Montage - BOOKS CORNER

Book launch

Ran Nelum Pokuna with English and Tamil translations

Kamal Perera

Kamal Perera will launch Ran Nelum Pokuna and its Tamil version titled Ponthamarai Kulam at the National Library and Documentation Services Board Auditorium on April 8. The Tamil version Ran Nelum Pokuna has been translated by Madulugiriye Wijeratne while the English version Golden Lotus Pond has been translated by Sunethra Siriwardena.

In addition, Viyatha Vath Asuraka, a collection of newspaper articles and an approach to literary criticism of short story and a guide to exercises will be launched on the same occasion.

A talk on the art of translation will be delivered by Prof. V. Maheswaran of the University of Peradeniya.

Upul Ranjith Hewavithanagamage of the University of Kelaniya will comment on the Tamil and Sinhala books.

Chinthaka Ranasinghe will evaluate the literary works of Kamal Perera.

Minister of National Languages and Social Integration Vasudeva Nanayakkara will preside over the meeting.

New arrivals

Prabhakarange Eelam Sihinaya Sunu Visunu Kala Rana Viruvo

Author: J.F Ranjith Perera
A Sarasavi publication

J.F. Ranjith Perera's latest book Prabhakarange Eelam Sihinaya Sunu Visunu Kala Rana Viruvo evaluates the contributions made by the heroic security forces to eradicate LTTE terrorism from the country.

His first book entitled Winning an unwinnable war, A tribute to the war heroes was written to evaluate the contributions made by the political leaders and the commanders of the Security Forces and their officers in the suppression of terrorism.

The second book written in Sinhala is to appreciate the selfless sacrifices made by the heroic soldiers of the Security Forces who were described as Ranaviruvo. They were the brave young men who carried the gun to the battlefield against a band of ruthless terrorists amidst natural and other artificial obstacles placed by the terrorists to prevent the movement of the advancing security forces.

About 28,000 young men of the heroic security forces sacrificed their lives and 10,000 of them became permanently disabled. Had it not been for the selfless sacrifices made by them, the country would not have continued to be a sovereign state with its territorial integrity intact. In addition they sacrificed their lives to make us live safely.

We are not alone

The Caretakers
Author: Sunanda Mahendra

Reviewed by Daya Dissanayake

The journey begun by Prof. Sunanda Mahendra in 1963, with the publishing of his first novel, Hevaneli Eda Minissu continues, leaving regular landmarks on the way. Each landmark, be it in the form of a Sinhala novel or poem or an English novel, reflects the maturity and wisdom he had gathered over the years.

The Caretakers is the most recent landmark we find left by him in his path as he continues his journey as a writer. It is a simple story, short and sweet, where the poet in him comes out in the brief, but very forceful novel, leaving us with much to think about. The novel tells us how misguided traditions cause unnecessary tragedies in our society. The story focuses on the utter confusion among the traditional hill-country families who have tried to live within a prison of their own making. The barbs on the wire running around the fence of the prison are the ancient Sinhala, Hindu, South Indian and Victorian mores.

Servile nature

Sunanda Mahendra has drawn a complete picture with three short sentences. “Her real name was not Diana. She was known as Dayani Kumari Abeysinghe. Her relatives shortened it to Diana”. After finding a typical traditional Sinhala name for the girl, probably according to her horoscope, they reject it for a very common English name, because their servile nature overcomes their common sense.

Diana was brought up in this prison, and when she entered the Agriculture school, the intelligent, ambitious, hard working girl, could not face the reality of the life outside her prison. When the crude practical joke on her by her friends backfired, she tried to flee, but the barbed wire restrained her, pricking deep into her mind, injuring it permanently.

The parents were in their own prisons, and within its restricted world, they were obsessed with arranging a marriage for the daughter, not because the girl wanted it, but to avoid the social stigma of having a daughter in the family who would end up a spinster. The arranged marriage was to a young man, who had escaped from the traditional prison, but was caught up in the prison of business, the barbs on his perimeter wires were the obsession to improve his business.

Tragedy

After the tragedy at the school, Diana had not got back to her normal self, her father said, “If not for that, the best thing would be to marry her off.” The same father says again, when the marriage failed, “She is not going to be a burden to us. She is our only child. Let her stay here with her child Dinithi”. This is the cultural trap that many parents find themselves caught in, and Sunanda Mahendra describes the trap without taking refuge in a one thousand page tome of a novel.

The book also brings out the contradictions in our society making life a tangled web from which it is almost impossible to extricate ourselves. One such situation is created by Diana's aunt Shanthi.

