Bilingual collection of fables and folk tales

In the Land of Nowhere

Author: R. S. Karunaratne

Sarasavi Publishers, Nugegoda

144 pp Price: Rs. 200

Dr. Premachandra MAGAMMANA

FICTION: There is a tradition of folk tales and fables in oral use among the nations having advanced literatures in the world as well as among the folk speaking tribal languages but who do not use a written language.

In addition to this feature inherent in fables and folk tales, there seem to be some other aspects. These fables and folk takes have often been composed not by scholars who are well versed in arts and literature but by illiterate people in the villages.

Besides, another particular characteristic is the fact that these fables and folk stories were popular among the uneducated, average folk and not among the educated.

Since these fables and folk tales prevalent among various nations at present may die a natural death with the elapse of time, some writers showed a keen interest in recording them for the benefit of future generations.

Sri Lanka is treated as a country with a literature rich in folklore. English writers like Parker and Marie Musaeus have translated a great deal of Sinhala fables and folk tales into English. Parker’s work alone, of hundreds of Sinhala fables and folk tales runs into three volumes.

With the documentation of fables and folk tales, many writers had the urge to translate those found in the Western countries into oriental languages and those found in oriental countries into Western languages.

Anthropology

With the advancement of subjects such as Anthropology, Sociology, Culture and Mass Media, the attention of scholars was drawn to fables and folklore.

In R. S. Karunaratne’s work, “In the Land of Nowhere”, 24 fables have been embodied. And every story written in English is followed by its Sinhala version. His anthology, therefore, introduces a novel art of presentation and hence, a rarely found valuable work in Sri Lanka.

I find several features in this book which attract the attention not only of ordinary readers but also of scholars.

Every story is limited to two or three pages, hence the importance of brevity. And the Sinhala translation of each story is presented in a simple style rich with terms of the spoken language. It is clear, therefore, that this book is meant particularly for small children.

Although the author employs the conversational technique, yet, at several places, either through oblivion or some oversight, he uses the language quite grammatically. I feel, however, that if the spoken aspect was preferred, it should be maintained all throughout.

The writer has not mentioned the countries where the fables in his work originated. Yet a perusal of the nature of those stories tends to show that they are from European countries and from India and Sri Lanka as well. And it may also be inferred that they are purely the author’s own re-creations.

Some stories in this anthology point to the fact that fables and folk tales spread over various countries of the East and the West spring from one and the same source.

Dispute

The story, ‘Mr. Monkey settles a dispute’ exposes how a cunning monkey cheats two birdies who were quarrelling over a mango and eats the fruit in the guise of trying to solve their problem.

A similar fable carrying the same theme is found among the Sinhala folk tales. There the victims are two cats fighting for a piece of cheese.

The monkey cleverly manoeuvres to deprive the quarrelling cats of the piece of cheese which he himself eats up little by little. This proves that there are fables and folk stories in Western and Oriental literatures, based on the same theme.

The author appears to have been cautious in selecting 24 stories from among the thousands originated in various lands. This work serves as a collection of stories like fairy tales for children and some tales that offer the adult readers with a mature level of appreciation.

The stories, “Tale of nine tailed tiger” and “Of rat and elephant”, are full of subtle wit. By reading them, small children are sure to enjoy the narrative element in them while the grown-ups will find a deeper insight.

Fables of this type have their counterparts in Aesop’s Fable and Sanskrit fables like Panacha Tantraya, Hitopadesa and Kathasarithsagaraya. The folk-tale, ‘The frog hunts for a ruler’, tends to generate a sense of satire in the mind of the reader.

The essay on ‘Translation Methods’ by scholar, Sompala Arandara appearing at the beginning of this work is an article full of resourceful ideas.

In it, he provides useful information about literary works in Greek and Roman literature, French literature, English literature, Sanskrit literature, Pali literature and Sinhala literature as well as about the veteran translators of those celebrated works.

In the absence of translations, fables and folk-tales will not be available for reading by people other than those who belong to the nations who possess such literature. Besides, those works of art may not be subject to evaluation internationally.

Moreover, that article furnishes details of translators like Michael Grant and E.F. Watling who have rendered a yeoman service by converting great works of art in Greek and Roman literatures into current Western langauges and expert translators like David Karunaratne, Hemapala Munidasa, Somaratne Balasuriya and I.M.R.A. Iriyagolle who have turned great works of the world literature into Sinhala.

It is noteworthy that R.S. Karunaratne has presented his work in such a manner that this anthology is accessible to both the English educated and those who know Sinhala only.

The reviewer is Librarian, Gampaha Wickremarachchi Ayurveda Institute, University of Kelaniya.

