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| Sunday, 30 June 2002 |
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Translation of pervading simplicity Asiya Peheliya (Translation of the "Light of Asia': Sir Edwin
Arnold) reviewed by V. Vitharana 'The Light of Asia' is the greatest Buddhist poem composed in the English language, and the only one of any consequence composed in any of the Western languages. Its author, Sir Edwin Arnold, one of the brilliant brains that left Victorian Britain for the East during the first half of the nineteenth century to govern and 'educate' the natives of her newly annexed territories of the region, was in turn 'conquered' by the spiritual heritage of India within a few years of his arrival in Poona. The vast literary wealth of the great religions, then classified by the Britishers as 'Hindu' and that of Islam which had flourished along-side for a few centuries by then, appealed to this member of the prestigious Indian Civil Service who had already won the New Gate Prize for poetry at the Oxford University. Of all what he thus happened to read, it was the strange life of a young royal prince, Siddhartha, that appealed to him most, not to speak of the loftiness of the Doctrine that he expounded. But the philosophy expounded by this singular person who renounced all the pleasures that monarchy could confer on him in order to discover the Path of Spiritual Release of all beings - not only human, remained for many centuries as an 'Asian' or an 'Eastern' faith, and it is rather difficult to discern when the West come to hear of a 'Buddha' or of 'Buddhism' at whatever level, for the first time. Equally so, it is generally said that the common man of those countries had not heard of the Buddha or his teachings by the middle of the eighteenth century (1849) when the 'Light of Asia', composed by the above mentioned Arnold reached his hands. There is no doubt, however, that the 'mystic East' was known to these lands earlier at an intellectual level. 'The light of Asia' began to be held in so high an esteem that within a century of its first appearance it went through over sixty reprints in England and over a hundred in the United States, in addition to being translated into all the main European tongues. Unfortunately, it was unknown to the Sinhala Buddhists in general although it did come to be read by the English educated over fifty years ago. It was then that the indefatigable missionary, the Ven. Narada of the Vajirarama organised 'Light of Asia Contests' in the English medium Buddhist schools islandwide, (in which students attending non-Buddhist schools too could take part), and that is how the present translator happened to be acquainted with it as a young school-boy who had just entered his teens. Subsequently, as it appears, he perused it more avidly as a student of Mahinda College, Galle, at which the environment for its deeper perusal was more conducive. It took his heart so much that he tried his hand at translating it into Sinhala prose, and published it at the end of 1955 - a few months ahead of the Buddha Jayanti Celebrations. He translated it into prose because, as he says, he was then not conversant with the art of poetizing, hoping for an able person to be so inspired by reading his own experimental effort. But, in the 'Introduction' of his present effort, the author laments that no such person with the required ability was born in this blessed land for the last four decades in spite of the Mother Tongue being 'promoted' as the National language and the Medium of Instruction. He is sad too that in this land with its tradition of the excellent use of language - sanskrit, Pali and Sinhala, and later on, English, has lost that touch today. Hardly is the 'Light of Asia' understood by the 'educated' Sinhala-Buddhist of the present day, and harder still is it to find one of them who can render it to some sort of metrical verse. Whereas he named his prose translation of 47 years ago 'Asiya Eliya', he calls the present verse translation 'Asiya Peheliya' making good use of his competence in Sinhala usage, and explains how much more appropriate the present version is. An outstanding feature of this translation is its pervading simplicity of diction that never descends to looseness and slovenliness. It is not everyday speech and is yet well understood as though he is addressing a hearer in a richer idiom different from the typically colloquial. Are the goals worth the effort? 