Some random thoughts on the Literary Month

LITERATURE: September is normally regarded as the Sahitya Masaya, or the month dedicated for literature with more discussion ensuing on the subject via the State Literary Day or Sahitya Dinaya, and the Annual Award Ceremony for books published last year, as the grand finale connected with it.

We are officially informed that the event would be gloriously held in Anuradhapura this time, and a lot of activities are lined up, where one of the central events will be the pleasure rounds in and around bookstalls, where the reader would be in a position, I believe, to buy books at a reduced rate than they are sold usually.

According to a special newsletter by Cultural and National Heritage Ministry, books will be bought from bookstalls for the use in schools, and as such, the publishers are eagerly awaiting to get their books launched and sold through by this means.

This awareness on the public, it is believed, will make a new awakening in the minds of the schoolchildren of all levels: parents and teachers.

Concurrently, there will be the International Book Exhibition to be held in BMICH premises, which is one of the crowd gathering annual events nowadays. As an observer participant last year, I saw the buyers of books with happy faces carrying bags full of books, and the mode of discussions and launches held around.

This time, it may look more attractive, as the publishers, both minor and major and those who belong to the author publisher category as well, have managed to get their books out in time.

The publications include original works as well as translations and adaptations of poetry, drama, short story and collections of essays and translations, predominantly from English language and a few other languages like French, Russian, Spanish, and Hindi.

We also note the advent of some of the ancient classics printed a new attempting to make the awareness on the subjects to the modern-day readers of all types. I have received an English translation of the well-known Sinhala poetic work Loveda Sangarava, where the translator U. Gunadasa Rodrigo says that the translation came to be a fruition, as a result of his remembrances of lessons during his school days, and he was compelled to do so to make a good contribution to a new generation.

L. B. Herath, one of the retired administrators, who is also the author of a few books in English, has brought out an adaptation of the ancient wisdom giving classic Panchatantraya renaming in Sinhala as Sivpavo Avadivela [The animals have woken up, Sadeepa 2006] The Sanskrit text Panchatantraya has always been a well-known reader at all levels of education, and is said to have been written by a sage named Vishnusharman, with the intention of teaching the worldly wisdom to three sons of a certain king.

Some of the best stories embedded in have given vent to new creative communication patterns in the sound and visual media, as well as all over the world. Herath seems to believe that there is a lasting value in rewriting and recreating the classics in modern terms transferring the age-old wisdom.

He wishes to continue his mission as the response from the reader becomes notable day by day. Herath also has attempted to bring out a translation of the American Jewish writer Isaac Bashevis Singer's well-known novel The Slave into Sinhala [titled as Vahal Gitaya, Sadeepa 2006], which I feel, is one of the notable contributions.

Though a number of short stories of the writer Singer, who writes in Yiddish primarily, has appeared in Sinhala, some of his full length novels do not appear in Sinhala. Many of his works are based on the folk tradition of his birthplace, Poland, from where he migrated to the United States making a highly creative profession firstly writing in Yiddish and then later in English through which source most translations emerge, and this is no exception to the rule.

Herath's translation comes from English, and this may be the first occasion perhaps, where a full length novel of Singer is introduced.

Singer may not be a stranger to the Sinhala reader, as he is seen making use of the folklore and mass conscience, as a tool to communicate the intrinsic meanings of human experience.

Many publishers seem to possess the common agreement, where translations are preferred by the local reader above the other forms. While the output of translations is increasingly high in the local publishing market, the need to obtain the services of good translators have come to stay as a profession.

Then comes to the demand for folklore, where folk stories and poems are preferred by the reader, as a cross-cultural understanding of human experience.

A number of folktale collections have been compiled by scholars like professor Sunil Ariyaratne, whose works include folktales from Tamil, Kannada, Telegu, and Malayali sources tracing the folk family of Tamil oral and print traditions, and Chandrasri Ranasinghe, whose compilations include folk tales from Tibetan, Turkish, Palestinian, Yugoslavian, and German traditions.

The reader will also have the chance of knowing the introduction of new publications, as a parallel stream for particular subjects at all levels of education, such as psychology, philosophy, political science, biographies, modern trends in literature and allied areas of interest.

The subject of positive thinking had become one of the most popular areas of readership, where the religious literature influence linked with the more popular views held by writers of the calibre of Carnegie and Norman Peale matter.

But as pointed out often by several scholars, the main stream of discussion via a discourse on creative writing, suffers owing to the confusion in critical canons, where more half-baked views on post modernism flourishes, as against the actual broad scientific outlook in criticism.

As a result, I sincerely feel, there appears a dilemma in the mind of the actual creative writer as regards his creative work.

Do the readers accept sincerely what we create, or do they actually make a proper assessment of what we contribute ? is the normal question raised by the contemporary creative writers.

We toil hard, but alas, our contributions go past without a correct aesthetic judgement, is one more salient issue, especially on the part of the young creative writers. The literary month, September, should pave the way for such discussions, taking up the significant issues.

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