Bold exposure of human rights violations

War on Terrorism, The Untold Truths

Author: Latheef Farook

A South Asia News Agency Publication

Pages 460

Review: S. PATHIRAVITANA

TERRORISM: In the introduction to his book War on Terrorism-The Untold Truths, Latheef Farook gives a partly possible reason for the currently prevailing Islamophobia in some parts of the world.

The current general hostile environment towards the Muslims, he says, could be attributed to some extent to the century-old and inherent suspicion and hostility of secular Europe towards Muslims.

In the long years of bloody conflicts between the church and State in Europe the State was relegating religion to the whims of individuals.

The 18th century French Revolution and the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia once and for all sealed the fate of religion with Pope and Euro-Christianity being completely excluded from any State activity.

While this is true to a great extent the immediate problem that has been created, however, is due largely to the Islamic presence in the West.

By this I mean the concentrations of Muslim emigrants in some Western capitals like Paris, New York and London so much so the visitor to these cities feel, it is said, they are moving around in either Cairo or Damascus or Tunis.

In recent years migrations of Muslims to the West have been increasing. It is claimed that there is a five million population of Muslims now in America and with places of Muslim worship like mosques coming up there is now a change in the landscape too.

The question that comes up before the natives of these countries is why the Muslims are not changing with the times.

They are not changing for the simple reason that being Muslims they are not affected by the secularisation (mentioned above) that has gone on in the West to a point where there is virtually no religious life there today.

Islamophobia

To the Muslims their religion is a way of life, something which affects their daily living. There is a time for fasting, a time for pilgrimage and many times for prayer every day.

To ask them to stop observing these rites is asking them to cease being Muslims. Or to change the metaphor it is like the fox that came to lose its bushy tail advocating the virtues of being without one by modernising.

This snappy background may not help to understand the role being played by Bush and Blair in the Islamophobia going on now.

Theirs is an entirely different game played by cashing in on the current Islamophobia, and this is what the War on Terror is all about. The interests of these imperial agents go back a little earlier to the fall of the Ottoman Empire.

The Ottoman Empire spread over a vast area including many parts of Europe as well as the Arab lands, soon to be noted for their great resources of oil.

This powerful empire, greatly respected and feared by Europe when under Suleyman whom Europe hailed as “the Magnificent,” had by the end of the 19th century earned the nickname of being the “Sick Man of Europe.”

Britain promised the Arabs to set up an independent Arab State if they helped to overthrow the remains of the Ottoman Empire.

The Arabs kept to their words but not the British. In the meantime Britain made a secret pact with France to carve up the Arab land between them. Two new countries were created in that process Syria under France and Iraq under Britain.

Two adventurous Britons, T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) and Gertrude Bell (called “Daughter of the Desert” by the Arabs) were made use of by British Intelligence because of their friendship with the Arabs, to win over them.

The Americans who have been trying to get a foothold in the Middle East have now joined the fray by stepping into Iraq ostensibly to bring “democracy” to a land ruled by a tyrant called Saddam Hussein. This tyrant was in reality a creature of US diplomacy that was armed and trained in gas warfare to achieve their ends.

Persecution

Latheef Farook’s long stay in the Arab Gulf working as a journalist has helped him to keep a record of newspaper cuttings of how the world was treating the Muslims.

He has converted his collection into a well-documented book of the persecution of the Muslims across the globe and extending even to China where the Uighurs, a Muslim people speaking a Turkic tongue are trying to survive.

In War on Terrorism-The Untold Truths, Latheef has not failed to include the oil sheikhs in the Middle East who have played the role of collaborationists in the designs of the Western imperialists.

What these Arab dictators, suspicious of their own people and hand in glove with the West to prevent the rise of Islam he writes, failed to understand was that the Jews and their Christian allies waited for more than 14 centuries to enter Iraq as conquerors and they didn’t miss the opportunity with war monger George Bush in the White House, to do the job for them.

While the Arab rulers remained silent, the only two leaders who spoke out openly against the invasion were former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammed and South Africa’s inspiring living legend, Nelson Mandela.

A week or so after Bush was elected as President a second time on November 2, 2004; this excitable man ordered an attack on the city of Fallujah to hunt down a handful of so-called terrorists.

The citizens of Fallujah 300,000 of them were preparing to celebrate one of the holiest of Muslim festivals Id-ul-Fitr. Nobody knows how many of the 300,000 citizens died in the attack.

According to the head of Turkey’s Parliamentary Human Rights Committee “this crime of immense proportion surpassed the genocides committed by Pharaoh, Hitler and Mussolini.” Residents who escaped the massacre said that the Americans had used some weird weapons.

