• Priyangwada Perera on winning the H.A.I. Goonetileke Prize for Literary Translation

In the world of Sri Lankan English literature, The Gratiaen dominates as a literary prize. While many look forward to The Gratiaen Prize winner announcement annually, every other year, The Gratiaen Trust reminds us of the importance of translations, especially in a multilingual society such as ours.

Initially, translations came within the scope of The Gratiaen Prize, the trust says, adding that in 2003, they decided to award a separate prize exclusively for translations. This was to be awarded once in two years. This reflected The Gratiaen Trust founder Michael Ondaatje’s vision of promoting the English translations of Sinhala and Tamil language creative writing by Sri Lankans residing in Sri Lanka.

The prize, named the H.A.I. Goonetileke Prize for Literary Translation, was this year awarded to Priyangwada Perera for her translation ‘Wid Keirdo’.

Accepting the award at a ceremony held on 31 May, Perera shared what went into translating ‘Lamuthu Amaya’ by Surath de Mel, mentioning that she translated a large part of the book while commuting. She also spoke about the often overlooked job of translators.

In conversation with The Daily Morning, Perera went into more detail about the importance of translations as well as the role awards such as the H.A.I. Goonetileke Prize play in taking local literature to a global audience.

Following are excerpts from the interview:

You recently won the H.A.I. Goonetileke Prize for Literary Translation. What did this win feel like?

Contesting at the Gratiaen and receiving the H.A.I.G Prize still feels surreal. I felt it was always won by ‘bigger’ people. The once upon a time memories of how I used to attend the Gratiaen Prize and cover it as a feature writer gushed in. I remember the year when Prof. Vini Vitharana won the same for translating ‘Kav Silumina’. To be honest, it feels a little crazy to think that I became the recipient of the coveted prize.

How important is this prize by The Gratiaen Trust in recognising the work of translators?

The importance of this particular award – I cannot emphasise it enough. This tells us what a remarkable visionary Michael Ondaatje was. He came up with this award, wanting our literary work to go international. No other festival, not even the State Literary Award, recognises or honours Sinhala to English and Tamil to English translations. Such appreciation, recognition, and motivation is crucial if we are to take Sri Lankan literature to a global stage.

So, The Gratiaen Trust should be lauded for this particular blessing of an award. We saw what a long line-up of texts contested for this particular award – translated work of many genres. Those are quite exceptional collections; imagine if we never even had a stage to even present these texts?

The H.A.I.G. is awarded every other year, and I wish they’d be blessed with the financial strength to award it every year.

Do you think Sri Lankan readers and even the larger literary community truly understand what goes into translation work?

I do not know whether we can generalise and say yes or no, but it feels like the general understanding of translations is very limited. On one hand, most people do not know that a sworn translator and a translator of a creative piece are different. What goes into translation is not fully understood even by some of the writers. I briefly studied translation at a postgraduate level and it is harder than writing an original piece. It is an intricate process where you do a tightrope walk, balancing several issues. You deal with language, context, emotions, and a storyline. You deal with the original writer’s style and sentiments while pouring yourself into the translation.

The translator’s brilliance seeps in unnoticed. Translators are often forgotten and not given the due credit. Even the name of the translator in a book often comes out in small print or on the inside. What else do we have to say about the implied message?

In such a context, we cannot even expect a normal, regular reader to be conscious of such things – at least adequately. Now that technology has popped in, further assisted by artificial intelligence (AI), people think translation is a matter of a few minutes of copy pasting. Since explaining is harder than doing the actual work, we do not care anymore. That is why it is extremely satisfying and thrilling when the judges recognise the kind of hard work that has gone into such a translation.

Since the publication of ‘Wid Keirdo’ as well as the H.A.I. Goonetileke Prize win, have you had people reach out to you about your work?

Yes. My previous 25 translations of children’s stories were well received. They were top sellers. But by virtue of those being children’s stories, smaller books, people tend to overlook them. But this has been a massive project. It is not the number of pages but the justice I have done to the original content.

I have had a wonderful response from bilingual readers. Some who read the translation before reading the original called me and said that the conversion is exceptionally well done, that they also want to read the Sinhala text to see what the original said. Yet, nothing like the appreciation I received as the recipient of the H.A.I.G Award. Till my dying day I will remember the jury’s report and what the judges told me in person.

How can publishers, literary awards, etc. provide a platform to appreciate but also promote translations?

Publishers have to do the hard work of contacting the literary agents and obtaining translation rights. It is important to be ethical. Then, there should also be a proper way of payment. Most publishers pay the translations a general amount. Some agencies pay by the number of words or pages, which is very unfair.

There are various kinds of translations. In some, if you give a word-to-word translation, it ends in a disaster. Plus, the amount of effort and hard work can never be evaluated by the number of words or pages.

First, the worth of a translation should be understood and adequately valued for its worth. Two pages in one text may be worth the work of ten pages in another. This should not be a mechanical evaluation. Publishers have a lot to do with taking the translation to the public. The writer cannot do that alone. When it comes to Sinhala to English translations, publishers have to work harder.

In a country where a majority has read a book in Sinhala, how should that reader be convinced that they would also enjoy it in English? These are what the marketing teams should think of. For that, we should have author meet-ups, discussions, and comparisons.

In your acceptance speech, you spoke about translating most of the novel during your daily commute. What was the process of translating Surath de Mel’s book like and what really goes into translating a novel from Sinhala to English?

Finding time for this was difficult. I work full-time and time was the biggest concern. So, I had to do it on my phone on the bus back and forth to work. That is not an easy thing to do. This is not how we think writing is done. Even though we think translation is just changing what is written in Sinhala to English, it is not that simple. I repeat that this is a novel. I am not translating a legal document with specific terminology. ‘Lamuthu Amaya’ had the inversions, syllables, sounds, and phrases which were completely different from Sinhala.

So, as much as I remained faithful to the original text, I had to come up with replacements that would not ruin the content. Plus, in the process I always had the target audience as a non-Sinhala, non-Lankan reader. Even when I finished writing and my own editing, I sent it to a foreign friend of mine from the university, who is also an editor in a well-known publishing house, to read the text and make changes or suggest edits. I also wanted her to be mindful of language.

I was so careful that the text does not sound what we call Singlish – half Sinhala, half English. Not everyone can edit such a book. Editing is the biggest problem. Having been a sub-editor for features in the paper and now an editor, I know it is not about just knowing some English. One has to get into the soul of the book and also preserve the writer’s voice. One has to be very good with grammar. Someone cannot barge in and change words from here and there and say they ‘edited’ the book. That is nonsensical.

You also mentioned that the book is one both children and adults should read. How does the translation take de Mel’s work to a larger audience?

The book is ideally for adults because they are the ones in power. It questions power structures both in school and in families. ‘Wid Keirdo’ will open their eyes, challenge them to re-think. Whereas children will love it, relate to it, and find themselves in it. They will take it to a different level with their experience.

At present, we have lots of Sri Lankan youngsters who are more competent in English than in Sinhala or Tamil. Many of them read in English more than the other two languages. Therefore, in Sri Lanka itself the translation takes the original book to places. No matter how good a book is, when done in Sinhala it has less reach. India has all their good books written in regional languages translated to English and winning the best writing prizes. Whether you like it or not, that is the translator’s ability.

A translator can either glorify or destroy a book. Yet their service, their expertise are so devalued and ignored. How did we learn the ‘Caucasian Chalk Circle’? It was thanks to Brecht’s friend Eric Bentley’s translation and the Sinhala reader did so after Henry Jayasena. That is because of the translator. Similarly, the book can now go places. The sky’s the limit.