The media team of the Sheikh Hamad Award for Translation and International Understanding organized an online symposium via Zoom, on the occasion of International Translation Day, which is celebrated on Sept. 30 every year, in which five male and female translators from different languages participated.
During the symposium, entitled “Challenges of Translation in a Changing World,” participants presented their visions on the role of translation as a civilized act in bridging between nations, cultures, and peoples. They discussed the reality of the translation movement based on their personal experiences in this field, and touched on the difficulties and challenges they face during their work.
For her part, Kuwaiti writer Saadia Mufarreh, during her moderation of the symposium, explained the role of the Award in honoring translators and appreciating their contribution to strengthening the bonds of friendship rewarding excellence, encouraging creativity, consolidating high values and promoting diversity, plura
lism and openness.
The award seeks to root in a culture of knowledge and dialogue, spread Arab and Islamic culture, develop international understanding and encourage mature cultural processes between Arabic and the rest of the world’s languages through translation and Arabic events, she added.
For his part, the Algerian translator Dr. Al Hawari Ghazali spoke about translating Arabic poetry in light of technological progress and artificial intelligence, introducing the Master of Translation Department at the University of Paris, where he works as a lecturer, and the systematic method of working to train translators who focus on a common set of lessons and options for enhancing academic specialization.
Dr. Ghazali explained that students can acquire these skills in other languages available within the program, thanks to optional courses such as translation courses in Arabic, which is of great benefit to students who wish to maintain a second or even third language. He pointed out that the list of languages a
pproved in the field of translator training includes German, English, Arabic, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, and Russian, in addition to French, which is the central language in the program.
He pointed out that the entry of artificial intelligence into the field of work is one of the most prominent difficulties they face, which later prompted them to adopt different methodological options that made students position themselves within translation as linguistic correctors who provide interpretations of one linguistic option rather than another. Therefore, most of the texts they propose are texts translated by artificial intelligence, but they are subject to the arbitration of students who specialize in translation science and not in translation itself.
For her part, the Syrian translator Buthaina Al Ibrahim spoke about the adventures that translators go through in translation, specifically her adventure in one of the last works she translated, and said that she is keen on linguistic integrity and ensuring that
the text is free of linguistic and grammatical errors, but she decided to abandon this caution in her translation of the novel “The Girl with the Loud Voice” published in 2023.
Translator Al Ibrahim said that she deliberately broke down the language, as no one who reads the novel will find a page free of errors, because the heroine speaks in broken English and is full of errors, even if she tries to be clear in using some big words, noting that this adventure is one of the challenges that the translator faces in order to convey the writer’s voice and style as he chose. (MORE)
Source: Qatar News Agency