Fallujah bombing

A former US solider named Rai who fought in Fallujah taking part in an Italian documentary and commenting on the Fallujah bombing said, “I heard the order to pay attention because they were going to use white phosphorous on Fallujah which burns bodies and melts the flesh all the way down to the bone...I saw the burned bodies of women and children. Phosphorous explodes and forms a cloud.

Anyone within a radius of 150 metres is done for. The Western media which did not openly flout Islamophobia, says Latheef, did not report that the American troops were dropping large quantities of internationally banned chemical weapons, white phosphorous and poisonous gas and killing harmless citizens indiscriminately.

And the US government in turn officially dismissed any reference to the use of banned weapons as a “widespread myth” though admitted using them a year later.

The cruelty and barbarity with which Bush and his British partner Blair are trying to bring “democracy” to Iraq is causing some anxiety among thinking people.

Latheef Farook should be commended for his brave effort to bring these disturbing events to the notice of a thinking public not too aware of these dastardly doings by a so-called civilised people cynical about the rights of human beings.

The reviewer is a former Editor, Ceylon Daily News, The Island and the former Acting Editor of Dubai based Gulf News.

Achievements of Christian artists

Kithunu Kalakaruvo

(Christian Artists)

Author: Bernard Sri Kantha

An author publication,

86, Duwa, Negombo.

Price: Rs. 300

Review: W. T. A. Leslie FERNANDO

ART: The latest work of Bernard Sri Kantha, the well-known writer from Negombo called the Little Rome is kithunu Kalakaruvo (Christian Artists).

The author who earlier presented several works on outstanding personalities in Negombo like Meepura Kalakaruvo, Meepura Keerthidharayo and Meepura Deshaplangnayo has this time widened his scope and written on Christian artists of the whole of Sri Lanka.

In this endeavour, the author has dealt with the lives and achievements of 160 Christian artists. Almost all the artists featured in the book are luminaries in cinema, music and drama. Christian artists in other fields are less than a score. In this book you could see that the Christian artists have dominated the scene in cinema and music.

It was Buddhism that guided and moulded the lives of people for centuries in Sri Lanka. Buddhist literature became the fountain of all religious and cultural activity.

The faith created by Dhamma revealed itself in art and architecture. Temples and dagobas, sculptural forms, narrative art and decorative designs were all created for the glorification of Buddhism and were interwoven with Dhamma.

Rich tradition

There had been a rich tradition of Sinhala music and dancing too in Sri Lanka. The musicians and dancers were endowed with lands by the Kings and the chiefs for their maintenance.

They in turn had to perform music and dancing on royal occasions, religious festivals, ceremonies, pageants and also in the battlefield.

Nevertheless the Buddhist temple being the centre of spiritual life education and culture, the background was not conducive to the growth of serious drama and music. There was no encouragement from the Maha Sangha disciplined in Theravada tradition for that aspects of art.

On the other hand the Catholic missionaries from the Portuguese times, made use of hymns and drama for instruction and edification of the devotees.

There were singing of hymns in church services, plaintive chants like ‘Pasan’ and Passion Plays that gave a fillip to music and drama among Christians. It was Catholics who introduced ‘Nadagam’ the earliest form of recognised drama in Sri Lanka.

The church choir, Passion Plays and Nadagam provided many opportunities for talented musicians and actors to come up. In these circumstances there is no wonder that Christians are outstanding in the fields of music and cinema in our country.

The book begins with an account of the doyen of serious Sinhala cinema, Lester James Peries. The biographies range from Malathiya Master (1890-1952) to Kanchana Mendis and Baby Shanika of our times.

In the biographical sketches in the book limited to about two pages, the author has succeeded in covering all about their lives from birth, their talents, achievements and special incidents concerning them. Some unknown facts about them too are disclosed.

The Christian film stars are predominant in the book and they belong to about three generations. B. A. W. Jayamanna, the pioneer of Sinhala cinema, Rukmani Devi the queen of the film world in our country, Eddie Jayamanna, Hugo Fernando and Eddie Junior fall into the first generation.

The film stars of yesteryears like Stanley Perera, Sandhya Kumari, Tony Ranasinghe, Wijitha Mallika and Wijaya Kumaratunga form the second generation. Ravindra Randeniya, Cletus Mendis, Ranjan Ramanayaka, Siryantha Mendis, Kanchana Mendis and Rebecca Nirmalee are film stars of the present generation and they are teledrama artistes as well.

