එල්ම් තුරු යට ස්නේහය: පරිවර්තිත නාට්‍ය පිටපත

Maha Wedage Champa Pushpa Buddhipla is a nationally recognized playwright, producer and translator. He is the author and producer of three original plays – Krishna, Dascon and Meththara. In addition, he is the translator and producer of Tennessee William’s celebrated play A Streetcar Named Desire. His latest translation is a play by the distinguished American playwright, Eugene O’Neill - Desire Under the Elms.

Given Champa Buddhipala’s facility with Sinhala and English and his deep acquaintance with the theatre many came to expect a successful rendering of this play into Sinhala by him.

Buddhipala did not disappoint; he rose to the occasion splendidly. His translation displays sensitivity, understanding and discernment. Eugene O’Neill is one of the greatest American playwrights of the twentieth-century. In 1924 he wrote this play Desire Under the Elms. Since then it has generated a great interest, even controversy, among avid theatre-goers. In 1936 he was awarded the Nobel prize for literature.

O’Neills plays are realistic, but he is in search of a deeper psychological realism. His dramatic instincts are vitally connected to the commitment to explore volcanic emotions.

Dark human emotions

Desire Under the Elms is a complex family drama that takes place in a farm house in the North Eastern America. It a reconfiguration of turbulent, troubling and dark human emotions. It deals with love, lust, jealousy, betrayal, and gestures towards infanticide and incest. In writing this play Eugene O’Neill was influenced by Greek theatre, most notably the work of Euripedes as well as modernists such as Ibsen and Strindberg. Champa Buddhipala has made his translation with a deep understanding of O’Neill’s preoccupations, investments, strengths and limitations.

Buddhipala’s translation is sensitive and intelligent; in addition, he has sought to make it a critical translation. I shall explain this concept presently. During the past few decades, translation studies has progressed rapidly. We can identify five central approaches to translation. First, the attempts of linguists, both structuralists and transformational grammarians, of diverse stripes invite attention. Second the investigations of philosophers are significant. Here I wish to include both Anglo American philosophers and continental philosophers. For example, in his book Word and Object, the American thinker Quine foregrounds a number of issues related to translation.

Third, the analyses of cultural anthropologist, cultural studies scholars and cultural historians merit close consideration, Fourth in recent years, scholars with a visible interest in post-colonial theory have proposed newer ways of approaching the task of translation. They have proposed the notion of cultural translation with its manifold implications. Fifth, drawing on these diverse approaches, students of translation studies have sought to open up new pathways of inquiry. These efforts have led to the idea of critical translation. It can also be termed self-reflective translation or introspective translation. One can observe the nature of critical translation in the way Gayatri Spivak has rendered Mahasweta Devi’s Bengali work into English.

Significance of critical translation

Bertolt Brecht’s epic theatre allows us to attain a better understanding of the nature and significance of critical translation. In Brecht’s epic theatre the players perform in such a way that that they do not totally identify with the character being portrayed and seek to attain a significant critical distance. between the actor and the character being portrayed. Here one can discern the privileging of a reflective distance. Similarly, in the act of translation, the translator seeks to offer a critical comment on the dramatic text through the very verbal choices he or she makes. It seems to me that Champa Buddhipala in his translation of Eugene O’Neill’s Desire Under the Elms has in a very subtle way attempted to move in this direction.

Translations of the kind that Buddhipala has made serve to perform a number of important functions. First, they offer a unique and well -constructed theatrical experience. This helps to strengthen the literary sensibility of readers. Second, they facilitate the widening of the horizons of dramatic understanding. Third such translations have the effect of enlarging the vocabulary of emotions. Fourth these efforts pave the way for the emergence of a comparative evaluative vision. Such a vision is important for the steady growth of the Sinhala theatre.

Translations and adaptations have played a pivotal role in the forward movement of Sinhala drama. In the early phase, apart from the translations of Shakespeare’s work, dramatists such as Moliere, Chekhov, Gogol were important. Later celebrated dramatists like Ibsen, Strindberg, Brecht, Pirandello, Becket, Anouilh, Arthur Miller, Garcia Lorca, Camus, Tennessee Williams made a decisive impact. Chapa Buddhipala’s translation of Desire Under the Elms joins these important endeavors of literary translation. Some years ago he translated and produced Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire winning much critical praise.

In any act of literary translation, the translation has to be faithful to the original while creating a work in the receiver language that appears to be natural and self-contained. This is no easy task.

Some err on the side of literal translation. Nabokov is case in point. Others focus too excessively on the beauty and elegance of the translated text at times distorting the original. Pasternak is a case in point.

It is to the credit of Buddhipala that he has been able to repossess the wished for middle ground. In addition, this being a play, the translation has to be sensitive to the demands of the living theatre. Buddhipalaa displays this sensitivity. For example, in Desire Under the Elms, the intense emotions are carried on the back of colloquial expressions, and a would be translator has to be alert to this challenging fact. Champa Buddhipala is alert to it.

All in all, the translation of Desire Under the Elms by Champa Buddhipala is a commendable effort that serves to enrich the Sinhala theatre in interesting ways.

Reviewed by Professor Wimal Dissanayake