Dr. Hanan Al Fayyad (second left), media advisor for Sheikh Hamad Award for Translation and International Understanding, during a tour to Bulgaria to introduce the award.
Doha: The organising committee of Sheikh Hamad Award for Translation and International Understanding organised a number of meetings and cultural events in Bulgaria.
This is part of a tour by the media team of the award to learn about the reality of translation between the Bulgarian and Arabic languages, on the occasion of choosing Bulgarian among the five languages for the achievement category for the ninth season of the award.
The tour, which was coordinated by translator Maya Tezinova, included a visit to the publishing house 'Rhizoma'.
Its owner Thomas Hübner said the house, whose name means “rhizome” in Arabic, is specialised in translating literature, which can change the world for the better.
He spoke about his experience in translating world literature into Bulgarian, adding Arabic literature is rich and deserves translation into other languages.
Hubner explained that publishing translations from Arabic into Bulgarian, specifically in the field of literature, is still in a nascent stage, indicating that they are cooperating with a number of the most skilled translators, including Maya Tezinova, who translated Mahmoud Darwish’s poetry into Bulgarian.
Dr. Hanan Al-Fayyad, media advisor for the award, spoke about the idea of the award, its goals and objectives, and its financial value.
She stressed the importance of choosing Bulgarian as one of the prize languages for this session in enriching the experience of cultural and knowledge exchange between the two languages and cultures, Arabic and Bulgarian.
As part of the tour, the delegation visited the publishing house of the General Ifta House in Sofia, and met Jamal Al Khatib, who is in charge of it.
Dr. Hanan Al Fayyad reviewed the concept of the award and explained its conditions, arbitration criteria, financial and moral values for translators, research and academic institutions, and invited those interested to visit the website of the award to view its details.
The award’s media delegation also visited the “East-West” publishing house (Iztok-Zapad) for publishing, and viewed a package of its publications in the field of translation.