Biographies

The biographies of artists behind the scenes in the film industry are also presented in the book. They are those of Anton Gregory, Andrew Jayamanna, Gamini Jayamanna and Aelian Senanayaka associated with direction, camera, editing and still photography.

In the field of music, you get in the book the biographies of maestro Sunil Santha, the composer of our national anthem, Ananda Samarakone, ‘Nightingale of Sri Lanka’ Rukmani Devi, ever popular C.T. Fernando, evergreen Latha Walpola and Visharada Nirmala Ranatunga.

There are also biographies of other popular musicians like Ivor Denis, Edward Jayakody, claude de Soysa, Wilbert Anthony and Joe. B. Perera. When going through the Christian musicians you find that so many of them had their training in the Church Choir.

Among the biographies there are traditional Passion Play and Nadagam artists like Benedict Fernando, Christi Mihindukula, Alisandiri Fernando, Felician Fernando, Ma Jayaweera and Stephen Liyanage.

Biographies of theatre artists like Malathiya Master, Benedict Master, Benjamin Fernando, Louise Rodrigo and Eddie Yapa are also there in the book.

Besides, you get the biographies of some other Christian artists who have excelled in their respective fields. Dr. M.S. Weerakone (photography), Camillus Perera (cartoon) and Helen Sakuntala (dancing) are prominent among them.

It is true that this book is not a comprehensive work on the Christian artists in Sri Lanka. The great Catholic clergy-artists beginning from the genius Fr. Jacome Gonsalvez and coming down to Bishop Edmund Pieris, Fr. Marcelline Jayakody and Fr. W.L.A. Don Peter of our times are not included in the book. The author has also not paid attention to great Christian authors, poets and journalists.

Photographs

Nevertheless to collect material of over 150 Christian artists scattered all over the country and present their biographies with photographs connected to them is a praiseworthy endeavour indeed.

Fr. Ernest Poruthota in his short and sweet Foreword for the book comments that Catholic artists like J.K.S. Perera, Francis Gunasekera, K. Francis and Susantha Tissera have presented their works maintaining the Christian outlook whereas others like Sunil Santha, Lester James Peries and Jackson Anthony have submerged their Christian concepts for various reasons.

I see that some Christian artists have not confined to the four walls of Christianity and have presented their works to the national arena.

Other artists like so many eminent persons have disassociated with christian institutions because as one Catholic priest vividly puts it what is prevalent today is somewhat a “Bourgeoise Christianity’ far different from what Christ preached and practised.

There are also some who have betrayed the faith for mundane matters like marriage and political power.

This book is presented in simple langauge and it provides fascinating reading. It is printed on glossy paper with a beautiful cover and carries so many photographs as well. There is no doubt that all lovers of art specially Christians would welcome this book.

Handy guide to mysterious language

E-Codes Made Easy

Halal Certification Authority

All Ceylon Jammiyathul Ulama, 211 Orabi Pasha Street, Colombo 10

Price Rs. 100

Review: M.S. ABBAS

E-Codes: The Halaal Authority of All Ceylon Jamiyyathul Ulama, the Council of Muslim Theologians, has endeavoured to help the people who do not posses expert knowledge about the mystery of E-Code system that is always mentioned on the wrappers and labels of food products to show to consumers what ingredients the producers have used to produce a particular food product, by releasing the 50 page booklet “E-Code Made Easy”.

This is the very first attempt of the Halaal Division of All Ceylon Jamiyyathul Ulama to release publications in connection with halaal foods, since the Consumer Affairs Authority released the Gazette Notification proclaiming that All Ceylon Jamiyyathul Ulama is the sole authority to issue Halaal certificate for food products in Sri Lanka in February 2007.

In fact, it was the endless telephone calls from the members of the Muslim community specially the fair sex - requesting clarification about the E-Codes system that triggered the institution to compile the valuable booklet which was released at the ceremony of launching the Halaal Authority, on 17th March 2007, at hotel Ranjmutthu.

This handy work has been compiled under three sections - Haram E-numbers, Halaal E-numbers and Doubtful E-Numbers which pave the way to the people to select the permissible foods and to avoid unlawful ones.

Consuming halla - permissible and lawful food - is the integral part of Islam.

This handy creation is not only the very first one of its kind in the Asian region, but, perhaps, the very first simplified version of E-Code system in the world to provide fair knowledge about the mysterious language of food producers to the laymen. It will help even non Muslims who are very circumspect in selecting pure food to consume.

The size of the book is very convenient to keep in the hand bags of the ladies to enable them to pull out when they browse through the selves of the markets and check the ingredient of the product they are supposed to buy is in accordance with the Shariah requirements of Islam.