Professional Documents
Culture Documents
03
by Vinutha Mallya
Enabling Translators is
the theme of the second
Abu Dhabi International
Conference for Translation,
organised by Kalima.
The conference was
inaugurated yesterday at
the Abu Dhabi National
Exhibition Centre.
Like last year, this year too
the conference coincides
with the annual Abu Dhabi
International Book Fair.
The first edition held in 2012, with the
theme Translation and Todays Prospect,
delved into the current realities of the
movement of translation from and into
Arabic in contemporary times.
As a continuation of last years theme,
this year the conference will examine the
current state of the translation movement.
It will seek to develop strategies capable
of promoting and expanding translation.
01
Highlights of
recommendations from the
first Abu Dhabi International
Conference for Translation,
held in 2012:
Foster the development of translation
curricula in universities and to establish
institutes for translation.
Set up training programs for
translators, with the help of competent
professionals.
Create concerted efforts by governments
and civil society organisations to
develop a strategic vision for the
advancement of Arab publishing
industry, and expand partnerships with
publishing houses of other languages.
Establish associations and bodies
specialised in translation that work
across the Arab world.
Expand the range of translations to
include dialects and languages.
Focus also on knowledge texts and
science.
Establish an effective distribution
platform to improve access to readers.
Create a database of translated works.
03
MASTHEAD
Editor:
Edward Nawotka
Deputy Editor:
Irum Fawad
Design Manager:
Nada Baroudy
Bylined articles do not
necessarily reflect the
views of the editors.
Abu Dhabi International Book Fair
2013
All rights reserved.
Duplication, either in whole or in part,
permissible only with the prior written
consent of the Abu Dhabi International
Book Fair.
02
www.adbookfair.com
It takes money,
translators, ideas
and a network as
well, says Director
of Literature
Across Frontiers
Id like to
encourage more
women to come
into publishing.
Against Totalitarianism
by Olivia Snaije
Excerpt from The Silence and the Roar: In my country people love rhymed
speech and rhymed prose and inspirational metred verse. Just watch how
they will repeat phrases that have no meaning whatsoever but that rhyme
perfectly well. In the end this means that if the ruler wants the masses
to adore him he must immediately set up a centre dedicated to the
production of new slogans about him, on the condition that they
resemble poetry because we are a people who love poetry so much
that we love things that only resemble poetry.
Syrian writer Nihad Sirees has just returned
to the US from a whirlwind trip to the UK
where Pushkin Press published The Silence
and the Roar, his first book in English,
translated by Max Weiss, which won the
2012 PEN award. A trained engineer,
Sirees has been writing novels, plays and
screenplays since the 1980s.
In the excellent The Silence and the Roar,
first published in Arabic by the Lebanese Dar
al-Adab, a 31-year-old banned writer Fathi
recounts one sweltering day in an unnamed
city where crowds are celebrating the 20th
anniversary of a dictator. As he pushes his
way through the chanting masses, visiting
his mother, his girlfriend Lama, his sister, a
hospital and the Party building to retrieve
his confiscated ID card, Fathis reflections
on keeping his moral sense alive within a
totalitarian state are written with humor,
resolution and a touch of despair.
Like his protagonist Fathi, Sirees was
excluded from publicly expressing himself in
Syria and his books have been banned there
since the 1998.
Sirees left his home in Aleppo, in January
2012. He first went to Egypt, and is currently
an International Writers Project fellow at
Brown University.Other Press in the US is
publishing The Silence and the Roar today.
Show Daily:The Silence and the Roar was
published in Beirut in 2004. It came out in
Germany in 2008, in France last fall and it
was just published in English. How does
it feel to talk about your novel nine years
after you wrote it? When you were writing it
did you think about the possibility that the
regime might fall?
The concept of tyranny is still worrying the
world, especially the Syrian people, says
Nihad Sirees.
Nihad Sirees: This book is like a mirror of
the year it was released but the incidents
and events havent stopped. Now it is clear
what I was talking about. I was talking
about tyranny in its general concept. The
concept of tyranny is still worrying the
world, especially the Syrian people. At the
time I wrote it the regime was very strong.
Maybe at that time I dreamed of the fall,
but I am not sure. This book tries to push
03
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03
Author and commentator Ibrahim Issa shares his views on literary life in post-Mubarak Egypt
04
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This gave me a
lot of knowledge
and awareness
of the industry of
religion in Egypt
by Olivia Snaije
05
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03
by Benedicte Page
06
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declared.
But he said more contributors were needed
from the Arabic world to help with the
development of the format. The IDPF is
producing an EPUB3 Reading System Test
Suite, an extensive set of tests that can
be run for functionality, and needs more
input from Arabic language speakers. If
you want Kobo, iBooks and Barnes & Noble
all supporting Arabic wonderfully in their
reading systems, you need to help us,
McCoy appealed. We need you to help do
what it takes to make Arabic a completely
first-class citizen in thiS new world.
McCoy said he perceived Arabic publishers
as currently still more fearful than eager
about digital books, with the state of the
market exactly as it was in the US three
years ago, in Japan one and a half years ago.
But, with digital revenues in the US rising
from nothing to $1bn within three years and
now standing at 20-30% of revenue for the
major US publishers, there is the potential
for the rest of the world to match that rapid
growth, he said.
But McCoy urged the Arabic publishing
community not to get locked in to a
proprietary format such as Amazon Kindle
and instead to support EPUB3 as an open,
free-to-use format driven by the needs of the
commercial publishing industry.
IDPF head
calls for more
involvement from
Arabic publishing
community
by Benedicte Page
07
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Apple
iBooks Author
is key component
of new strategy
student, asking questions and timing the
speed of replies.
Whelan said: The technology offers a
richness of material and gives students
the ability to learn by themselves rather
than being in the classroom. Within one
semester, all the assessment weve done
indicates that student engagement is
much higher - and that is a critical part of
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