Launch of a translated collection of short stories

Award-winning translator Kusum Disanayaka will launch her newest collection of short stories considered to be world classics, translated into Sinhala from English, on August 2 at the National Library Services and Documentation Centre at Independence Square at 3.30 p.m.

The issue of translation, its importance, and the linguistic/cultural issues that surround it will be discussed by a panel of speakers: Professor Tissa Kariyawasam of the Department of Sinhala at the University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Indira Mawella, Head of the English Department of the University of Sri Jayewardenepura and Samantha Herath, Senior Lecturer of the Journalism Unit of the University of Colombo. The Chief Guest for the evening will be Professor Emeritus Siri Gunasinghe. The event is open to the public.

Kusum Disanayaka has published over ten translated works, both to and from English to Sinhala. Her “Theri Gatha” (Songs of the Nuns) were translated from Pali to Sinhala. She is also a Sinhala writer and poet. She has won the award for the Best Translated Work twice at the State Literary Festival.

She has brought into the Sinhala literary world many famous writers who have made an impact in the world and her latest work is a continuation of that process.

Nobel Prize winners and other well-known writers are included in her “Videshiya Ketikatha Saraniya” - Volume One and Two, the first containing ten short stories by writers like Pirandello, Nadine Gordimer, Shirley Jackson, Bhavani Bhattacharya, Ishak Boshevik Singer, O. Henry and the second, three long ones by George Bernard Shaw, Selma Legerloff and Somerset Maugham.

The books are publications of S. Godage and Brothers. The evening will be of interest to writers and those interested in the art of translation.