Sri Lanka It's Happening

January 30, 2005

Sinhala literature is gasping for breath. The sinhala extremists are always screaming about protecting our cultural heritage from foreign forces. Either this culture no longer exists or it's a lie.

Today I went to a book exibition and sale for the first time since the colombo book fair of last year. The difference between that grand event and this one is that most of the books on sale were in sinhala. They made a pathetic collection with original works being few and far between.

There were at least five different versions of cheguara's life story, most of the were translations, others are probably no different, they just neglected to acknowlegde the original author. Finding a book about a sri lankan hero proved harder than finding a honest politician.

Shelock Holmes is another popular victim, some of the books had covers which gave the distinct impression that they were ripped off from the originals. There were plenty of translations of tin tin and asterix as well. I even so a tranlation of Joe Millard's for a few dollars more. Wonder if the translator just so the film or read the book.

The person who tranlated harry potter and the philosopher's stone probably hasn't even heard of the existence of the book. The cover of the book said (in sinhala). The translation of the film's story.

Need I say more?

Posted by raditha at January 30, 2005 8:44 AM