Karim Nagi, the executive director of a new translation project, Kalima, speaks with Rania Khallaf Among a number of translation projects that have emerged in different parts of the Arab world in the past few years, the most recent arrival is Kalima. This was launched in November 2007 by the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Legacy, under the sponsorship of the Prince of Abu Dhabi Shiekh Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahayan. Here to promote the project during the 40th round of the Cairo International Book Fair (CIBF), Karim Nagi, the executive director of Kalima, described the new initiative as "an ambitious, non-profit project that aims at motivating and funding the translation movement." Kalima's mandate, Nagi added, was to "publish and distribute the best classical and contemporary books from different foreign languages, and make them available to Arab readers." Nagi, an Egyptian, claims that what distinguishes Kalima from other Arab translation projects is that it aims at "establishing a network that connects literary agents, translators, publishers, and distributor together." One of Kalima's main Arab publishing partners is the Egyptian Dar El-Shorouk with which it co-hosted a reception for Arab publishers in Cairo for CIBF. Asked if the project is intended to promote a new image of Abu Dhabi as a cultural capital, Nagi commented that Kalima is "only there to fill a certain gap in the already very slow movement of translation in the Arab world." But then the National Project for Translation, that used to be run by Egypt's Supreme Council for Culture, has published more than 1,000 books in 10 years, and the fact remains that the readership in Egypt, as in other Arab countries, is very low. "Yes, but this is not at odds with the need to revive the translation movement in the Arab world and recreate the golden age for translation in the first millennium in Arab urban centres like Alexandria and Baghdad," says Nagi. "Kalima is not in competition against any other Arab translation projects. I wish there were more projects like Kalima, because the more powerful cultural organisations we have, the more powerful we become as Arab citizens," he added. How does Kalima plan to overcome the severe problems that beset the distribution of books between Arab countries? "We have built and are developing very strong ties with publishers in many Arab countries, most notably in Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. In addition, we plan to distribute a portion of our publications to Arab universities, research centres and public libraries. These are will be our main methods of distribution in the near future." According to Nagi, Kalima will be publishing around 100 titles translated from 16 languages annually. "It is a challenging process because we have to meet the expectations of the readers and also choose books of substantial intellectual value, culled from all fields of knowledge. It is also challenging because thousands of books have been translated by different Arab publishing houses, some of which are already out of print, a matter that should be taken into consideration in the selection process." Nagi asserts that Kalima can put out more than 100 titles a year, "but we are more concerned with the quality more than quantity. There are certain internationally recognised standards -- having to do with the quality of paper, design, translation, copyright -- that we automatically apply in our publications." Kalima has already published six translated titles, including Albert Camus' The First Man and Stephen Hawkin's A Brief History of Time. Although he is optimistic about the project, Nagi mentions the lack of a reliable database of Arab translators as an obstacle. Does he see Kalima as offering training to translators and raising translation standards? "No, this is not our focus," he says, "our main aim is to provide good opportunities to Arab translators and at fair rates. I think this will automatically enhance the competition and promote professional standards among translators." As for censorship, Nagi claims that "there is absolutely no intention to censor the published titles whether as early as in the selection process or in the production." Only time will tell.
