Window on Sri Lankan English writing
Neil Wijeratne is a versatile writer. A fine travel writer and writer
on sports, bilingual in both Sinhala and English. Now with his newest
book he brings Sri Lankan English writers before Sinhala readers,
introducing them and their work.
Of course, De Basey Debasa (Dialogue of Two Languages) is a
collection of selected newspaper columns written by him put together in
book form; while a more number of columns appeared in Sunday Lakbima for
two years, from 2003-2005 some had been published in Irudina, another
Sunday paper.
These short essays as a collection would create more impact than
columns appearing separately in weekly intervals.
 The book is a literary documentation on personalities, events and
developments in connection with Sri Lankan English writing. Inviting
Neil Wijeratne to write a literary column, Editor of Sunday Lakbima had
a purpose in mind, as expressed in his introductory note on Neil’s
column.
“Writing in English based on Sri Lanka has a long history. Certain
English works have been much more popular than some of the original
Sinhala works of literature. ‘Historical Relation of Ceylon’ by Robert
Knox and ‘Village in the Jungle’ by Leonard Woolf are only two of them.
These writers were foreigners. Today there are our own writers, Sri
Lankans, who write in English.
The best works are awarded yearly at the State Literary Festival.
There is another separate award for Sri Lankan writers in the English
stream. Nevertheless, Sinhala only readers may be hardly aware of these
writers or their writing. The objective of this column starting this
week is filling this gap. The series is written by one of the few
bilingual writers we have, Neil Wijeratne.”(Translation)
First essay in De Basey Debasa is on Gratiaen Award founded by
Michael Ondaatje from the prize money he won as the joint winner of
Booker Prize for his novel The English Patient.
Giving details on the prestigious award, the writer points out how
the Award brought to the limelight a new generation of English writers
in the country.
The writer’s argument for the promotion of English writing and
translating modern Sinhala classics into English which surfaced in a
couple of essays has a point; however much a literary work of Sinhala is
appreciated and reviewed in the media, it might still be unknown to
the non Sinhala reader within the country let alone to those outside Sri
Lanka unless it is in English.
And he lauds Vijita Fernando the award winning translator as the
literary translator ‘who took Sinhala fiction to the English book
shelf’.
The catchy titles sum up the themes of some essays and compensate for
the brevity of them. Hitlergen beree aevith nirmanakaranaye yedena Anne
Ranasinghe (Anne Ranasinghe who escaped from Hitler and started her
writing career) Giraye Ayithikariya Punyakanthi Wijenayake (Punyakanthi
Wijenayake, the owner of the nut cracker) Sinhala Prabandaya Ingrisi
poth rakkayata gena a Vijita Fernando (Vijita Fernando who brought
Sinhala fiction to English bookshelf) are some of them.
Incorporating the newspaper columns into a book, the writer has
updated or added more information to them as post scripts which have
enriched the content of the essays.
For example in the essay on translating fiction from other languages
into English (page77) there are postscripts on our award winning
bilingual writer Sunethra Rajakarunanayake’s English writing, Vijita
Fernando’s English translation of her novel Nandithaya as ‘Chameleon’
and the news that her novel Podu Purushaya coming out in English,
Sreejata Guha who translated Thaslima Nasreen‘s novel Forashi Premik
(French Lover) from Bengali to English.
These additions in the form of post scripts serve another purpose:
information on the writers and their writing or any other details in
connection with Sri Lankan English literature but not the main theme of
a given essay included in the book are covered by these short
references.
The book is not a mere documentation of facts; at times the writer
reports an incident with empathy. His account of the sudden demise of Gratiaen
Award 2005 finalist C Shanmugalingam is one such story.
Perhaps Sinhala reader would have come to know of this tragic
incident only through Neil’s column. In a scenario where the apathy of
Sinhala readers of English writing in the country and the unawareness of
Sinhala writers and their writing among Sri Lankan English writers is
still a conspicuous factor, De Basey Debasa is a forum for those
who wish to begin a dialogue. And it is a window opened for the Sinhala
reader to have a view of contemporary English writing and writers.
In fact, Neil’s book would be a cue for any literary academic to do a
thorough study on Sri Lankan English writing and English translations of
reputed modern Sinhala classics.
- Malini Govinnage
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