Kalima enriches Arabic reading with translations
abu dhabi — Kalima, an initiative of Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority, has translated up to 2,000 books from foreign languages to Arabic in past 10 years with an aim to encourage reading habit in the Arab region.
An official from the National Library Department at the authority said the initiative was launched in 2007 by His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces.
“Kalima was launched with an aim to revive translation movement in the Arab world. We have so far translated 2,000 books from 13 foreign languages to Arabic,” Musab Ibrahim said during the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair on Wednesday.
Over the years, Kalima has inked many agreements, both locally and globally, with publishers.
And the list of achievements is also growing.
“In 2012, we won the Saudi King Abdullah International Award for Translation in the institutions section. We also got best local publication award at the 2012 Sharjah International Book Fair. Last year too, we won best publishing house award instituted under the name of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.”
Kalima has got as many as 600 translators in its database. “We avail their service whenever needed.”
A Kalima translator also won top award for work on Indian poet Kamala Surayya’s Yaa Allah.
The categories of books Kalima translates include, general knowledge, philosophy, psychology, humanities, applied science, arts, sports, literature, history, geography, biography and children’s books.
“Kalima will always seek to expand on the number of foreign languages we translate from. Recently we also translated from Chinese,” Ibrahim said.
Other languages are English, French, Spanish, German, Hindi, Turkish, Swedish, Italian, Dutch, Russian, Polish and Kurdish.
On the ways to select books to be translated, Ibrahim said: “Kalima always pick unique subjects that haven’t been translated so far. There should be something new for Arab readers. All books recommended for translation will be brought before the executive board and a final call is being made.”
Ibrahim said Chinese publishers are newly interested clients.
“During this book fair, we hope to get many agreements for copyrights from them,” he added.