Midweek Review
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The Third EyeAs I Like It
by K. S. Sivakumaran
In Greek mythology we have Zeus with a third eye. And God Shiva or Siva as the Lankan Thamilians say, has a third eye, which is known as ‘Gnanak Kunn’ in Thamil.
The now defunct Thamil ‘little magazine’ had its name "Moontravathee Manithan" (The Third Man). We all viewed a celebrated film called The Third Man with Orson Welles, a great Shakespearean actor.
Now, there is a publication in English called Third Eye. I have with me the eighth issue. It says that it is a publication of the "English Forum". Inside there is a page saying that the editors of this publication are S. Jeyasankar and N. V. Rajapillai. They are from the Department of Fine Arts, Faculty of Arts and Culture, Eastern University, Chankalady. The contact man is S. Jeyasankar.
He has the blessing of an advisory board which consists of eminent educationalists. Among them are two well known bilingual (Thamil and English) writers: R. Murugaiyan and A. J. Canagaratna. The other members are T. Kirupaharan, S. M. Felix and I. A. Leon.
The cover carries a photo and sketch of the late K. Ganesh, a pioneer progressive writer in Sri Lanka. To know more about him, there is a note and publication details of the important writer in Lankan Thamil literature. I have also written a few lines on the late Ganesh.
This 64-page publication has poems, translations from Thamil, articles, reviews of books, first hand experience in witnessing the production of a play, a note on a review session of the bulletin, a report on the release of the 7th issue, letters to the editor and a republication of a poem by the late T. Ramanathan in the Times of Ceylon Annual of 1957.
The contributors are: T. Wigneran, Pon Ganesh, George Rajeevan Francis, Thirukkovil Kariyugan, S. Jeyasankar, T. Kirupakaran, M. Nilanthan, M. I. M. Rauf, M. Pushparajan, Amritha A. M., Indiran Amirthanayagam, A. J. Canagaratna, Kandiah Shriganeshan, Kalooran, K. Gunarajah, Antoinette Rajeevani Francis, L. A. Leon, Eloma Muttulingan, Rajeevan Francis, S. Sasitharan, Marilyn Kryse, S. M. Felix, Suresh Canagarajah and T. Ramanathan.
I like the idea of the publication as it carries translations of some selected writing in Thamil by Lankan writers. However, I have some reservations: Whatever the quality of the content and the standard of style, the matter is printed in an unprofessional manner. The contributions are crowded together and they are not easy on the eye. I also noticed a slant towards the projections of a few individuals who appear to have a closed-circuit operation.
Let me now give you excerpts from some of the contributions that may give you an idea of what this bulletin is about:
Suresh Canagarajah says "Anthropologists like Dennis Tedlock have turned their field notes into novels to capture the culture than decontextualized information from the researcher’s field report." His review of a collection of short stories in Tamil by A. M. Riyas Ahamed is profound and exhaustive.
M. Nilanthan has written a fine play in Thamil on ‘The Story of the Refugees’. This is again translated in a productive manner by S. M. Felix. The play was directed by S. Jeyasankar in 1992. Those ultranationalists who could read in English (if they cannot read Thamil) should please read this play to readily understand the genuine problems of the refugees in the North-East.
The first part of the article "Theatre as a Vehicle for Creativity and Language Learning" by Eloma Muttulingam rightly explains why English language teaching in Sri Lankan schools at present is difficult. Says she: "Students from urban areas, rural areas and remote villages walk into the classroom with absolutely no knowledge of English even without knowing the alphabet. Some students hate the subject as they can’t master the subject as others do. The teacher has to cope with these types of students with patience."
L. A. Leon has this to say: "The printers and publishers of the capital (Colombo) will not bother to print or publish the creative works of the Thamils." Will the editors of the English newspapers and journals take a note of this and correct this failure, please?
A. J. Canagaratna on the translation of African poems in English into Thamil by S. Pathmanathan: "...the translation has helped to light up a whole poetic continent. The selection is fairly representative. The translator may have had his own reasons for giving a larger coverage to Nigeria and Senegal. All the familiar names are here: Senghor, Diop, Okara, Okigbo, Brew, Subadiri, Clark and Soyinka and the not so familiar ones. The poets represented here handle a variety of themes and their tone ranges from the lyrical and the nostalgic to the ironic. An intriguing discovery (for me, at least, was Jagjith Singh’s poem "Portrait of an Asian as an East African". I hope the translator will help the monolingual Thamil reader by providing a comprehensive over-view (both historical and critical) and notes about the chosen poets. As an accomplished bilingual, Mr. Pathmanathan is particularly suited to this task."
K. Gunaraja gives interesting information on hitherto unknown details about Kalooran (Pon. Ganesh) who writes poems in Thamil and English. "The poet has had close contact with JVP comrades during the year 1978 and he was greatly disappointed and dissatisfied with their activities. He symbolizes Karl Marx, Lenin and Castro only to convey that he was much interested in communist philosophy and that he lost faith in it due to chauvinistic activities of the so-called comrades."
Here is a poem by Kalooran in English:
Journeying beyond time and space
Depriving of all my identities crowned
I am out in a space within
All beyond the blade of a grass
All beyond the blade of a flower
One of the ‘new finds’ in English writing coming from the Thamil community in Sri Lanka is Aiyathurai Santhan. Propelling him, Kandiah Shriganeshan gives the following information for those readers in English who should get to know Santhan:
"Santhan won the prestigious Sahitya Academy Prize in 1975 for his short story collection in Thamil titled ‘Oru Oru Orilae’... his first collection in English was ‘The Sparks’ released in 1990. Some of his works appeared in Channels vol. 3 and 5, The Island, Daily News, Third Eye vols 5 and 6.... His knowledge of Sinhala and Russian helped him to understand human issues at different planes...."
An observation here: The reviewer mentions and quotes some writers on Santhan. But he has conveniently forgotten about what this columnist has said on the immensely talented writer. Was it by an oversight or was it deleted by the editor of Third Eye? Strange!
What Regi Siriwardena has said about Santhan’s In Their Own Worlds is a must for any reader to understand the writer and his art.
The reader will find Indran Amirthanayagam’s impressions on Lutesong and Lament—a translated collection of short stories and poems from Sri Lanka edited by Chelva Kanaganayakam, appreciable.
The translations of creative writing in Thamil—short stories, plays and poems—give the reader a clear view of how the young minds writing in Thamil works. The stories "Snakes", "Mother" and the play "Naveena Pasmasuran" and the poems "The Journey", "Infinite Justice" and the original poem in English "Goodbye Sweetheart" and "The Library" are realistic pieces of writing of life in the north.
The article on Thiruvalluvan with apt translation of the couplets from Thirukural is also a useful piece of writing.
Editors Jeyasankar and Rajapillai deserve to be encouraged and noticed.
