Post: Kalima Project. Bridge of Cultures

Saad Abdel Rad

Since His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, may God bless him, decided to establish the Kalima Project in 2007, the translation scene in the Emirates and the Arab world has been shining brighter year after year. It belongs to the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi, where the number of translated books reached 1168, and the number of translators involved is over 600 translators in all languages ​​and disciplines. The number of languages ​​reached 21: English, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, German, Hindi, Chinese, Polish, Dutch, Korean, Ukrainian, Turkish, Malay, Japanese, Latin, Kurdish, Finnish, Russian, Norwegian and Swedish. .
As for the classification, they obtained 10: general culture, philosophy and psychology, religions, social sciences, languages, natural and exact/applied sciences, literature, arts and sports, history, geography, biographical books, children’s and youth.

The future plans of Project Kalima, led by Dr. Ali Bin Tamim, President of the Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Center, are enough to continue to provide the Arabic Library with excellent and quality books translated from all languages. and pay attention to children’s literature.
Al-Ittihad surveyed the working group of this pioneering project to read about its achievements and perspectives.

Muawiyah Abdul Majid: a project for the revitalization of knowledge
Translator Muawiya Abdul Majeed said: Although translators face many challenges in their work, between the hardships of work and hardships of life, the Kalima project emerged in UAE to present a different concept through which to. It creates stimulating working conditions that the Arab region was not used to. The translator tried and still makes a great effort with his time and ability to read many books before choosing one of them to start another stage, no less than the previous one, with challenges and difficulties in the mazes of translating sentences. and ideas from one language to another. He has found openness and professional relationships with Project Kalima, which takes its victims seriously and appreciates their efforts and rewards them financially and morally with honesty and integrity.

It has always been said that translation projects in the Arab world are Renaissance projects that must be carried out, but in most cases they were based on the sacrifice of translators for their rights and wages. In this sense, what distinguishes the Kalima project as a renaissance is not the appropriation of the rights of the people who work on it. On the other hand, the great variety and diversity of publications is also known, from literature to thought, history, science, philosophy and studies in different areas, which gives the translator the opportunity to offer works from different areas or works. in the translation of books from one of the fields of knowledge corresponding to their scientific and academic background.

Rasha Salah Al-Dakhni: Strengthening Bridges of Cultural Communication
Rasha Salah El-Dakhni, an Egyptian translator, emphasized that translation plays an important role in strengthening cooperation, laying the foundations for cultural understanding, bringing together points of view and contributing to the enrichment of human knowledge through cultural exchange and openness. . of knowledge. Channels of communication and dialogue between different peoples and nations. If the children of Adam were divided by languages ​​and dialects, translation brought them together again to gather around the fire, and translators became the bringers of enlightenment and development through the centuries.

Herein lies the role of the Kalima Project, which has enriched translated Arabic content and created a cultural movement in the Arab world. He came back to restore the translational motion shine and shine. For over ten years, the Kalima project has been helping to build bridges of communication. In Different Cultures, he revived the translation, publishing, and authorship movement by introducing a variety of books that provided Arab readers with a rich feast of knowledge and scholarship.

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Al-Yazia Al-Marri: A great cultural project
Al-Yaziah Al-Mari, a translator from the United Arab Emirates, said: Before taking my first steps as a translator on the Kalima project, I had been following the project’s publications and achievements for years as an enthusiastic reader of the new works. in literature, culture. and science. I bought and read many works created within this great cultural project, and some of them still inspire me and enrich my passion for reading and books. After years working in the translation field, I never imagined the opportunity to contribute to this project, nor could I imagine the ease I found interacting directly with the Kalima team. I am currently working on my first translation with the project, just three months later I expressed my desire to translate the book and got in touch with the project team, who gave the necessary attention to my request and responded to my proposal with record speed. After the referees evaluated the translation sample, the translation job was approved within a few days.

