalle Dictionaries

To my father H.A.J. Hulugalle writing was fun. This was particularly so after he had reached the age of sixty and he was in retirement and was relieved of the pressures of a newspaper office or official duty. In those ensuing twenty two years, before his death, he wrote six authoritative books and innumerable articles.

Several of his books were translated. Some into Sinhala, others into German, French, Italian and Swedish. Even today, they are constantly referred to and extensively quoted from.

HAJ as I will refer to him in this article, never considered himself a scholar. That to him sounded being too pedantic. He was intrigued with what was around him and he had the rare capacity not to be distracted with the banal and malicious trivia.

This gave him time and energy to explore and study innumerable subjects from languages to gemology, from horticulture to finance, form history, to education. What interested him most however, were people. His writings reflect this. Though his observations were incisive, he tended to see the good in people. Their frailties seemed to be almost ignored.

In the nineteen sixties, he wrote a series of articles for the Times of Ceylon about 18 travellers who visited this country starting from Roman times. I think it was mostly as support for his friend, Tori `Tori de Souza, the then Editor of the Times. My father had an excellent library which he had collected over the years, and the reference material was available.

Being a traveller himself, he must have found through the stories of those early travellers several soul mates. This must have also been the inspiration for the articles. After all he had himself wandered in Palestine and the Holy Land, Egypt and Jordan in his younger days and continued to do so even more in mature years.

In 1965, HAJ put these articles into a book which has now had six impressions, three editions in his life time and three impressions subsequently. Thirty seven years after the first edition, a Sinhala translation is being brought out by me.

"Ceylon of the Early Travellers" as this book is called starts with a chapter on Pliny and the four envoys from Ceylon. Pliny would obviously have interested the author, because over nineteen hundred years later he himself sailed from Ceylon as the envoy of his country to Rome. His journey to Rome was almost like the fulfilment of a life long dream.

During his stay in Italy his greatest joy was to wander among the ruins with which Pliny must have been so familiar and especially, to visit Napels and the volcano Vesuvius, where the elder Pliny died in 27 AD.

The author's anecdote on Pliny relates of the four Ambassadors from Taprobane. One of them had the name "Rachias" which was probably the same as Rajah. One could therefore surmise that the Ambassadors were Tamils. Even then there were outstanding diplomats among the Tamils who served the state, as we have in our own times.

While discussing Fa hien, one of HAJ's 18 Travellers, the irrepressible Dr. R.H. de Silva, former Commissioner of Archaeology related how he had Lee Kuang Yew agog during the great man's visit to Anuradhapura. RH had related the story of how Fa hien wept at the foot of Abayagiriya, when he saw a Chinese merchant presenting a fan of white silk to the temple. Fa Hien had been away from China for twelve years and seeing his countryman nostalgia set in and tears of sorrow involuntarily filled his eyes and fell down.

Lee Kuang Yew had been fascinated with this story. This incident and story is elaborated in greater detail in HAJ's book with details of Fa hien's journey from China through the Gobi desert, across the Himalayas and the lands connected with the life of the Buddha. Fa Hien was a saintly man and his mission to Sri Lanka was to get the Vinaya Rules of Hinayana Buddhism.

HAJ's little publication continues with a fund of anecdotes of the travellers and as my friend Dr. Brendon Gooneratne, the historian, once commented, the book unfolds social history of the time, with narratives of the lives and behaviour of the people who are profiled.

The contents are to a great extent based on the facts extracted from innumerable writings which are listed in the bibliography. It is fascinating to read about the Europeans who entered the Kandyan Kingdom at Batticaloa, Panawa, Pallegama, and Trincomalee. The mindsets and the motivations of the Europeans of those times and the response and the behaviour of the local population show so many similarities to the modern day encounters we witness.

The most striking example is the prized value set by all the European powers to Trincomalee. This port attracted not only the Portuguese, the Dutch and the British who held it till 1957.

Even the King of Denmark was attracted to it. So much so that on a promise given to him by the Dutchman Marcelis Boshower, an advisor of King Senerat, and who came to be called Migomu Rala, Prince of Negombo, he sent his Ambassadors to make his claim and transact a treaty. That was in 1618.

In 1658 the French sent a squadron with the intention of taking over the Port and in fact, started building a fort on Sober Island in Trincomalee. All this is related in an interesting anecdotal form. With these facts, it is quite understandable why William Pitt said of Trincomalee in Parliament "to us the most valuable Colonial possession on the globe, as giving to our Indian Empire a security which it had not enjoyed from its establishment."

Of the British we have the fascinating story of Robert Knox and in later times of Pybus, Boyd, Cleghorn and D'Oyley. The intrigue and personality of Cleghorn, whose writings at the beginning of the British times have been interpreted mischievously are of special interest to us today. I am sure he had no wish of being a pawn in a controversy on the Eastern Province which has given this country so much agony.

In the preface of the original English version HAJ gives a quotation from Emerson Tennetn written in 1859, which would have inspired his writings on Sri Lanka.

"There is no island in the world, Great Britain itself not excepted, that has attracted the attention of authors in so many distant ages and so many different countries s Ceylon.

There is no nation possessed of a language and literature, the writer of which have not at some time made it their theme. Its aspect, its religion, its antiquities, and productions, have been described as well by the classic Greeks, as by those of the Lower Empire; by the Romans; by the writers of China, Burma, India, Kashmir; by the writers of Arabia and Persia; by the medieval voyagers of Italy and France; by the annalists of Portugal and Spain; by the merchant adventurers of Holland, and by the Topographers of Great Britain.".....

What a message to make cognizance of. Our generation who have being ravaging and plundering this land do not seem to be conscious of what a fine land we live in. HAJ in a modest way was sensitive to this. All his books show this very clearly. That is why he has a message for our people today. This book certainly conveys it.

His original book "Ceylon of the Early Travellers" was written in an English which was simple. The scholar, the student and the general reader felt comfortable reading it. I hope the Sinhala translation will give as much joy to the readers.

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Buddhi Sishathwa Athwela-2002

Reviwed by Ananda Kannangara.

Books published for the year five scholarship examinations are numerous and available everywhere. Among them there are few books which can be admired highly.

Heras Fernando's Buddhi Sishyathwa Athwela - 2002 written by him recently is a fine example for this. The book was written by him after a careful study of the question papers given for past scholarship examinations.

The book contains number of probable questions for the benefit of students preparing for the forthcoming scholarship examinations to be held in August- 2002.

Heras Fernando's name is not unfamiliar to the readers in this country. He is a well known writer and an author of several children's story books too. In addition to the Buddhi Sishyathwa Atwela -2002 he had also written many model question paper books for the previous scholarship examinations. He has 30 years experience in the field of primary education as a teacher and later a vice Principal of the Primary section at Royal College, Colombo.

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