Malini Govinnage no more

Source:Dailynews

Former Deputy Editor of the Daily News, veteran journalist and author Malini Govinnage passed away yesterday.

Govinnage was widely known as a bilingual translator of Sinhalese and English literary works. Her English medium contributions appeared in various forms such as book reviews in the Daily News.

Be it Sinhala or English, Malini Govinnage’s writing style had a marked simplicity and at times intricacy.

Govinnage’s line of thinking was much moulded by translations. The very first of her lengthy list of translations is Italian novelist Ignazio Silone’s Fontamara. The translation played a crucial role in the early seventies when the access to world literature was very much limited for the Sri Lankan Sinhala readership. Veteran literary critic Reggie Siriwardana identified her as an epitome of the Sinhala-medium-educated generation well versed in European literature.

The translation of Fontamara was the first step of Govinnage’s long literary journey. Another instrumental literary contribution by Govinnage reached the Sinhala readership as the translation of Life With Picasso. As a translator, Govinnage had a cause for every work she translated. Most translations came out with her justification as to why the particular work was chosen for translation. She also found much success with translations of Argentine revolutionary Che Guevara’s works such as the Motorcycle Diaries. She was also the founder editor of Buddha Pradeepa, the Daily News Vesak annual. The funeral will take place at her native village, Dummalasuriya.