Metaglossia: The Translation World

Twenty fellows—ten from Cebu and ten from other parts of the Visayas―participated in the workshop.

Friday, September 7, 2012

Under the sponsorship of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts, Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc. (RAFI) and the University of San Carlos (USC) Cebuano Studies Center held a translation workshop dubbed “X ≠ Y: Training Workshop on Literary Translation ” at the Cebu Cathedral Museum last August 20-21.
Twenty fellows—ten from Cebu and ten from other parts of the Visayas―participated in the workshop.
During the first day of the activity, Dr. Erlinda K. Alburo and Prof. Merlie M. Alunan presented a lecture on translation, which tackled the concept, politics, reason, expectations, and tradeoffs of translation.
“Translation can only be as good as the original,” Alunan emphasized in her presentation and all throughout the workshop.

ISLAMABAD: A five days workshop under the Auspicious of Faculty of Arabic of the
International Islamic University, Islamabad (IIUI) with the collaboration of Higher Education Commission (HEC) started on Monday in the new campus of the university.

The topic of the workshop is "Teaching Translation and Interpretation, Theory, Practice and Challenges".

Prof. Dr. Sahibzada Sajid ur Rehman President IIUI presided over the inaugural session of workshop.

Speaking on the occasion Sahibzada Sajid ur Rehman highlighted the importance of translation in transformation of knowledge from one language to another and said that it is impossible to transform knowledge from one language to another without proper translation.

He said that due to these translations the scholars and Ulema of Sub-continent became familiar with the knowledge of Quran, Hadith, Fiqh etc. He said that there was a time that the western world was looking for knowledge fields towards the Muslim world for knowledge in difference disciplines but it is sorry to say that now days the Muslim scholars are going to the western universities to seek knowledge.

He said that it is the need of the hour to establish translation departments in each and every university to transform the Quranic as well as the knowledge about the modern disciplines in the native languages. He assured all possible cooperation to the Faculty of Arabic in this regards.

Earlier Dr. Inam Ul Haq Ghazi, Coordinator of the programme briefed the participants about the workshop and said that IIU is the first university of Pakistan which introduced the four years BS degree of translation and Interpretation.

I had the invaluable opportunity this summer to attend the first installment of Translations, a residency comprised of workshops, discussions, and exchanges concerning translation and writing. Tucked away in the historic French village of Lagrasse, our group of thirty-five translators, authors, scholars, and students (like myself) spent the week (July 7-14) eating, breathing, and sleeping translation.

None of Translations’ workshops set out with the intent to produce a ready-to-publish translation of an entire novel or short story. Our objective, in my opinion, was far more important. In a nutshell, the goal was to dismantle barriers of distance and construct a free social and intellectual space where people dedicated to language and translation could meet, share, and collaborate with their peers from various parts of the world. Translators Barbara Skubic and Michelle Hartman have advised that translating should not be a lonely or isolated endeavor. Instead it should be a communal and collaborative one. Such was the space that Translations successfully fostered.

While the climate in Lagrasse was social and friendly, it was also productive. According to the program schedule, a total of fourteen workshops were to be organized by a brilliant team of individuals from all over the world with a keen interest in and talent for translation. The working languages were French, Arabic, and English. While the residency accommodated every language combination and direction (ex. Arabic-French, French-English, etc.), I was particularly interested in Arabic-English and English-Arabic. So it was unfortunate when I was informed that Sinan Antoon and Abdelmounem Chentouf were unable to attend the residency.