The Genesis of a Translator: The First Book I Translated at Age 16

by Vasantha Wakkumbura

Every professional journey has a definitive starting point—and this is the beginning of my career in language translation. The Sinhala version of Indian feminist Kamla Bhasin’s book Turning Dangers into Opportunities is my very first published translation.

Looking back, taking on a work by one of the region’s most powerful feminist voices as a teenager was a massive challenge. It was not merely an exercise in substituting English words with Sinhala ones; it was a dive into deep, systemic issues surrounding gender, power, and social structures.

This unique project laid the foundation for every milestone that followed in my professional life.

Bhasin’s work directly discusses patriarchy and empowerment. Having to comprehend and translate these concepts at the age of 16 fundamentally shaped my intellectual journey and my subsequent interests in sociology, art, politics, and psychoanalysis.

Publishing this through the Social Scientists’ Association in Colombo meant there was no room for amateurism in this project. It demanded a rigorous academic discipline that later became the bedrock for my future translations, which have ranged from international research to state award-winning literature.

Translating a book about turning social dangers into opportunities teaches you that language is never neutral. It is a bridge that makes essential, transformative ideas accessible to the local consciousness.

I was also responsible for the creative direction and the typesetting of the Sinhala version of Bhasin’s work. The software known today as Adobe InDesign was called Adobe PageMaker back in the 2000s. Shortly after this, I took up my first job as a typesetter at Globe Printers, an establishment owned by our dear friend, Mr. Kosala Thilakarathne.

We often talk about our recent achievements; this note is a reflection on where those achievements began.