The winners of the Sixth King Abdullah International Award for Translation (KAIAT) will be honored at a presentation ceremony to be held in Brazil this month.
Faisal Al-Muammar, adviser of King Abdullah and the general supervisor of the King Abdulaziz Public Library (KAPL), made the announcement on Sunday at an event held in recognition of their achievement.
He said holding the ceremony outside the country reflects the directives of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques to internationalize the award irrespective of cultural or linguistic bias. The fifth awarding ceremony was held in China last year.
The winners of various categories will be receiving a cash prize of SR750,000 each, while the last category for individual prizes will be SR500,000 each. AIAT is a high-profile event held annually to present distinguished works of translation and prominent institutions, which have significantly contributed to the field of translation to and from Arabic.
Deputy Foreign Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Abdullah, also KAIAT's chairman of the board of trustees, named the winners in April this year. They include Reem Mohammad Al Towairqi, Abdulnnaser Salah Ibrahim, Ali Abdullah Al-Salama and the Arab Center for Arabization, Translation, Authorship and Publication (ACATAP).
Other winners include Salwa Saliman Naqli, Rasha Saad Zaki, Cecilia Martini, Joao Baptista de Medeiros Vargens, a Brazilian university professor and author, and Luis Miguel Peres Canada, a Spanish university professor and author.
“Translation work has always linked different civilizations, besides being a potential mode for interaction. It allows people and nations to see what others have achieved in the fields of science, literature, and the arts,” said Prince Abdulaziz in an earlier statement, adding that translation enriches the cultural experience and affords more exposure. In his statement, Al-Muammar said, “The introduction of such an award has led to a wide range of knowledge-networking and humanitarianism between the Arab-Islamic culture and other cultures in all areas of knowledge.” He said the award underscores the importance of knowledge being translated from other languages into Arabic and vice versa.
The award also encourages translation in the field of science to the Arabic language and enriches the Arabic library that publishes distinctive translation work, Al-Muammar added.
The most important characteristic of this global award is that it has also become a spacious arena for the amalgamation of Arab culture with other cultures, he said.
He said that the success of the award was apparent not only due to the increasing number of works being nominated every year, but also through the improved quality and keenness of major scientific and academic institutions to provide top-class work.
There have been more than 810 translation works in the past six years alone.
