Vijita Fernando: Bilingual writer with 'depth'

Reading Homecoming, on my way to my usual rounds of the weekly interview, I realised that the writer was someone who possess more depth than other writers of today, whose medium was English. She was in touch with the real afflictions of the real people and that's indeed very rare.

Vijita Fernando, writer and translator has been a journalist for twenty five years, which had given her access to material as well as inspirations. She has published two collections of short stories - Eleven stories and Once, on a mountain side.

She is also a translator, from English to Sinhala and vice versa. Some of her translations include Madara, Yasoravaya and Malagiya Aththo. She has won many awards for her own writing as well as for her translations.

She received the State Literary Award for her translation of Women writing, in 2001; a Gretian for Out of the darkness in 2002; Ian Goonatilleke Award for her translation Chameleon, in 2005; and a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Press Institute this year.

Q: What attracts you to topical issues like drug addiction and employment in the Middle East?
 

A: It came from my being a journalist. I've had to encounter these type of issues as a journalist. Once, I remember I went to Baghdad on an assignment. There I met many women like the women I write about and they couldn't stop talking about the ordeals they went through. There is a slum near where we live and here drug abuse has a huge impact on them.

Q: How else did your career as a journalist help you to become a writer?

A: Being a journalist doesn't make you a good writer. But the training you receive through being a journalist, the discipline in writing and the accuracy, is definitely beneficial.

Q: What are the techniques you adopt when writing?

A: I don't adopt techniques. But when you are an experienced writer you develop a certain style. But this is not what's most important. Style varies from individual to individual. What's most important is the craft, which I am very particular about. If I read a certain story over and over again it's to make sure that it has a flow.

Q: What sort of a convention do you prefer to follow and why?

A: I like the first person narrator convention very much. I don't know why exactly, it's probably because it gives you a different perspective. For example The wild one is written in a child's perspective. But first person narration doesn't suit every theme and you have to prevent it from sounding like a sermon.

Q: Why haven't you written any novels?

A: I'm currently engaged in writing a novel, but it's a very slow process. I write a lot not only creative things, but also I write to two international agencies, in which context, writing short stories is much easier. Besides I like to have time for myself, and unlike a short story a novel is a huge undertaking.

Q: Why were you attracted to translating?

A: Sinhala language is one of my greatest passions. I have tried to write in Sinhala, so many times, but couldn't write the way I write English. And I thought, translating Sinhala to English is the next best thing.

I find that there is a great literary body now in Sri Lanka, writing in Sinhala. But unless somebody translates them, the rest in the English reading world would not come across them. The objective of my translating is that more Sinhala writers are introduced to the English readership.

Q: Why did you find it difficult to write in Sinhala at first?

A: Actually I tried only very recently, even then only half heartedly and I wasn't successful. I am now trying to achieve this through translating English into Sinhala.

Q: What are the problems you have encountered while translating?

A: I don't have a problem of translating Sinhala into English. But, English into Sinhala I've realized that the words don't come as freely. I have to, some times look up the dictionary or ask someone. But it's not a huge problem.

Q: Did you have any particular interest, translating some texts than others?

A: I only translate creative work and never poetry, only prose. I'm very choosy about what I translate. I look for quality. There are such great books out there, it's a pleasure to translate them. In the end, because I always look for quality, all the books I've translated are inadvertently books written by renowned Sinhala writers.

Q: You are fond of rural settings, what's your connection to it?

A: I was born in a village off Hikkaduwa, but stayed there only until I was about twelve. However I have my roots there. It's a very fertile source for writers. Some romanticize the village, but there is much more to write even without doing so.

Q: What was your reaction to the awards you won?

A: I was extremely happy when I won the Gretian because it was a translation.

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