Ahmed Yaqub Al Mazmi: the source of knowledge in the Arab world
Emirati scholar and translator Ahmed Yaqub Al Mazmi said: In 2011, UAE University held an event to introduce students to the Kalima translation project and allow them to purchase publications. At the time, I was fascinated by the variety of subjects I was unfamiliar with, and I was drawn to these brilliant, sophisticated books on writing and directing because it was a quantum leap from what I knew of Arabic. Book fairs. During my university studies, the Kalima Translation Project was a source of knowledge in the UAE and the Arab region, a window to worlds inaccessible due to language and cognitive barriers. The selection of translated titles was not in vain, as the examiner finds the quality of the selected titles and the quality of the productions well designed in language, direction and presentation, at the service of a cultural project that seeks to build a bridge of knowledge . Arab readers and various scientific fields in which Arab production has declined in recent decades. Therefore, the kalimah translation project is not simply a revival of a cultural movement that retreated from the era of houses of wisdom and knowledge production in the Islamic world. I see the Kalima translation project, which incubates thought, as a true tribute to the cultural history of the Gulf region.

Nofal Nayouf: the path to serious enlightenment
The Doctor. Nofal Nayuf considered that Kalima, as a publisher, plays a prominent role in the process of translating the Arabic language and culture in general, with high efficiency. It opens itself up, with awareness, knowledge and responsibility, to the different cultures of the world, choosing among them the most valuable and innovative ones and presenting them to Arab readers in translations that do not neglect their due care, including proofreading and linguistics. Correction and form of books and art direction in a modern and appropriate way. Kalima treats the translator with precision, clarity and respect from the signing of the contract to the publication of the book. In this way, it provides you with an environment and working conditions that encourage you to strive for perfection in your work and effectively contribute to the advancement of today’s cultural and translation movement. The fact is that “Kalima” is a new qualitative addition that enriches this serious and enlightened path, strengthens and propels it.

Musa Al-Halul: The juice of global thinking
The Doctor. Musa Al-Haloul, Professor of Comparative Literature and Literary Translation at Taif University in Saudi Arabia, said: Since the Kalima Project was launched in 2007, Arabic translators have been eager to join its ranks and contribute to a promising cultural movement . this project and enjoy the lucrative financial rewards it offers. Indeed, Kalima has provided a cultural platform that is arguably the most visible in the Arab world, for all professional translators who have their experience to offer what they have to enrich modern Arab culture with the juice of global thinking. Knowledge. Kalima aspires to be the rightful successor to the House of Wisdom in the Abbasid era.
A decade and a half later, Kalima proved its effectiveness and the success of its ambitions in expanding bridges of civilized communication between nations, and it also proved more worthy than other translation projects that sprang up in the Arab world in the 1930s. first century I am not exaggerating when I say that the educational opportunities offered by Kalima to translators, especially young translators, are no less important than the training programs for professional translators in academic institutions in both East and West.

Nur Talal Nasra: a civilized view
Translator Noor Talal Nasra said: I had a rich and significant experience with the Kalima project, which was the translation of Peter Hensworth and David Ruby’s Italian Literature / A Very Short Introduction, published in 2021.
He added: The Kalima project is an important and refreshing tribute to the Arabic library and builds on the importance of translation as a diverse cultural field, rich in literary, scientific and intellectual subjects, that will shape a civilized vision of the future and be a vital bridge between Cultures, the Kalima project leads to this vision, what we need today is a joint collective effort to be an integrated project that accepts and presents new and different works in the areas of translation, environmental, patrimonial, philosophical, intellectual, historical and many others. Geographically, in addition to the variety of languages ​​translated, those who know the project’s publications also know how much has been done to select the translation topics and publish them in the best possible way, starting with captivating titles and stylish covers. , appointing qualified translators, attentive to the smallest details and not ending with the moral and material support of the translator.

Saria Al-Marzouk: understanding and exchanging cultures
For her part, Dr. Saria Al-Marzouk – Berlin, Germany said: This year’s celebration of International Translation Day will have a special motto: “A world without barriers”. It reflects the need for the peoples of the world to understand, tolerate and listen carefully to different points of view across countries and cultures.
He added: Literary translation generally does not require any official certification, but mainly relies on the translator’s linguistic knowledge and language skills to compose the translated text and convey it to readers on the other side. However, the expert translation of the book “Khool” commissioned by the organizers of the “Kalima” project brought me back to the academic research platform and I added 4 new specialized horse books to my library in addition to my library, the content of which I built during my long studies of equine genetics. The same applies to the children’s book collections that Project Kalima has carefully selected and translated from German over the past two years.

Source: Al Ittihad

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