Sheikh Hamad Award for Translation and International Understanding organised an online symposium on the occasion of the International Translation Day which is celebrated on Sept. 30 every year.
Five translators from different languages attended the symposium, presenting their visions on the role of translation as a civilizing act between nations, cultures and peoples.
Held under the title "Experiences in Translation", the symposium also discussed the reality of the translation movement based on their personal experiences in this field, and touched on the difficulties and challenges they face during their work.
Moderator of the symposium Dr. Imtenan Al Samadi said that Sheikh Hamad Award for Translation and International Understanding seeks to honor translators, encourage them, and recognize their efforts by appreciating them on both the material and moral levels. She outlined the process of the Award that the State of Qatar presents to the world, its philosophy, goals, objectives, categories, and the criteria for running for it and winning it.
Wafa Abu Hatab, Professor of Linguistics at Zarqa University in Jordan, spoke about the importance of translation for humanity, noting that it was the will of Allah Almighty to create different tongues and languages so people can learn and get to know each other, and translation is means for communication between nations.
She explained that translation is a cultural act in which the translator wanders between two different cultures to convey the meaning; pointing to the translator as an ambassador of culture between nations, and a mediator between two cultures.
She noted that translated literary works extend a bridge of understanding and familiarity between two cultures, shortening distances and cultural differences.
Prof. Abu Hatab pointed to the challenges faced by translators, including the absence of the original text's author, or finding the corresponding literary text that expresses the meaning and gives the same effect, because literature is the cultural "capsule" that contains nations' customs and vision of life, and is full of proverbs and expressions linked to one culture and not another.
Dr. Nedelya Kitaeva, who teaches Arabic language and literature at the New Bulgarian University, spoke about her first encounter with translation from Arabic during her university study. She was hesitant to choose a specific author for her master's thesis, but she read the poetic works of Adonis and decided to translate some of his poems.
Kitaeva explained that she was certain that she couldn't write about a poet without immersing herself in his works. Initially, she understood only a little from his poetry; the words had mysterious meanings. However, she sensed the depth of this poetry and his latent potential, and found a description of this feeling in Adonis's words when he spoke of a language beyond language, an image beyond the image, and knowledge beyond knowledge, she said, expressing belief that these words provide the most precise definition of Arab culture and its literature in general. That was the first challenge she faced in the field of Arabic translation, she added.
She pointed out that her first translation work involved an interview with Adonis and a chapter from one of his books, along with some of his poems. She said that thanks to Adonis, she fell into the trap of Arabic poetry, then started reading and translating other Arab poets, including Qasim Haddad, Nizar Qabbani, Ghada Al-Samman, and Iman Mersal. She also began translating short stories and later, novels.
About the challenges she encountered during her translation practice, Kitaeva said that Arabic is not her native language, and she only studied it in Bulgaria. Therefore, she needed more courage when she decided to translate Georgi Gospodinov's novel "The Physics of Sorrow". She pointed out that this novel is complex, not only in terms of translation but also because it resembles a labyrinth based on short stories, as it is a modern experimental novel with a deep cultural context. Additionally, the author's writing style is characterized by the simplicity and depth of the language.
She also said that the challenges of translation vary depending on the texts being translated and the authors who wrote those texts. This requires a lot of work to understand the specific details of each author's work.
Kitaeva emphasised that the translator's challenge lies in how to convey the essence of the culture associated with the work. The translator must connect with that essence before the reader to present it in the best possible way. This requires establishing a special relationship between the translator and the author, where the translator can hear the author's voice clearly and speak with that voice in the translation, she added.
Egyptian translator Dr. Salah Helal, the Professor of German Literature and Philosophy at Ain Shams University's Faculty of Education, noted in his remarks the need for concerted efforts in translation in the form of a huge Arab project that includes specialists from all countries and is oriented to the translation work in the Arab world. This requires political and cultural will and financial support.
He stressed the necessity to support translators to perform the task to the fullest extent, adding that though publishing houses may provide some support, the translator remains the weakest link in the book production chain, even though they are the foundation of the translation process. Many publishing houses look for cheaper production costs and do not choose the right translator for the text. It also refuses to put the translators name on the cover of the book, even though they helped write this book in another language.
Dr. Salah Helal highlighted the problem of scarcity of funding, which prevents the translator from devoting himself to his project. "If translators devoted themselves to translation activity, they would enrich the Arab library with the books we need to bring about a cultural renaissance," he added.
He pointed out that translators cannot participate in international events and attend international conferences and book fairs unless invited by foreign institutions or publishing houses. He explained that the more experience a translator has, the more difficult the books he is assigned become without having a financial impact on him. This leads to the reluctance of senior translators to translate important books, in addition to the lack of interest in linguistic review and editing processes by publishing houses.
These issues do not only affect translators but also publishers. There is an urgent need for a huge, organised, and unified Arab project that organizes conferences, workshops, and grants for individual and group translation projects. He indicated the necessity to look at translation as collective work and not an individual one, and that developing artificial intelligence would allow translators to benefit from it.
For his part, the Kuwaiti translator Abdul Wahab Suleiman said that blogs and social media represent a suitable medium for publishing houses to discover translation talents. There are online translator communities and hashtags to serve translators and these media are good for the translator, even though they are linked to individual and non-institutional efforts.
Abdul Wahab Suleiman said that there are difficulties facing the translator, most prominently in dealing with academic terminology. There is no unified formula for these terms and there is no translation institution that unifies the terms. Another difficulty that academic books and scientific research translators have is that scientific sources and books are not available to anyone who wants to read them for free at a time when they are indispensable for the translator to understand the context of the work. He expressed his hope for the development of artificial intelligence to be at the service of the translator and to save them effort and time.
At the conclusion of the symposium, the emerging Pakistani translator Asiya Arif Siddiq said that wisdom and proverbs are the product of a series of life experiences that transcended eras, cultures, and languages. She added, "If we contemplate these wise gems, they convey a universal message regardless of their languages."
