São Paulo – An award promoted by Saudi Arabia and delivered on Monday (21) evening in the city of São Paulo should help foster translations from Arabic into Portuguese. The ceremony of the 6th Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz International Award for Translation took place at Bandeirantes palace, seat of the government of the state of São Paulo, counted on the presence of Saudi prince Abdulaziz Bin Abdullah and awarded the Brazilian João Baptista Vargens.
Abdullah, son of the Saudi king and deputy Foreign Minister, said, in his address, that the fact that the award was granted in Brazil confirms Arab-Brazilian integration. “We aim to foster a strong movement of translation from Arabic into Portuguese,” said the general supervisor of King Abdulaziz Public Library, Faisal Muaammar, on delivery of the award. The Library organizes the award.
Muaammar said the meeting is a starting point for relations between his country, Brazil and Latin America. Both the prince and the general supervisor stressed the part played by translations as a bridge between different people. The award is recognition of intellectuals who promote knowledge and disseminate Arabic the world over. “I hope that this award will provide incentives to individuals,” said Abdullah.
The governor of the state of São Paulo, Geraldo Alckmin, participated in the event and spoke about the connection between Brazil and the Arab world. He mentioned the fact there are 600 words in Portuguese that are of Arab origin and that this volume was even greater in the past. “Arabic is seen as the language of culture, splendour, science,” said the governor. He recalled the interest of Brazilian emperor Dom Pedro II for the language and added that he translated part of the Arabian Nights, as well as leaving the heritage of a library with 151 works in Arabic or about the Arabs.
The Saudi Award distributes US$ 1 million to the winners in five categories. The Brazilian Vargens was the winner in the Translation Award for Individual Efforts in Translation, alongside Spanish professor Luis Miguel Pereza Cañada. Vargens is an Arabic professor at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) and set up publishing house Almádena, turned to translations from Arabic and themes that involve the Arab world.
He is the author of books Português para falantes de árabe (Portuguese for Arabic Speakers), Léxico Português de Origem Árabe (Portuguese Lexicon of Arab Origin) and Islamismo e negritude (Islam and blackness) as well as having translated and organized Contos Marroquinos Modernos (Modern Moroccan Tales) and As codornas e o outono (Partridges and Autumn). He also won the Sharjah Prize for Arab Culture – Unesco last year. In his address at the ceremony in São Paulo, Vargens recalled the time he worked in Syria and pointed out the importance of the award so that intellectuals and researchers develop their work and studies.
Apart from Vargens, also awarded were Salwa Saliman Naqli and Rasha Saad Zaki, who got the Translation Award in the Humanities from Other Languages into Arabic, Reem Mohammad Al Towairqi, Abdulanser Salah Ibrahim and Ali Abdullah Al-Salama, for Translation in the Natural Sciences from Other Languages into Arabic, Cecília Martini, who won the Translation Award in the Humanities from Arabic into Other Languages, and the Arab Center for Arabization, Translation, Authorship and Publication, which won the Translation Award for Institutions.
The event was followed by a dinner for guests and included the participation of several authorities, among them the ambassadors Arab countries in Brazil and leaders at the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce, including president Marcelo Sallum, CEO Michel Alaby, Foreign Trade vice president Rubens Hannun and former president Salim Schahin, among others.
*Translated by Mark Ament
