Reestablishment of the forgotten fact
Interpretations by A.J. Canagaratna

Reviewed by K. S. Sivakumaran

When I read the recently published two books in Thamil by the veteran Lankan Thamil literary critic and translator, A.J. Canagaratna , the name of Susan Sontag, literary and film critic came to my mind. And one of her books is titled Interpretations. What AJC is doing in these books is while giving the essence of western writings as near translation, he also interprets for the uninitiated Thamil readers in his own approaches.
The two books under review are " Sengavalar Thalaivar Yesunathar" (a collection of essays - a Red Guard Leader Jesus) and Maththu (a reprint of collection of essays). Both books are published by Mithra Books in Chennai.
Like the late A.J. Gunawardena, A.J. Canagaratna also studied English at Peradeniya and had a stint at Lake House working for the then Ceylon Daily News, some 40 years ago. And I believe he was a contemporary of Wilfrid Jayasuriya, Haig Karunaratna and the like. Initially he was not at ease with his mother tongue, which is Thamil (although his name sounds that of a Sinhala, AJC hails from Jaffna). And he is one of the famous brothers(academic and business turned journalist) and a relative of another exiled Lankan poet and critic in English, Guy Amirthanayagam.
Though faulty in Thamil in the early stages, he is now highly proficient in that language. And he says that the "Sinhala Only Bill " made him study Thamil with a vengeance. So, this hastily made legislation remains one of the root causes of the malady this country had been experiencing for more than four decades, had also done something good as far as A. J. is concerned.
Canagaratna's contributions as a translator of Sri Lankan fiction in Thamil into English is very valuable. And apart from that those readers, especially those youngsters who know only Thamil are grateful to him for introducing western writers and subjects to them. After retiring from the English department of the University of Jaffna, A J presently works for a communication firm in the northern capital.
Take for instance, his first book in Thamil published 32 years ago - Maththu. Here is an opportunity to learn what this word means: a wooden stick with a hemispherical bottom to mash or with a bottom to mash or with a bottom having grooves to collect butter). In other words, the writer is making an attempt to give the essence of once-famous writings by western thinkers on a variety of subjects.
His style of writing then was slightly likened to academic prose. The essays concerned are:
The Concept of Countervailing Power by J. K. Galbraith, Silent Spring by Richard Carson, The Origin of Love and Hate by Ian Suttie, The Triumph of the English Language by Richard Foster Jones, The New Class by Milovan Djillas, The British Constitution by H.R.G. Greaves, Literature in America by Philip Rahv, Drugs/Doctors/Disease by Brian Inglis, Film: a Montage of Theories by R.D. MacGann, The Hero With a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell, and Kingship by A.M. Hocart. As readers would have noted, the subjects chosen cover psychology, language, environment, politics, literature, medicine, mythology, film, constitution, anthropology.
The other book is of recent origin and here the style is more flexible. It includes a long introduction by Thamilnadu Marxist critic S.V. Rajadurai.
The first essay itself is really the title of the book. It introduces the Russian poet of the last century Alexander Blok and his poem "The Twelve". Paanaiyum Chattiyum" (Pot and Pans) talks about an English film titled "The Family Life" and parodies the fallacies people have in labelling others as 'aberrated' and relates the quintessence of R.D. Laing.
The Rumanian Film Festival held in Jaffna in 1979 is his subject in the next piece and says that some of the then East European films he had seen in Jaffna and doubts the relationship between Art and Marxism. A Russian Miner Vlatislav Tithov's novel " A Challenge to Death" is a fine literary work contends AJ reading a Thamil translation of this work by P. Somasundaram. The next article introduces the left and right sides of the brain based on a book on Picasso by F.Gilo and C.Lake.
A review on "Godfather 1" appears next. Then there is humour as expressed by Arthur Koestler in his "Darkness at Noon". The next piece is on Journalism and literature and says journalism could be Literature as well. Literature is related to the theory of Evolution in yet another interesting piece. Eric Danickan's "Returning to the Stars" is then explored by A J.
The author in a short piece discusses four Lankan Thamil writers in the next article. The four anthologies he has chosen are: Nellai K. Peran's "Oru Paatathari Nesavukkup Poahiral" ( A Woman Graduate Goes For Weaving), A.Saanthan's "Orae Oorilare" ( In a Certain Place), A.Yesurasa's " Tholaivum Irruppum (Distance and Existance_ and L. Murugapoopathy's "Sumayin Pangalikal" (Partners in Burdens ). The next article throws some thoughts on Plaigiarism in Literature.
The classic film "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest'" is next seen through the eyes of A. J. who dismisses the film as not authentic as the novel on which it was adapted. David Craig who taught English at the University of Peradeniya in the 1970s edited a Penguin book titled "Marxists on Literature", remember? A.J. Canagaratna summarizes one of the articles by Craig in the next article. The next is a summary of Henry Moore' s on the Human form and sensitivity to form.
The other articles include one on Picasso, a translation of an article by Walter de La Mare, a translation of Rainer Maria Rilke's letter to a young poet, a translation of an article by Raymond Williams on films published in "The Listener", translation of a few verse libre of Charles Baudilere translation of a Guy de Maupaussant's article on realistic artists, an adaptation of an article by Arthur Koestler, a translation of a conversation Gustav Yanuch had with Franz Kafka published in the "Encounter", a translation of an article by a Russian poet Robert Rostavezki, a wrap-up of an interview with Akira Kuruzova published in "Newsweek", reviews of Lanka-born A. Sivanandan's English novel -"When Memory Dies" (translated by M.Ponnambalam) Rohini Hensman's novel (translated by M.Ponnabalam), and finally an English article by A.J. himself on realism and magical realism (translated by Ponn. Ganesh).

Daily News
Friday22 march 2002