Abu Dhabi’s Department of Culture and Tourism, TCA Abu Dhabi, is celebrating International Translation Day on 30th September with events geared to highlighting translation initiatives and promoting public awareness and international cultural dialogue. The events will be held under the slogan, ‘Translation is not a matter of words only; it is a matter of making intelligible a whole culture,’ a saying made famous by the British writer, Anthony Burgess.

Working with Kalima Project for Translation, one of the leading translation projects in the Arab world and a National Library initiative, the Department of Culture and Tourism is collaborating with Dalma Mall to host a cultural event on Saturday 30th September from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.. With a variety of entertaining activities targeting children and families, the event will include book reading sessions, handicraft workshop, cupcake frosting and decorating workshop, drawing competition, assembling a sand installation, the ‘one-word’ translation game, photo shoot sessions, and word games and puzzles, where winners will receive a book published by Kalima as a gift. The Department of Culture and Tourism will also be distributing 1,000 translated books to visitors at the mall on the day.

The Department of Culture and Tourism is also collaborating with the College of Humanities and Social Sciences in United Arab Emirates University, UAEU, to hold a series of lectures on the topic of Translation and Creativity in the New Millennium, on 2nd October. The series will include three discussion panels that will explore how the Kalima Project has led the way in furthering translation, the translation movements in the Arab world and translation curricula in Arab universities. The panels will also discuss the challenges encountered in translation and interpretation today, the role of translation in transmitting knowledge and bridging cultures, the problems of automated translation, and will look at the importance of translating other languages’ publications into Arabic, the future of audio-visual translation, and the profession of a translator and its ethics.

Abdullah Majed Al Ali, Acting Executive Director of the National Library Sector, commented, "A key mission for the Department of Culture and Tourism is the development of translation in order to enrich Arab culture further, and to promote cultural dialogue between civilisations. The Kalima project is a keystone initiative in this mission and one of the most important pillars of the Department of Culture and Tourism’s overall strategy in consolidating Arab culture and the publishing industry. These lectures address our key focus on maintaining high levels of translation, and the development of translation practices to ensure that all members of our society have access to books and international publications for generations to come."

Commenting on the family event, Bhupinder Singh, General Manager and CFO of Dalma Mall, said, "It brings us great pleasure to be part of an international occasion with such cultural value to the world, under the UAE’s numerous reading initiatives and policies. We at Dalma Mall are committed to strengthening our ties and relations with other governmental entities, through maintaining continuous support for national activities and community projects. Moreover, hosting this event in collaboration with the Kalima project, will certainly bring in return a vibrant atmosphere that will further enhance our visitors’ shopping experience, providing them with a chance for an informative and joyful exploration of interpretation."

International Translation Day is celebrated every year on 30th September, and was first established in 1953 by the International Federation of Translators, but was only officially recognised in 1991. It was launched in appreciation of the profession of translators, who endeavour to break down language barriers and make different cultures more accessible for everyone.

Kalima was launched in 2007 under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, with the aim of reviving the translation movement in the Arab world and to start conversations across cultural exchange. Since its launch, Kalima has successfully translated 1,000 titles in various fields of knowledge and completed translation projects in more than 13 languages across numerous disciplines. The project also received the King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz International Award for Translation.