The story begins with her death, and in introducing Shanthi to us we come across the sentence on page 8, “Let me live in peace” Shanthi says, and again, “I have to struggle hard to keep myself occupied in some fruitful mission, instead of entering this stupid marriage market bringing child after child and paying homage to a husband come down from the blues.”

Socrates

This same Shanthi offers advice to Diana to go back to her husband and to ‘settle down with him”. At the beginning of Chapter 8, the author quotes Socrates, “I know that I don't know”. Yet the characters who live in this story, and most of us alive on earth today, have to admit, “We do not know that we do not know”. Shanthi, who thought she knew what she wanted in her life, in the end perhaps shows a tinge of regret about what she may have missed in life.

In a way, The Caretakers is not the story of Diana alone, but is the story of Shanthi, and Anula and Thamara and all womankind.

This is where the author's thorough knowledge of the Tripitaka, Jataka stories, Eastern and Western Classics and the modern novel, plays its role to bring Diana to accept life as it is.

In the end Diana has stepped outside her prison, or the prison walls had slowly dissolved away, and she is free. At the beginning of the narrative, Mahim finds Diana, a very talkative girl, looking after her baby and also concerned enough to make her scholar uncle comfortable at the funeral home.

Diana tells us, “I am not alone! Here I am! A woman! No woman is alone.” We, none of us, are ever alone.

Aquinas’ profound philosophical ideas on friendship

by Charith Perera

It is very rare that a book on philosophy is published in this part of the world which is preoccupied with a rat race aimed at acquiring material prosperity. But, it is still worthwhile pondering on to deviate one from the worldly thoughts and to think about the meaning of life and about rare attributes of humanity as friendship.

A book authored by Fr. Ajith Wellington, OMI, and Fr. Richard Wolak, OMI , is such a rare book which deals with the subject of friendship from a philosophical perspective. The book entitled “FRIENDSHIP, THE MOST DESIRABLE OF ALL GOODS: Thomas Aquinas on Charity as Friendship” will be launched at 4 p. m. on April 6 at the Bonjean Hall, St. Joseph’s College, Colombo-10.

The concept of friendship has an important place in the history of philosophy. This aspect is prominent in the golden era of ancient philosophy (Greek Humanism-Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle) with the shift of philosophical focus from a reflection on the natural world to a reflection on man. This shift of focus enabled man to see and appreciate his connectedness to the other and the important role others play in his life.

Medieval philosophers because of their Christian faith added a vertical dimension (God-man friendship) to the already established horizontal understanding of friendship between man and man. The new dimension is linked to man’s search for his place in the world and his search for meaning of life. The Christian faith which advocates man’s union with God as the ultimate fulfillment of life was able to answer man’s quest in search of meanings of life.

Golden era

Having dealt with the philosophical evolution of the notion of friendship from the medieval period which is considered the golden era of Christian philosophy and the profound ideas expounded by St. Thomas, the authors observe the decline of the importance of friendship in the light of modern advancement of science and scientific discoveries which were more attractive to the man.

The authors observe, “This development coincided with the devaluation of many things: respect for man, respect for God and respect for nature. In the medieval period, man was seen as a creature, unlike all other creatures, created in the God’s image and likeness. Nature was seen as God’s creation, given to man as a gift. With the dawn of the modern era man became busy trying to domesticate nature, trying to unravel the secrets of both nature and the human.

He was obsessed with success and discoveries. In such as world, the concept of friendship appears to be in a state of disarray. Contemporary cultures do not give prominent place to friendship, and contemporary mores indicate to us ‘friends’ can have numerous relationships with us: as lovers, lunch companions, colleagues, acquaintances and political allies. Unfortunately, the concept of man loving another man in God has today become quite alien to the human mind. Loving someone for his own sake is also not really a quality that characterizes our relationship today.”

According to the authors, the objective of the book is to study and evaluate the Thomistic idea of caritas as amicitia (charity as friendship) in view of discovering why and how friendship is the most desirable of all goods. The book expounds the profound philosophical insights of St. Thomas, philosopher-theologian, on the subject of friendship. The book is an attempt at understanding St. Thomas’s theory of friendship and its myriad applications.

Fr. Ajith Wellington is a member of the Congregation of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI), is an alumnus of the National Seminary of Our Lady of Lanka, Kandy, Sri Lanka. He holds a B.Ph. (Bachelor of Philosophy) and a B.Th. (Bachelor of Theology) from the Urbaniana University, Rome, a L.Ph. (Licentiate in Philosophy) and a Ph.D. (Doctorate in Philosophy) from the Gregorian University, Rome as well as a Postgraduate Diploma in Buddhist Studies from the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka.

