Indrani Ratnasekara and her book world
E. Weerapperuma
We speak of world history and world literature with much enthusiasm,
but if we go through our bookshelves what we could find therein is a
great vacuum to be filled both on world history and literature. It is
evident that there is a lot more for us to learn about world history and
world literature. We have not dived fully into the sea of knowledge in
the respective areas, hence we cannot claim to know the whole but only a
very small particle of the respective histories and literary work.
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Author Indrani Ratnasekara hands over a copy to Prof. Sunil
Ariyaratne |
Speaking about those men and women who had contributed immensely to
enrich our knowledge on world literature, through translations of world
class classics, we must admit that any language could reach the world
class level, to the extent the literary work contributes towards the
growth of the respective language.
Attention
Our Sinhala Language is growing and gradually winning the attention
of the world because of the efforts of individuals like Indrani
Rathnasekara who give their might to enrich the language and also take
trouble to introduce Sinhala to the world unknown.
I consider myself fortunate have read a book that contains a summary
on Federico Gracia Lorca by Indrani Rathnasekara. She has taken the
trouble to present the man and his work reading extensively his books
and books written about him in Spanish.
She also has made a commendable effort to include direct translations
from Spanish to Sinhala to give the reader an opportunity to read and
enjoy some of the best poems composed and plots for stage plays written
by the maestro.
This book is her second work of translation in a series, containing
the works of great Spanish poets such as Antonio Machado, Federico
Garcia Lorca and Gustavo Adilfo Becquer.
Federico Garcia Lorca - born on June 5, 1898 to a family of minor,
but wealthy landowners in the small village of Fuente Vaqueros, Granada
- was a great Spanish poet. Although he did not excel in studies with
the passage of time he turned out a theatre director. His major work
includes poetry, theatre, short plays, film scripts and paintings. Sri
Lankan theatregoing public have enjoyed some of the plays that came on
stage and they were based on some of his work such as Moodu Putthu,
Yerma and Blood Wedding.
An emblematic member of the Generation 27 of his time, and the most
beloved and influential of all modern poets and one of the greatest
writers of the 20th century he was abducted and murdered at 38, on
August 19, 1936 at the beginning of Spanish Civil War. The modern plays
written by the passionate, urgent, haunting and evocative Lorca have
been performed worldwide.
The pioneering work of Indrani Rathnasekara opens new vistas to
extend the present boundaries of our knowledge and helps the Sinhala
readers discover an area so far scantly known to them and hence deserves
our deep appreciation. She is qualified to undertake the translation
work of world renowned poets of Spain as she has gathered a wealth of
knowledge through wide travels across the globe and meeting people and
come in contact with variety of languages and customs.
Segments
Indrani has divided her book on Federico Garcia Lorca (1898- 1936)
into three separate segments. The section one draws the attention of the
reader to learn Spanish Literature, childhood of Lorca, the second
section deals with the mild beginning of his literary work especially on
drama as a youth and section three deals with selected poems which
invites the reader to think of his own life and the surroundings he
lives on and helps to bring back the cherish memories of the reader's
own past.
Prof. Sunanda Mahendra in his brief note introducing the author has
stated that impressive helps come from world literary work to expand the
boundaries of Sinhala literature. Indrani brings her translation work on
giants of Spanish literature to the Sinhala reader to enter into vast
domain of classic work of Spain literati and litterateur and assimilate
the best of Spanish literature. Using her ability to employ the
expressions found in the writings, she allows flow down of the Sinhala
language freely, yet lucidly and adroitly, to presents the work of great
literary giants to capture the reader in general and to the satisfaction
of the Sinhala scholars in particular.
She once told me she was surprised to see the Ambassador representing
Spain in India, Rafael Conde De Saro flew from there to attend the
launching ceremony of her second book which was on Federico Garcia Lorca,
Spanish giant of literature to Sri Lanka.
Though she sent the invitation over email, his presence was a great
encouragement and was an expression of gratitude for the trouble she had
taken to introduce Spanish Literary giants to Sri Lanka readers. There
was something more and that was his appreciation of her work superseded
the help she got from the locals officials who were lethargic, hesitant
and lukewarm in extending their support to the event.
His participation at the launch brought good tidings to Indrani as
she was offered a scholarship by the Ambassador to follow a Diploma
course on Spanish Language at the Complutense University, Spain. It was
a sign of great encouragement for her to continue with her good work.
Her work while fills a vacuum exited so far and at the same time
throws more light on the literary work of the local scholars to expand
their scope and paves the way for those keen to study Spanish literary
work and be influenced by the work of those giants and dive deep into
the sea of world literature.
Schooling
Indrani joined the National Carriers in 1976 (Air Ceylon Ltd and Air
Lanka Ltd), immediately after her schooling both at Kegalle Balika
Vidyalaya and Pushapadana Balika Vidyalaya, Kandy, and left the Air
Lanka in 1994, after serving for 20 years in her capacity as ground
hostess, traffic agent and senior traffic officer. She still serves the
country as a National Tourist Guide Lecturer and continues writing
material useful tools to the tourists whose destination is Sri Lanka.
Indrani fluent both in Spanish and Japanese languages claims the
capacity to learn world languages is in her blood as her father was a
man who knew a number of foreign languages and that had created the
necessary milieu for her to take interest in learning other languages.
The employment as an air hostess also was an added blessing and
advantage to pursue her desire to learn the other languages.
Books
The beauty is that she did not stay to learn other languages but
began to share her knowledge with the rest of the world contributing
articles to the local and foreign media and also authoring some of the
books used as tools to introduce Sinhala to tourists. This is very
useful to Sri Lanka, a country craved by the foreigners to come and see.
She said she was very grateful to former Silumina Editor late Nimal
Horana, Professors Sunil Ariyarathne, Sunanda Mahendra and Kusuma
Karunarathne for their support and guidance to pursue her work.
She has authored several books such as Spanish in Sinhala, Sinhala
for Travellers, Kandy Esala Perahera (a brochure in Spanish) and had
translated Prof. Kusuma Karunarathne's Punche Kaetay Wathure Gihin (a
book based tales of Tsunami experiences) into Spanish language.
She has taken part in the international documentary programs on Pablo
Neruda, a great poet and the Ambassador for Chile in Sri Lanka (then
Ceylon) from 1929 to 1930, produced by TVS, Television of Spain. She has
also done a documentary about Gems in Sri Lanka for Spain on request by
Premadasa and Harishchandra in Kandy.
Her participation at the EXPO - 1986 in Osaka, Japan inspired her to
continue with her study of foreign languages and EXPO 1992, Sevilla,
Spain was a further step towards reaching her goal. She had the
opportunity to meet and interview Jose Pepin Bello, a great artist,
Salvador Dali world renowned designer and pioneer of French Film
Industry Luis Bunuel.
Indrani. winner of several awards and certificates in recognition of
her dedicated work to the improvement in the tourist industry and
providing material useful for both the tour guides and the visitors to
Sri Lanka as an author of several books is a good example for other to
follow.
Her commitment gives emphasis to the fact that whatever the
profession one is involved in, is no barrier to learn, enhance once
knowledge and share with others, the lesser mortal with no opportunity
to travel about the countries of the globe. |
