At Par with Original – The Politics of Translation in Shyam Selvadurai’s many roads through paradise

The 2014 anthology of Sri Lankan literature, many roads through paradise, edited by Shyam Selvadurai, makes no distinction between Sri Lankan literature in English and literature in English translation. The edited anthology breaks through the conventional linguistic discrimination between translated and original work and creates a new kind of literary ecology by bringing together three strands of Sri Lankan literature – Sri Lankan literature in English, Sinhalese literature in English translation and Tamil literature in English translation, at par with each other. Mapping the period from 1970s to the 2014, this anthology uses translation as a tool to stitch through the fragmented literary world of Sri Lanka, giving it a coherent character while retaining its richness. It is an attempt to provide a holistic picture of Sri Lankan literature encompassing as much variety as possible. The paper seeks to read the anthology in a post postcolonial literary environment with Sri Lanka going through various phases of literary and cultural upheavals and look into the postcolonial politics of representing the marginal through translation. It also explores the role of English in the literary movements of Sri Lanka and how translation emerges as a tool for survival and communication, with special reference to this edited anthology.