La fille du puisatier in Sinhala
Marcel Pagnol (1895-1974) is perhaps the last French provincial
writer who immortalized the pastoral life, with its inimitable innocence
and its inescapable bucolic cunning. He contributed immensely to
literature by his provincial idioms, expressions and witty dialogues.
Based on his theatre works, 22 films were made of which
 21
are by him. Pagnol won the Best Foreign Film award thrice, (1939, 1940 -
'Baker's Wife,' and 1950).
'Well-digger's daughter' (1940) is a rare film which incorporated
Field Marshal Petain's capitulation before Hitler, occurred while
'shooting.' The film was nominated for the Best Foreign Film. Its
contemporaneous quality is proved after 70 years: 'Well-digger's
daughter' new film gets screened in 2010 (Daniel Auteuil in main role).
Dr. Piyasiri Vijayasekere's translation of 'Well-digger's daughter'
is PAGNOL's fourth work in Sinhala. He has also translated Nobel Prize
laureate Albert Camus's 'The Stranger' (1992) (Best Translation, 1993,
Independent Literary Festival), Elie-Georges Berreby's 'Le Visiteur'
(theatre, 1903, unpublished), 'Pearl Fishers' (opera) (Carré & Cormon,
2008) and Michael Ondaatje's 'Running in the Family' (2008). He holds a
Masters degree (Panthéon Sorbonne) and a Doctorate (Université de
Paris). According to Dr. Vijayasekere, direct French-Sinhala
translations offer an additional advantage of engaging in a Culturo-ideological
Decolonization process vis-à-vis the dominant (colonial) mode of
communication.
The translation of La fille du puisatier will be launched at the
Alliance Francaise de Colombo Auditorium on September 24 at 6 pm. |
