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| Sunday, 5 June 2005 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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A collection of short stories : Anton Chekov after 100 years
S. Godage & Bros, Colombo, 'My ambition is not to solve problems, but to state them correctly...' - Anton Chekov Anton Chekov's short stories are not unknown to Sinhala readers. They have been translated or adapted into Sinhala from English ever since 1944. 'Samskruti', a reputed magazine devoted to literary criticism started in 1953 in Sri Lanka on the basis of 'Cambridge Critical quarterly' attempted to introduce Chekov to the broader Sinhala reading community in 1960 by their special issue devoted to Anton Chekov. Further Chekov became the first non-western writer to impact on the Sinhala literature through his short stories prescribed for the GCE (Advanced Level) Sinhala and University courses of studies leading to Bachelors and Masters degrees, since early 1960s in Sri Lanka. In this context, Palitha Ganewatta's contribution to Sinhala literature through his above translation is unique. For he is the first Sinhala writer to have translated and published a collection of Anton Chekov's short stories from original Russian to Sinhala. His collection consists of eighteen well-known short stories of Chekov of which, some have never been translated into Sinhala before. Palitha Ganewatta's competency in Russian life and language coupled with his authentic experience in Sinhala rural and regional life, its linguistic features, idioms and expressions are well reflected in the short stories. The Sinhala version is presented realistically so that the reader does not feel that it is an alien theme or experience. This is specifically seen in his translation of Chekov's 'The lady with the toy dog,' which has been previously translated by many famous writers of Sinhala. Chekov is an unusual short story writer, whose techniques of presentation were unparalleled. For instance he did not deal as most other contemporary European short story writers, who had (1) Situation (2) Rising actions (3) Climax (4) Falling actions and (4) Conclusion. For Chekov formal structures inhibited a natural flow of human and social events. However Chekov's short stories are not a sequential collection of material events but an inward pattern of portraying human thought process and its relationship with people and the contemporary society. Palitha Ganewatta has maintained the original artistic flavours of Chekov's prowess by his swift language style that depicts his proficiency in Russian and Sinhala languages and social fabrics. All Chekov's short stories translated in this volume involves a central theme, which he develops through his chosen characters and social situations with precise intuition. The connection between individuals and events relevant to social situations are directed towards the theme. His handling and developing of characters are incomparable. The European writers did not capture this human and social insight that Chekov possessed. Chekov's stories were so true to life that they did not have a formal beginning or a surprising end. As in the famous English poet Geoffrey Chaucer, Checkov's best works of creativity occurred in the latter period of his life. It was then that he derived spiritual complexities and socialist realistic experiences that were visible in his maturity. Palitha Ganewatte's translations from original Russian to Sinhala encompasses these qualities, which were hitherto unknown to the Sinhala reader. Chekov was critical of the ruthless contemporary middle class in Russia while dispelling his anger through formidable artistic means. This is a timely message required in the Sri Lankan context which has been creatively handled by Palitha Ganewatte. Chekov's humanistic approach to life was vividly recaptured in the Sinhala translation, which makes it a worthy contribution to the wealth of Sinhala literature. Reviewed by: U. W. Wickrama.
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Translated from Russian to Sinhala by Palitha Ganewatte 
