Agula Saha Venath Keti Katha:

Sinhalese translation of Maupassant's short stories

Reviewed by Ranga Chandrarathne

Although Guy de Maupassant and his works are not strange to Sinhalese readers, it is rare that Maupassant's short stories have been translated from French into Sinhalese.

Agula saha Venath keti Katha, a collection of Guy de Maupassant's short stories translated from French into Sinhalese by young lecturer in French at the University of Keleniya Chandeera Gunawardena , fulfils , to a certain extent , the need in the Sinhalese literary landscape for authentic translations in Sinhalese. Many instances, it is the English translation of the original work which has been translated again into Sinhalese. In such translations, very often the weaknesses in the English translation and more are being replicated in Sinhalese translation. Agula saha Venath keti Katha is made up of 11 short stories with a lengthy introduction of the author Guy de Maupassant and his works. The author has used a simple yet lucid language deriving the essence of the original short stories in French.

The title story of the collection Agula is woven around an incident of a member of a singles party in France. According to the story, the single's party which has been set up with 14 members 20 years ago , has now reduced to 4 members and the members in a party exchange their stories of seducing women. It has been pointed out that one of the rules is that members should reveal their affairs with all the personal details so that the stories can be verified as authentic.

The members often look down on women as easy virtue and uphold the German philosopher Schopenhauer and his philosophy as the gospel truth. They often cite Schopenhauer to justify their actions. Although they despise women, they often think about them and about the ways and means of entertaining them. The members of the singles party readily condemns married men and boasted about their adventures with women while having Champaign. The story ends with a member describing his first love affair with a woman senior to him and how he accidentally caught up in the act when the owner with a servant came to repair the rented room. The story discusses about the individual groups that existed in France and the kind of philosophies which justify their action.

Teenage love

Among the interesting story is Navathana (boarding). The story is woven around a young man who comes to Paris for studies and stay at a boarding run by a middle-aged woman. Although the story ends with the young man having sex with the boarding mistress, the crux of the story is teenage love. What is significant is that the translator has captured not only the essence of the Maupassant's original story but presented it in lucid and idiomatic Sinhala diction.

Looking at the selection of the short stories for the collection, it is obvious that the translator has taken into consideration the fact that the collection may represent diverse themes of Maupassant's short stories. For instance, the short stories such as Kalu Pemvathiya and Pipasaya deal with different issues. In the short story Kalu Pemvathiya , Maupassant discusses what caused Othuvan to become a scavenger in the village. Though now he leads a seemingly happy marriage with his wife, his heart still seems to be with his first love, a black girl. Despite the passionate courtship, Othuvan could not marry her because parents were against it. It seems that the shock he suffered at the separation from his first love made him psychologically imbalance so that he could no longer concentrate on studies.

Story Pipasaya (thirst) deals with an incident where a village woman wanted to get rid of gush of breast milk. As she was on her way to work and in the train, she could not get rid of it and the young man sat facing her volunteered to suck the milk from the breasts relieving of her pain.

However, the story ends by revealing that the young man had not meals for two days and actually the village woman had breast-fed him. Apart from depicting the disturbed mindset of the woman in distress, the story shows how people would react differently under different circumstances.

In the story Varada, Maupassant analysis the complex mindset of a woman and innocent young man who misunderstand the reaction of the woman. The action takes place in a long-distance train and in a sleeping carriage for two. The woman is the wife of an army officer and the young man begins to chat with her. The young man tries to seduce the woman but she hits him hard compelling him to be silent throughout the journey. However, at the destination, the woman thanks the young man and introduces him to her husband. The entire episode is a regrettable mistake. The story highlights not only the complex and rather unpredictable human behaviour in a given situation.

Language

One of the cardinal facts that makes a book readable is its language. Even in a translation, the language plays a major role in conveying the original story in source language in this instance French in target language, Sinhalese. The translator should be fluent in both the source language as well as the target language in addition to possessing considerable literary skills. Chandeera Gunawardena has proved that he possesses a comprehensive knowledge of French and Sinhalese and literary skills which have essentially made the book extremely readable.

The author has captured not only the diverse voices represented in the short stories featured in the book but also nuanced meanings in French. Apart from its impressive language, the translator on numerous occasions has depicted the cultural landscape of France.

Pitfalls

Since the short stories have been translated from French into Sinhalese, Sinhala readership would be able to read them afresh without the possible linguistic pitfalls in some of the English renderings which have been translated into Sinhalese. Even in dialogues, the translator has maintained an impressive language while representing the diverse voices in the stories.

The fact should be mentioned that the translator has not done a proverbial word for word translation where the translator would rather mechanically translate words and phrases from the source language into target language. The principal weakness in such a translation is that the text in the target language tends to be ambiguous and not in sound Sinhalese.

This weakness is often apparent in translations both from English and other international languages into Sinhala and from Sinhala into English.

Detailed introduction to the translation provides background information not only about Guy de Maupassant but also the backdrop against which he wrote the short stories.