First Sinhala translation of Das Kapital out

Wijitha NAKKAWITA

The Sinhala translation of Karl Marx's monumental work Das Kapital translated into more than 40 languages was not translated into Sinhala though it came to be published in 1867 and Sri Lankan leftist politicians and other groups of people here who claimed to be Marxists also had failed to translate this important work that was the very foundation of the great thinker, said Prof Desmond Mallikarachchi, Department of Philosophy and Psychology, University of Peradeniya.

He was speaking at the launch of the Sinhala translation of Das Kapital by Jayatilleke de Silva at the Public Library Auditorium yesterday.

Prof. Mallikarachchi said Marx was essentially a revolutionary whose vision of society and economics was able to grasp what other thinkers or philosophers failed to grasp and he was the only thinker who sought to change society after understanding the society of his day that had transformed from slavery to feudalism and then to capitalism. He foresaw the failure of capitalism and the weaknesses inherent in it more than a 100 years before recessions and depressions brought down capital.

The effort by Jayatilleke de Silva to translate this important work deserves praise as now a majority of people could read it and understand the message that Marx gave humanity as it was a book that everyone including those who are concerned with society or the social systems should read.

Jayatilleke de Silva in his introductory talk said he was fascinated with Karl Marx whose theories were based on mathematics and had proved that the society of his times was evil. But he himself had the opportunity of taking time to translate Das Kapital when he was incarcerated by the J.R.Jayewardene - Lalith Athulathmudali regime for three years in 1986.

It was from prison that he started the work and he felt that Das Kapital was needed at the present times.