Smith College, “Idi Amin and Saman of Welimada” (May 2023)

Readings and Guest Lectures

Smith College, “Idi Amin and Saman of Welimada” (May 2023)

Chamini Kulathunga 4 months ago

Presentation given at 'The Art of Translation' Annual Public Lecture Series, May 2023, Seeyle Hall 106. Presenting an ongoing translation project, thoughts on the "itch" to translate literature, acquiring rights, and the Sinhalese language.

“Even within South Asia, Sri Lanka occupies a minority state in terms of both its geography and population. From a translator’s perspective, I couldn’t help but notice that the rate of Sri Lankan contemporary literature that is being circulated (in translation or in the original language/s) and read around the world is comparably lower than the national literatures of many other countries. It is also studied and anthologized much less often than other national literatures of the world. We talk about the infamous “3% factor” of annual literary translation publications in the US, but we’ve hardly ever seen or heard about a translation from the Sinhalese making it to the languages that contribute to that percentage, right”

-Interview with Project Plume