Activites of The Ministry of Culture’s national translation project 2021

Under the patronage of Mrs. Lubana Mshouh, Minister of Culture, last Thursday, the Syrian General Book Organization held a press conference to lay down the operational plan for the National Translation Project 2021.

The meeting was chaired by Dr. Thaer Zain Al-Din,the Director of  the General  organization of Books, in the presence of number of members of the committee, Professor Hussam Khadour, Director of  the Translation at the Organization, and Dr. Nora Arisian, Director of the Authoring Directorate in the Organization.

In a statement to reporters, Dr. Zain Al-Din stated that since the launch of the national project for translation 5 years ago, it worked on developing a plan with the participation of the best translators, so the committee chose 67 books from different cultures and languages such as English, French and Russian.

Zain Al-Din indicated that the translation plan for this year will be more specific and more diversified and include various fields of knowledge in addition to the child’s share .

Zain Al-Din also stressed the request to support paper publishing as well as electronic publishing to deliver knowledge to everyone, in addition to organizing workshops and seminars and cooperate with Arab and international authorities  such as UNESCO, and others.

Syria Times : What are the difficulties facing marketing the translated book, whether inside or outside Syria?

Zain Al-Din: All books  which are printed in general and translated in particular are marketed in publishing houses in the various Syrian governorates, the last of which was in the exhibition which was held in  Al-Assad National Library, and the marketing process was successful and all the books were sold  at symbolic prices, so the cultural movement  will not stop.

With regard to external marketing, the ministry was subjected to an external blockade as it was not invited to participate in foreign exhibitions, but we were able to access some exhibitions through some private publishing houses that bought books and displayed them in those exhibitions.

Zain Al-Din added that the economic blockade and Corona crisis led to a decline in participation in foreign exhibitions, as we had an exhibition in Tehran and we could not participate.

In addition to a Russian invitation to participate in the exhibition of the Russian Library of Foreign Literature within a complete section , but we also could not participate.

What are the criteria for selecting books for translation?

Professor Husam  Khadour, Director of Translation: We have objective criteria and we hope to cover all fields of literary knowledge Scientific, humanities and public health to meet the needs of the reader and researcher, and to combine pleasure and benefit together.

Khaddour added that the next plan is to distribute translated books to publishing houses and sales outlets in cultural centers and in the National Book Fair that is held annually in Al-Asad Library, in addition to the authority’s website that provides the book electronically.

It is noteworthy that the Syrian General Book Organization announced the Sami Droubi Award for Translation for the fourth year and honored the first three winners and printed some of the prize winning works for the years 2019-2020.

Reported by Sanaa Hasan