'Whither Sri Lanka's Representative Democracy? by CHANDRA DOLAWATTE Publishers: S. Godage and Brothers Reviewed by Dr. John Gooneratne My immediate answer to the question posed in the titled of Dr. Dolawatte's book was - 'to the dogs.' Let me explain the reasons for that response. Today elections in Sri Lanka are a blood sport. Each election finds more and more people killed in election violence. After elections several elected MPs land in jail. Some attend Parliament with different limbs in plaster cast, and being wheeled in, in a wheel chair. Some attend parliamentary sittings from remand prison, brought to Parliament in prison vehicles. The more influential and those with money to hire expensive lawyers and have 'clout' can spend the remand period in a hospital of their choice. And at times like these we find that our system of justice has become quite malleable. The police system displays multi-colours, to keep up, as it were, with the multi-party system. In such circumstances is it an exaggeration to call the situation - going to the dogs? The reactions of the citizens to this kind of situation are manifold. The vast majority has come to accept the situation as irremediable. And their prayer (to the elected representatives) might go something on the following lines - 'Please, when milking the Treasury for your own profit, don't milk it dry. Just a reasonable amount, so as not to leave an empty Treasury. Don't try to make a fortune for your grandchildren also. Just try and keep it to your own needs." There are others who try, against all odds to make a dent and wake the nation to the dangers faced by representative democracy. Then there are people like Dr. Dolawatte who think the goals are worth the effort - to change representative democracy as presently practised, to what the words really mean - representative democracy. This book is an effort to share the authors views with the reading public. There are several attractive features, I find in Dr. Dolawatte's book. The first is it size. It is a very readable 80 pages. We don't want to become constitutional pundits, after all. We just want to have a better electoral system where you don't have to make out your last will each time you have to go and cast your vote. Secondly, Dr. Dolawatte has written in simple English. This is rare these days. There is no constitutional gobbledygook meant to impress the reader of the depth and width of the writer's erudition. Thirdly, Dr. Dolawatte has sought to approach the subject by focusing on the defects in the present system, as we know through experience of the electoral system, and how to remedy them. His incisive comments are a notable feature of his narration. Just to give an example, after tracing the historical background of Sri Lanka enjoying voting rights from colonial times to the present, Dr. Dolawatte points to a fundamental defect, which is "mother of all current abuses" when he says, "the fundamental reason is that under various attractive slogans and pretexts, a government of men (and women) has come to replace a government of laws which is the sine qua non of a just and free society." The subjects he deals with are the kind of phenomena we as non-specialists see. "How the present highly expensive electioneering system is bound to be a massive source of corruption in the government and the society." These are not the chapter headings, but the different problem areas he deals with. We are familiar with the problem of some unknown candidate from some far off place in the district descending on you, bent in two, with a semi-permanent smile on his face, asking for your vote and saying he feels for our problems even more than we ourselves do. And the next time you see him is at the next elections, with the same smile and spiel. Dr. Dolawatte deals with this phenomenon under the heading: "The problem of inter-election nursing of electorates." A source of a lot of election violence is where candidates of the same party maul each other. This is dealt under the section: "Rivalries among candidates of the same party and a lesson from the American primary voting system." Dr. Dolawatte discusses the need to take the choice of candidates away from the party bosses, as is now the case, and place the choosing of candidates before the people. He feels this will work to the better interests of the people. Dr. Dolawatte has some interesting views on the undemocratic features in "cut-off," "bonus seats" and "national lists." In the case of "national lists" he is of the view that "special talent or experience is no pass for backdoor-entry to Parliament." And he proposes a way to remedy such defects. These are just a sampling of the range of subjects in the book. In suggesting changes to the system, and citing practices from other countries with mechanisms close to Sri Lanka's case, he unobtrusively indicates the philosophy of 'representative democracy' he believes in. This is important, as it shows where the particular suggestions he makes fit into an overall philosophy. Otherwise, it will be a whole heap of suggestions without an uniting philosophy. I don't intend to summarise the contents of the book in this fashion. I just want to show the approach Dr. Dolawatte uses in his book - practical aspects of the problems faced by the electoral system as we have it now in Sri Lanka, and the remedies offered to correct the drawbacks. His is a very practical book. He is not trying to give an ideal electoral system. He is trying to show how the present system can be improved by a few practical changes. How a citizen should be allowed to cast his vote, and live to cast his vote another day. Those who want to take a citizen's interest in improving the electoral system, and in turn representative democracy in Sri Lanka, will find Dr. Dolawatte's book of great benefit. |
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