Kalima Reading Club to celebrate International Translation Day with special seminar and discounts on book purchases

28 Sep, 2020

The Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi’s Kalima Translation Project will be marking the occasion of International Translation Day this week by hosting a timely virtual seminar highlighting the importance of translation during a pandemic, and offering generous discounts on certain Kalima titles.

Each year on 30 September, the world celebrates International Translation Day to pay tribute to the work of language professionals, which plays an important role in bringing nations together, facilitating dialogue, understanding and cooperation, contributing to development and strengthening world peace and security.

This occasion is an ideal opportunity to recall the significant achievements of the Kalima Translation Project since its launch in 2007, embodied in the translation and publication of more than 1,030 books translated into Arabic from 18 languages, covering every aspect of human knowledge.

Marking International Translation Day, Kalima Translation Project’s affiliated initiative Kalima Reading Club is organising a virtual seminar called ‘The Role of Translation in a Pandemic’. This will be held to facilitate discussion about a series of books dealing with epidemics, which Kalima has either already translated, or is currently translating, into Arabic in light of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The event will host a number of translators from different parts of the world who have worked on epidemiological and other scientific books that have previously been released by Kalima, in addition to doctors from the UAE. Moderated by Maryam Fikry, there will be contributions from Dr. Zainab Buniya, Muhammad Ziyad Kubba, Izz al-Din Anaya, Hassan Ghazlan, Omar al-Ayoubi, and Dr. Khaled Al-Awadi.

Highlighting the importance of translating books related to diseases and epidemics in light of the rapid advancements in medicine, the webinar will also consider the history of pandemics and past epidemics. These are key to understanding the nature of modern health emergencies and have helped the world adapt to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, with medical professionals being able to decipher best practice based on past events.

As the world has faced the current Covid-19 global pandemic, Kalima has been making significant efforts to assist in the education of people throughout the region by translating and publishing a selection of titles dealing with such health crises. In doing so, readers are able to become more aware of a situation that is affecting the entire global population.

Kalima has obtained the rights to translate four books from the famous Oxford series Very Short Introductions into Arabic: Plague by Paul Slack, Pandemics by Christian W. McMillin, The Immune System by Paul Klenerman, and Infectious Disease by Marta L. Wayne and Benjamin M. Bolker. In addition, the project has undertaken translation of How Contagion Works by the Italian writer Paolo Giordano, which was published during Italy’s first wave of Covid-19, as well as the classic A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe.

Kalima is also announcing a series of special discounts of up to 50% on the purchase of certain titles, details of which are available on its website: https://kalima.ae

The ‘Role of Translation in a Pandemic’ webinar will be broadcast on Microsoft Teams at 7pm on 30 September, 2020. The public may access the seminar on Kalima’s social media channels.