DR. KHALID AL-SEGHAYER The King Abdullah International Award for Translation is designed to honor distinguished translation works and organizations that have contributed significantly to the field of translation from Arabic and into Arabic as well as to honor translators who have undertaken transferring the work of creative authors and the innovative products of cultural thinkers to other civilizations. The award specifically aims to enrich the Arab library by publishing distinguished works and by contributing to the transfer of knowledge from other languages and encouraging translation in the scientific fields. Additionally, translation introduces our Arab Islamic civilization to the world. The global literary translation award is part of King Abdullah's vision for promoting dialogue among followers of religions and cultures, advancing intellectual interaction among civilizations, and encouraging dialogue among civilizations in an effort to develop a culture of peace that emanates from a complete belief in the importance of translation in achieving rapprochement among peoples. This rich worldwide annual international translation award was established in 2006 and the King Abdulaziz Public Library in Riyadh administers it. The award value is SR750,000 ($200,000), and the prize for the appreciation of contributions of individuals is SR500,000 ($140,000). Prizes are awarded in four categories of translation—in the fields of the humanities, religion, literature, and natural sciences, into and out of Arabic—with a fifth special prize for institutions that promote translation. So far, five forums of the award ceremonies have been held in different parts of the world, including France, China, Germany, and other nations, and 50 people have won the award. The first award was presented in 2008 for works published in 2007. During the past five years, the award has received about 650 submitted translated works from different countries, submitted in various languages. This indeed shows that the award has achieved worldwide recognition within just a few years of its inception, and it signifies the great interaction among institutions, cultural and scientific establishments and foundations, and individuals when nominating the best translated works in the human and applied sciences to compete for the award. The award program indeed attracts outstanding figures in the translation field. It is a very well-established fact that the translation process in the Arab world today suffers from stagnation, although the importance of translation as a contributing factor to knowledge and its direct link to the development of civilization in a rapidly globalized world is very much emphasized and acknowledged. Such a setback in translation from other languages into Arabic, for instance, is clearly indicated in United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) reports that state that Greece alone translates double the entire translation volume of all of the Arab countries put together and that Spain translates five times the volume that the entire Arab world together translates. In more specific terms, the Arab world has translated less than 10,000 books during the past 50 years, while one country—Greece—has translated 10 times the amount of books translated in the Arab world during the same period. Thus, the hope is that King Abdullah's International Award for Translation will help to impart knowledge from other languages into Arabic and vice versa, particularly the rendering of scientific research into Arabic. The diversification of the award's domains indeed helps to make such a goal possible. Furthermore, the socio-cultural award is viewed as a way to revive, foster, support, and advance the translation professions across the Arab world as well as to develop the translation industry, and most importantly, to open doors for establishing a comprehensive strategy for the translation movement in the region at large. Let us hope and pray that the King Abdullah International Award for Translation will stand as a beacon for a renaissance of translation in the Arab world, and let us wish this great cultural and scientific project much success in the years to come. We offer heartfelt congratulations to the 50 translation winners and wish the very best of luck to others in winning this outstanding literary translation prize in the coming years. — The writer is a Saudi academic who can be reached at [email protected]
