‘The Twelfth Night’ in Sinhala:

A commendable effort

Reviewed by Gwen Herat

Tony Ranasinghe seizes the gifts that life presents to mankind. Though some of us shrink away from greatness to whatever sect we belong, Ranasinghe does not. So, he has achieved one greatness from the well-known question of William Shakespeare, ‘One is born great, one achieves greatness and one has greatness thrust upon him.’

You decide to which category he belongs at the end of this article. Ranasinghe has an indepth of insight and understanding of what he writes. I do not understand why he took to translations especially Shakespeare's plays. Earlier he translated Julius Caesar but with no dialogues. What is needed is dialogue-translations.

One must remember that Shakespeare's greatness lies in his dialogues and a very special kind of English is used for them.

His plays are great but there have been better playwrights than him. For instance, Sheridan's School for Scandal and Oscar Wilde's psychological drama, The Picture of Dorian Grey. Had they been dialogued, they would have superceded most of Shakespeare's plays. With the publishing of Twelfth Night in translation, Ranasinghe has drawn inspiration from Shakespeare.

Ranasinghe is a versatile film-maker and script-writer of repute. Writing begins on an extra mile; not that everyone can write and those who write seize every opportunity towards their career such as Ranasinghe who have made an indelible mark and passion for writing. He listens to his mind twice as much as he wishes to write.

Listening deeply to his conscience whether right or wrong when translating the works that can be harrowing and self-challen ging, he has come out unscathed, mastering his art as revealed in Twelfth Night with more success than in Julius Caesar. The best way to create speculation is to make it a daily habit; think positive and write positive.

From within the text's dialogue (page 70) Malvalio speaks well; very authentic to his character and later few more;

Page 75 of Olivia
Page 83 of Malvalio and Feste, a servant to Olivia and a clown sings from:-

ACT.ii, Sce.IV
‘Come away, come away death

And in sad cypress let me he laid;
Fly away, fly away breath
I am slain by a fair cruel maid
My shroud of white, stuck all with yew
O’ prepare it.
My part of death is no one so true
Did share it.

Not a flower, not a flower sweet
On my black coffin let there be strewn
Not a friend, not a friend greet
My poor corpse where my bones shall be thrown
A thousand, thousand sighs to be saved
Lay me, O where
Sad true lover never finds my grave
To weep there

Duke – There's for thy pains
Clown – No pains Sir, I take I take pleasure in singing.
Duke – I'll pay thy pleasures in singing
Clo – Truly Sirand pleasure will be paid, singing Sir.
Duke – Give me now leave to leave thee

Clo- Now the melancholy God protect thee; and the tailor make thy doublet of changeable taffeta for thy mind is very opal. I would have men of such constancy put to see, that their business might be everything and their intent everywhere for that's it that always make a good voyage of nothing, Farewell.

Duke – Let all the rest give place (exit clown)
And the clown sings for the last time:- (Act.V)
When that I was and a little boy – With hey ho, the wind and the rain
A foolish thing was but a toy – For the rain it raineth every day....

But when I came to man's estate – With hey howith wind and the rain ‘Gainst knaves and thieves men shut their gate – For the rain raineth every day...

But when I came, alas to wive – With hey ho the wind and the rain
By swaggering could I never thrive – For the rain raineth every day...
But when I came unto my bed, with hey ho the wind and the rain

With toss-pots still had drunken heads – For the rain it raineth every day...A great while ago the world begun – with hey ho the wind and the rain

But that's all one, our play is done – And we'll strive to please you every day... exit

The Sinhala version of Twelfth Night can be recommended as a school text.