WATANI International
18 September 2011
During Ramadan last month, the National Translation Centre held a book fair that showcased some of its best translated books. At the top of the centre’s best-seller list was Al-Tassawuf Wal-Tafkeek…Dars Moqaran Bayn Derrida Wa Ibn-Arabi (Sufism and Deconstruction… A Comparative Study of Derrida and Ibn-Arabi) by Ian Almond and translated into Arabic by Hussam Nayel.
The bestseller list also included the novels of Nobel Laureate Mario Vargas Llosa Al-Garaa (The Cubs) and Al-Ro’asaa’ (The Feast of the Goat), translated by Hala Abdel-Salam Awad. In the poetry genre, the list was topped by Fan al-Robaee (Art of the Quatrains), a selection of Persian poetry translated by Mohamed Nour-Eddin Abdel-Moneim. Added to these were the complete works of the Spanish poet Federico García Lorca translated by Khalifa al-Talisi, and selections from the poems of Galal Eddin al-Rumi translated by Alaa’ Eddin al-Sebaei.
Hal Yastatie al-Asyaweyoun An Yufakkiru? (Can Asians think?) by Kishore Mahbubani and translated by Hamza Ibn-Qablan was the best-selling book on the ##intellectual## list. On the level of human sciences the best-selling books wereAl-Itigah Al-Siyasi Li-Misr Fi Ahd Mohamed Ali (The Founder of Modern Egypt; a Study of Muhammad Ali) by Henry Dodwell (translated by Ahmed Abdel Khaleq); Kayfa Naqraa’ Wa Limatha (How to Read And Why) by Harold Bloom (translated by Nessim Megalli); ; and Tareekh Al-Dawla Al-Arabiya (History of the Arab State) by Julius Wellhausen, translated by Mohamed Abdel-Hadi Abu-Raid.
From the centre##s series Great Minds, in cooperation with Afaaq House, there was Alber Kami (Albert Camus) by David Sherman translated by Azza Mazen, and Sartre by Katherine Morris translated by Ahmed Ali Badawi. Nietzsche’s Hakatha Takalam Zerdesht (Thus Spoke Zarathustra) reached the top of the centre’s Heritage list, translated by Felix Fares.