He has been a lecturer (2001-2003) in Philosophy at the Charles Lwanga Major Seminary, Windhoek, Namibia and since 2004 he has been teaching Philosophy at his alma mater, the National Seminary of Our Lady of Lanka. At present he is also a visiting lecturer at the Department of Western Classical culture and Christian culture of the University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka.

Fr. Richard Wolak is a member of the Congregation of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI), is an alumnus of the Angelicum University, Rome. He holds a L.Th. (Licentiate in Theology) and a Ph.D. (Doctorate in Philosophy) from the Gregorian University, Rome.

He has been a teacher at Michael Power H.S. in Toronto (1962-1967), a lecturer in Moral Theology at St. Charles Scholasticate, Battleford (1967-1972), at Newman College, Edmonton (1975–1994), at St. Dominic’s, Lusaka, Zambia (1995-1997), at OMI Scholasticate in Cedara, South Africa (2006–2007).

Apart from his teaching career, he has also been involved in administrative work. He served as the Editor of the Magazine, “Missions Today” (1997-1999), and the Provincial Treasurer, Director, Saskatoon, SK (1999 – 2005). At present he lives in Rome working as a translator and librarian at the OMI General House.

Two books on Chekhov and Gunadasa Amarasekera

Dr. Palitha Ganewatta, the Executive Producer of Special Broadcasting Service (SBC) in Sydney, Australia, launched two books at the Russian Cultural Centre, Colombo recently.

The two books are Doctor Chekhov and Discussions with Dr. Gunadasa Amarasekera.

The great Russian writer Anton Pavlovich Chekov (1860-1904) was widely known as a dramatist and a short story writer. He remains a 19th century Russian literary giant, whose prose continues to offer moral insight to readers across the world. The little known fact is that Chekov was a doctor who obtained his medical degree from the Moscow Medical School in 1884.

Anton Chekhov

Dr. Gunadasa Amarasekera

Chekov experienced no conflict between literature and medicine. He believed that the knowledge of one field complemented the other. He brought his intuitive knowledge and sensitivity of medical science to his creative writings. His sensibility as a medical practitioner gave special poignancy to his physician characters in his short stories. Medical practitioners were among the main characters of Chekov's best short stories produced during the later years of his life. Chekov's famous short stories such as ‘Ward No.6’, Doctor's visit’, ‘The ‘Grasshopper’ and ‘Doctor lonich’, describe the legacy of the 19th Century Russian doctors. The translations of three of thee stories are included in the collection. The author draws from original Russian sources, which have never before been translated into English.

Palitha's book studies Chekov's medical career and the impact it had on his creative writings. The author draws on the recollections of Chekov's family, contemporaries, professional colleagues and friends. Chekov's letters have been widely used in the collection, as the author believes that his best biography was written by Chekov himself as letters, which he wrote every day to his friends and literary colleagues.

It is the second book published by Palitha on Anton Chekov. The first book, a collection of 18 short stories of Chekov, translated from original Russian to Sinhala, was published in 2004 to coincide with the great Russian writer's centenary death anniversary.

The second book is titled Discussions with Dr. Gunadasa Amarasekera

Dr. Gunadasa Amarasekera is a foremost creative writer of Sri Lanka today. He is a poet, a short story writer, a novelist, a literary critic and a committed intellectual.

The booklet contains a collection of interviews broadcast by the Sinhalese Radio Program of Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) in Australia.

Book launch

Sajeevi Lokaya

Agga Maha Panditha Ven. Dr. Bellana Gnanawimala Thera's Sajeevi Lokaya will be launched at the National Library Services and Documentation Centre auditorium, Colombo 7 on March 28 at 3 p.m. Ven. Dr. Medagoda Abhayatissa Thera, Ven. Maduluwawe Sobhitha Thera, Ven. Agalakada Sirisumana Thera, Ven. Prof. Pathegama Gnanissara Thera and Ven. Dr. Ittapane Dhammalankara Anunayake Thera will address the launching ceremony. Sajeevi Lokaya is a Sahitha publication.

*********************

Athipujya Bellana Gnanawimala Maha Nahimi Desu Ha Liyu Bana

Ven. Pandith Lathpandure Rahula Thera's latest book titled Athipujya Bellana Gnanawimala Maha Nahimi Desu Ha Liyu Bana will be launched at the Valukarama Temple, Colombo 3 on March 26 at 1.30 p.m. It is a Dayawansa Jayakody Publication.