Literary giants remembered

Sachitra Mahendra and Ruwini Jayawardana

April 23 is famous as a significant date in the calendar of English literati who enriched the minds and knowledge of generations throughout the decades. Coincidentally, two deaths of literary personalities occurred on this day, the same year.

English Bard William Shakespeare and Spanish Classic writer Miguel de Cervantez died on April 23, 1616. In recognition of this coincidence, UNESCO has named April 23 as International Day of the Book, which was first celebrated in 1995.

Gunapala Malalasekara

Among the literary celebrities is a leading Sri Lankan versatile personality. Prof. Gunapala Malalasekara is a household name where his Malalasekara English-Sinhala Dictionary is used. Born in 1899 young Malalasekara initiated his higher studies at Ceylon Medical College.

However, his father died when he was still a student, closing the main source of education. Economic difficulties made Malalasekara drop medicine and to study for a Bachelor's degree. In 1925, he obtained both MA and PhD at once from the School of Oriental Studies of the University of London which was a record.

This made the University authorities change the standards so that no student would be able to sit for two examinations at once. In 1927 he became the lecturer in Pali and Sanskrit at Ceylon University College.

In 1938 University of London awarded him the degree of Doctor of Letters (D.Litt), and he became the professor of Pali and Sanskrit at the same university in 1939.

The household English-Sinhala Dictionary was first published in 1948 with over 1066 pages. Prof. Malalasekara's daughter Chitra recalled the memories behind the dictionary.

The father and the daughter shared a large table; father using it for compilation, and the daughter for studies. When the father gets bored, he would crack a joke. 1954 saw him introducing and holding the Editor-in-chief position of Encyclopaedia of Buddhism.

Prof. Gunapala Malalasekara was also a diplomatic personality. He held the positions like Ambassador to USSR, Poland, Rumania and Czechoslovakia, High Commissioner in Canada, Permanent Representative to the United Nations and Sri Lanka's High Commissioner in the United Kingdom.

One of the significant event in his life is that he became the founder-president World Fellowship of Buddhists with 129 delegates from 26 countries.

Prof. Malalasekara was a prominent scholar when he died at 74 in 1973 April 23.

William Wordsworth

One of the great poets who brought about the romantic age in English literature, William Wordsworth, was born on April 7, 1770, in Cockermouth, Cumberland. He was the second of five children born to John Wordsworth and Ann Cookson. This magnificent landscape of his hometown had a deep impact on the young lad and even from a tender age he learnt to appreciate the beauties of nature.

His mother passed away when Wordsworth was eight and five years later, tragedy struck the family once again when he lost his father.

Wordsworth entered a local school before being sent off to attend St John's College, Cambridge, and soon graduated in 1791. By then he had made his debut as a writer in 1787 when his sonnet was published in 'The European Magazine'. In 1970, during a summer vacation Wordsworth toured Revolutionary France and Switzerland.

During this journey Wordsworth had an affair with a French girl, Annette Vallon, by whom he had an illegitimate daughter, Anne Caroline. This affair was the inspiration of Wordsworth's poem, "Vaudracour and Julia".

The meeting with Samuel Taylor Coleridge was a milestone in Wordsworth's life. The two poets quickly developed a friendship and each encouraged to bring forth their talent.

Wordsworth had always been close to his sister Dorothy, a significant poet and diarist, and in 1795 both of them settled down at Somerset, just a few miles from Coleridge's home.

Together they composed their first masterpiece of poetry, "Lyrical Ballads" and in 1798 he started writing a philosophical autobiographical poem, "The Prelude" which was completed in 1850. This long piece of work is based on the poet's love of nature.

Wordsworth wrote his famous "Lucy" poems during one of his stays at Germany and in 1802 he married Mary Hutchinson and Mary gave birth to John, the first of his five children in 1803. His second verse collection, "Poems, In Two Volumes" was published in 1807 and many other works such as "The Excursion" and "Ecclesiastical Sketches" followed.

His poems written during his middle and late years gained much critical approval and his Grasmere period came to a halt in 1813 when he moved to Rydal Mount, Ambleside, where he spent the rest of his life.

Wordsworth was appointed official distributor of stamps for Westmoreland and later he abandoned his radical faith and became a patriotic, conservative public man. In 1843 he succeeded Robert Southgey as England's poet laureate before passing away in April 23, 1850.

Sathyajith Ray

Sathyajith Ray became a notable filmmaker with his debut Pathar Panchali made in 1955. The film was awarded the Grand Prix at the Cannes Festival. Ray is best known for 'Apu Trilogy': Pathar Panchali, Aparajito and Apur Sansar.

Following the success with Pathar Panchali, Ray became a number of personalities added to his original position of filmmaker. He had numerous functions from 1961: writer, director, casting director, composer.

Though not much known, Ray was also a writer of non-fiction. In 1961, he started a children's magazine called Sandesh. He contributed to the magazine with illustrations, verses and stories, in Bengali. Many of his stories included adventure, detective stories, fantasy, science fiction and horror. He is identified as one of the major and most popular Bengali contributors to the Children's literature.

Many scholars hold the opinion that Ray's artistic capacity is genetic; his grandfather Upendrakishore Ray writer, painter, a violin player and a composer. His father, Sukumar Ray too was an eminent poet, writer and illustrator.

However his grandfather died six year before Sathyajit was born. In fact the magazine Sandesh was founded by Upendrakishore Ray.

With his graduation in 1939, Sathyajit gave up further studies and got into becoming a commercial artist, with his painting talents. However his mother persuaded him to take up further studies at Shanthinikethan.

Joining Shanthinikethan was a milestone in Sathyajit's life not only because it provided academic shelter to him, but its founder Rabindranath Tagore was a close friend of both his father and grandfather, and became a close friend of him too. It is at Shanthinikethan, Ray first got insights into rural India. He went to remote villages with the hope of doing sketches.

In 1992 he was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Oscar. However he could not grace the Oscar event; he received the award from his sickbed in Culcutta through a live satellite-television event.

He was considered Bharat Ratnam, Jewel of India when he died on April 23, 1992.

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra is more known for his hilarious Spanish farcical classic Don Quixote. The work is considered a founding classic of Western literature. The work is woven around a country gentleman called Alonso Quixano who thinks of himself as a knight errant.

He starts his journey with his servant Sancho Panza with a new name Don Quixote de la Mancha. He entertains romantic feelings towards a farm girl Aldonza Lorenzo by naming her Dulcinea del Toboso. Humorously, she does not appear in the novel, though she was referred to throughout the novel.

Cervantes was born as the fourth of seven children. His life was based on moving from town to town. He had been a soldier in a Spanish infantry regiment from 1570 to 1575. Financial problems made Cervantes work as a purveyor at the Spanish Armada. He later on took up a job of tax collector.

His publications include Exemplary Novels in 1613, the Journey to Parnassus in 1614, Ocho comedias y ocho entremeses and the second part of Don Quixote in 1615. The first part of Don Quixote was born when he was jailed for bankruptcy. He wanted to give a real picture of life in a clear language.

Although Don Quixote first part did not make Cervantez rich enough, it was enough to get him international recognition.

Cervantez's date of death remains a mystery; some opine he died on April 22 and the funeral was held on the following day. However, because of his funeral and the date mentioned in his tombstone, his official day of death is April 23.

Nonetheless, some scholars mention Britain and Spain used two different calendars by this time; Britain, the Julian calendar, while Spain had already adopted Gregorian Calendar. The calendar difference shows William Shakespeare's death occurred ten days after Cervantez's.

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