Transcending the language barrier

Reviewed by Daya Dissanayake

Steven Pinker, who wrote the best-seller, The Language Instinct (1994), had said that through language we are enabled to rise authentically to a level of becoming fully human, “because information is a particularly good commodity of exchange that makes it worth people's while to hang out together”. The problem is, the exchange has to be with different currencies, of different values, making it more and more difficult to hang out together.

However, we can still hang out together. Even inside the tower of Babel we can understand each other, because we have found ways to communicate through the barriers. As U.R. Ananthmurthy had written in the SAARC journal Beyond Borders, “Plurality of languages, cultures and religions has not in the past threatened the unity of our country. ...the literature in our bhashas, with their history as well as their potential, has contributed to our sense of a Nation with a difference.”

This statement could apply not only to India, but to all SAARC countries, and we should consider all of us as One Nation. The physical and geographical barriers cannot keep writers and poets apart and the modern day transport and communication facilities have helped immensely in this regard. It is only the human barriers we have to breakdown now.

Translation

The SAARC Cultural Centre, Colombo, in collaboration with Vijitha Yapa, has published two anthologies of the creative works of writers from the SAARC countries. Contemporary Short Stories of The SAARC Region 2011, and Poems from the SAARC region 2011, include works originally written in so many different languages, but brought together in translation. These collections remind us that we are all human beings, that the geographical and social barriers we have erected between us can all be broken down.

These two anthologies prove to us that though we use different languages to think, we have the same thoughts, the same feelings and we share the same emotions. Music and art can be shared by all of us, because they are still universally understood and enjoyed. There are no man made barriers, to isolate them, unlike with literature.

The translations have been done so well, that sometimes the stories and poems read as if they were written originally in English. We are able to travel to Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and the other countries through this collection. We can relate with the characters, the incidents and the thinking, because though we live under different labels, and we use different languages, we are all one people. We are descendants of the same ancestors, and our social, cultural, religious and philosophical views have so much in common.

Expressions

“South Asians who inscribed their literary eloquence in stone have now evolved their distinctiveness as a genre of its own called South Asian Literature. This development no doubt has given voice to expressions of South Asian people, may it be cultural, social or political and the ambassadorial role played by South Asian literature is seen as a vital aspect in representing the region at large and its culture in particular.” Thus we read in the preface to the anthology.

The 26 short stories are from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, while the 115 poems are from Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. There are several Maldivian poets and novelists, some of them writing in English. Had they submitted a few pieces these two books could have covered the entire SAARC region.

In our country we have only two major languages, but we came to know some of our own poets writing in Tamil, only through this anthology, and in English translation, because we are separated from our own countrymen by the language barrier. When we meet, we have to use an alien tongue to communicate, and we need translators and interpreters.

Selecting a few examples of the contents of these two anthologies is a far more difficult task than what the editors would have faced in making their own selection. Mentioning the writings of any of the writers would be an injustice to all the others in the collection, and to all the other writers in our region.

Among the SAARC poets, I have found that the Nepalese have developed a style of their own, very brief, but most expressive. Perhaps these are their own answer to Haiku. I translated two such poems into Sinhala for a Sri Lankan Daily, some months back. One poem by Prakash Subedi, titled Barrier -

I was prepared
to cross the mighty Koshi
when two big drops of tears
from your eyes
created an ocean for me.

There could be many more poets in our region, and short story writers, who too have great talents and it is an urgent necessity for us to read them, get to know them and share all our creativity.

Let us use these two anthologies as a platform to begin a dialogue among all SAARC writers. Let us introduce them to all nations, by translating them into our native languages. Let us first try to publish these anthologies in Tamil and Sinhala in Sri Lanka, and in each of the major languages in the other countries.

Let us serialise these stories and poems in our local newspapers, and write about the novels, short stories and poems produced in the region. Since we cannot translate or publish all the creative writings in the region, let us first of all try to translate and publish the award winning books in the region, in all other languages. Let us introduce our own great writers, Martin Wickramasinghe, Ediriweera Sarachchandra, Simon Nawagattegama and Mahagama Sekara to the rest of the world, and start nearer home, to the South Asian countries. Let us introduce our Tamil writers, first to South India, and then to the rest of the region.

Since the two anthologies are of contemporary writings, may I conclude with a humble suggestion to the SAARC Cultural Centre Colombo, to continue with the good work, by compiling the next anthology of the ancient writings from the SAARC region, where the Sri Lankan contribution could be from the Sigiri Graffiti, which I consider to be the world's first social media network, and also from the Jataka stories. Ronald Reagan, on June 12, 1987, said in Berlin, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall”. Let us appeal to all mankind, tear down these walls, all the language barriers we have built between us. This is an opportunity for writers of the world to unite, and united we could change the world to be a better place, not only for humanity, but also for all life forms.

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