Celebrated French classic in Sinhala

Reviewed by Edwin Ariyadasa

In the current social context, gratitude is a fast eroding human virtue. Today, a harsh cynicism seems to sweep right across humanity, at the relentless speed of a pandemic.

People in general, do not seem to be stirred by a need to be grateful, even when that sentiment is strongly called for.

In such a distressing background, the gesture of the exemplary person, who is behind this publication under review, has to be recorded with an inescapable sense of duty.

The outstanding person in question is Nihal Sarathchandra Akmeemana, a diasporic Sri Lankan residing in Auckland, New Zealand. He brought out the present edition of this book, moved by a profound sense of gratitude towards the writer the late H.P. Siriwardene Akmeemana invested his time, effort and his resources lavishly to redeem his pledge to the late H.P. Siriwardene, that he will bring out the third edition of this work. And what is this book and what kind of individual is this author H.P. Siriwardene?

Battle

The book we focus upon here, is the Sinhala version of Victor Hugo's perennial classic Notre-Dame de Paris better known as "The Hunchback of Notre-Dame".

Writer H.P. Siriwardene's creative abridgement of this work in Sinhala, came out first in 1946, under the title Kudage Sangramaya (The battle of the Hunchback.

Publication

After sixty-five long years, Nihal Akmeemana has staged-managed the publication of its third edition, giving it the enticing title Aadara Esmeralda (The Darling Esmeralda ). The publication is at once, Nihal Akmeemana's tribute to the writer and his token of appreciation and admiration of the author H.P. Siriwardene.

The name H.P. Siriwardene, may have an exotic ring, to the younger generation of literary enthusiasts of Sri Lanka.

But in this day H.P. Siriwardene was a somewhat high-profile social and literary presence. He received his early education, under the guidance of Philosopher and sage Dr. E.W. Adikaram. Equally efficient both in sports and academic pursuits, Hettimulle Appuhamilage Piyadasa Siriwardene, evolved eventually into the Chief Editor of the Senate Hansard. He introduced an innovated system of Sinhala shorthand which was named after him.

H.P. Siriwardene's, literary works, were distinguished by a freshness of outlook. His works of fiction exuded a vast sense of human kindness.

Nihal Akmeemana, who was in communication with him, in the final stages of H.P. Siriwardene's life, was overwhelmed by the depth of H.P. Siriwardene's compassionate wisdom. In a preamble to the present publication, Nihal Akmeemana, provides an intriguing insight into the mind-set of this unusual genius. When he addressed the daunting challenge of creatively condensing Victor Hugo's classic in Sinhala, H.P. Siriwardene was a youth of 29.

Way back in 1946, the landscape of Sri Lankan literature, did not possess even a vestige of the proliferation of Sinhala translations we witness today. This implied that H.P. Siriwardene had to embark upon his own exhilarating voyage of discovery.

Quality

To judge from the quality of his work H.P.S. had fully fathomed the essence of an efficient translation, which in effect, is a matter of transmitting one culture into another. A given word or an expression in any language, is a verbal icon of the way of life of the people who speak and write that language.

An authentic translation is not merely an exercise in substituting words and expressions. The translated version should communicate not only the literary meaning of the words and expressions of the original, but must convey the "ethos" of the original as well. The translator must obtain an insight into the mind of the original writer.

Epic mind

And, in adapting Victor Hugo to Sinhala, what an epic mind did H.P.S. had to confront? Victor Hugo was a genious with a universal horizon. He had reached the highest peaks of literary excellence and was part of the Movement of Romanticism.