Why translate the untranslatable? | Daily News
The Waste Land in Sinhala

Why translate the untranslatable?

Book review
T S Eliot
T S Eliot

Eric Ilayapparchichi an award-winning Sri Lankan writer has published a Sinhala translation of T. S. Eliot’s most controversial long poem: The Waste Land. The title of the translation is Mudu Bima (which can be translated back into English as Barren Land). If my understanding is correct, this is the first time that a translation of Eliot’s work appears in Sinhala.

As soon as I received a copy of Eric Ilayapparchichi’s (Eric) translation of Eliot’s masterpiece, I questioned whether Eliot’s work could be translated into Sinhala to give the inherent meanings embodied in the original texts. I also had another question why people take the trouble to translate. In the case Eric’s translation of The Waste Land he has not just translated the original 433 lines that Eliot penned in his masterpiece. Eric has produced a publication consisting of 256 pages devoting the bulk of the book to provide explanatory notes aiding the Sri Lankan reader who may not be familiar with the background to The Waste Land which has quotations from several languages and references and allusions to many subjects. So why translate untranslatable poetry into Sinhala? Ms Google helped me to find an interesting quotation:

“So why translate? My first answer is that poetry in translation simply adds to the total of human pleasure obtainable through a single language. It opens up new language worlds within our tongues, as every good poem does. It revitalises our daily, cliche-haunted vocabulary. It disturbs our assumptions, jolts us with rhythms flatter or stronger than we're used to. It extends us in the way real travelling does, giving us new sounds, sights and smells” (Carol Rumens. www.guardian.com. 28 Sep 2007).

Though Eric has not stated specifically, I realised that being a talented poet himself, he has translated Eliot’s work simply to add “the total of human pleasure obtainable through a single language” and to offer that “human pleasure” to the Sinhala reader who may not be familiar with T. S. Eliot’s work at all. What was Eric’s motive for translating this difficult poem? Is Eric alluding to something else about him or larger issues that he is observing in his native country? The second question came to my mind after reading Eric’s latest Sinhala poetry collection Abali (broken pieces) in which he shares powerful insights about Sri Lanka. Unfortunately, there have been no reviews of his latest collection of poetry either in Sinhala or English. I sincerely hope this translation would generate a healthy dialogue in Sri Lanka. The purpose of this short review is to answer the question of whether Eric has given us the pleasure of reading The Waste Land in Sinhala. Has he offered us a beautiful or faithful translation of Eliot’s original text?

My reading of T. S. Eliot’s work goes back to the mid-1970s. While working as a freelance writer, I had the privilege of reading Eliot’s work under the tutelage of veteran journalists Dr Edwin Ariyadasa who has the gift of reciting most of Eliot’s work by memory. I could remember one of our afternoon meetings at the Pagoda café in Fort where Dr Ariyadasa used to entertain his friends (including the journalists from Lake House, and elsewhere) with cakes and tea. Our conversations covered diverse subjects. One day, Dr Ariyadasa asked me whether I have read T. S. Eliot and when I answered in negative, he recited from memory the first stanza of The Waste Land and explained the allusions embodied in it. Then, I was unaware of the existence of Eliot or his work. My initial exposure to Eliot’s work began under the tutelage of Mr Ariyadsaa who frequently encouraged me to read Eliot’s work is knowing my interests in blank verses (nisadas Kavi). In response, I look for the book, and essays by TSE and borrowed books from the Colombo public library and the British Council and I used to read them with the help of Mallalaseka dictionary. My readings include a book about Ezra Pound’s influence on the original manuscript with pictures of annotations and changes Pound suggested after reading the original text of The Waste Land. That was during my golden 20s something in the mid-1970s and I was a totally ignorant soul of western literary texts.

Most of my generation was the product of the S W R D Bandaranayake’s “swabhasa” (national) language policy and the English were not important then. Ever since I have read and studied among other writings, Eliot’s work as opportunities emerged.

While living in Australia, I have studied English literature and have had mentors who knew Eliot’s work. I have listened to TS Eliot reading his work on YouTube and have understood how he emphasised certain words, phrases to give specific allusions to words.

Now having the privilege of accessing the privilege of thousands of databases, I find time to read peer-reviewed academic journals, popular articles written by critics and journalists on Eliot’s work with new interpretations and analysis to TSE’s texts.

Thus, I believe I am qualified to comment on Illayapaparchi’s quality of translation as an avid reader of poetry (including Sri Lankan poetry) with a good understanding of the original work by TSE which Illayaparachchi has chosen to translate.

According to some scholars, The Waste Land is the most influential poem of the 20th century similar to Eliot’s other controversial poem 'The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock,'. The Waste Land was first published in the in the British journal The Criterion. A month later it appeared in The Dhal; in the USA. It was published as a book in England in 1923 by Leonard and Virginia Woolf as a Hogarth publication. When the poem was published as a book Eliot added explanatory notes to provide a context to the poem. It has numerous references to Christianity, Buddhism, and Hinduism.

Since the publication of The Waste Land in book form, it has been subjected to both positive and negative criticisms. Even today many scholars from the East and West have dissected and critiqued the poems by raising more questions than answers. Some Indian scholars familiar with Sanskrit has critiqued the accuracy of Eliot’s use of Sanskrit at the end of the book. Now after 95 years of the publication of The Waste Land, Eric, the poet, novelist critic and a librettist has bestowed the Sri Lankans to read The Waste Land in their native language; Sinhala, a task many writers would dare to touch. Indeed, poetry is difficult to translate and in particular poets like Eliot who infuse their work with complex cultural, mythical and linguistic allusions that even western readers find difficult to follow. However, Eric has taken the challenge and we must congratulate him for his fearless endeavour with gratitude.

For those who had the privilege of reading a facsimile copy of the original text of The Waste Land drastically edited and annotated by Ezra Pound help understand the metamorphosis of the book that we have the privilege of reading today. The story does not end there. Eliot has included many quotes in his poems quoting directly and indirectly by referring to several sources. The Waste Land consists of some quotations from several languages: French, Italian, Greek, German and Sanskrit. Further, it has direct references to other literary works of Shakespeare, Dante, and Blake and of course one of my favourite Irish writers James Joyce.

Sunil Govinnage

The writer is a bi-lingual poet living in Australia. He is now a full-time doctoral research candidate studying sustainable development)


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