The Egyptian capital, Cairo, hosted Thursday evening the 10th ceremony of the King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz International Translation Award, organized by the King Abdulaziz Public Library.
On the sidelines of the ceremony, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) met with several winners of the 10th session who talked about their scientific experience and their participation, which was crowned by winning awards.
Dr. Yahya Khalif, winner of the Translation Prize for Natural Sciences from English into Arabic, spoke about the book “On Carbon Emissions and How We Get Rid of Them” in his statement about the King Abdullah Prize, saying “It is the largest award in translation globally, and it encourages translators to give and be more creative, and it is also gaining its importance from being named after King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud.”
Expressing his joy and the joy of his family and friends who attended the event with him, he said “It is a joy that is unmatched, and the award is not in its material value but in its moral significance that encourages him to continue his work as a translator with great enthusiasm in the coming years.”
For his part, Dr. Hamza Al Muzaini, winner of the Individuals Efforts Award, stressed in a similar statement that Saudi Arabia is a primary supporter of all humanitarian initiatives, such as the King Abdullah Award for Translation, which is one of the most important means of communication between people in various countries.
He added that this award is contested by all translators from Arab and international countries, and it is a distinguished award and bears great importance for translators of all languages, pointing out that it has achieved universality as it covers many translated scientific fields and statistical reports issued in this regard, given the large number of translators who applied for the ward in all fields.
Meanwhile, Dr. Sherif Bakr, General Manager at Al Arabi Publishing and Distributing, which won the institutions award in translation, said in a statement to SPA that such awards have a great and very important impact in encouraging translators to continue their work, and they give them strong incentives to keep up and encourage those who oversee such works on perfecting what they present to the world, explaining that these awards are scientifically refereed encouragement prizes.
Dr. Samir Jeries, a translator from German into Arabic for 25 years, indicated that the translator lives in the shadows, alone with the text he has been working on for months or years, only to find himself in a few moments out of his cave to stand in the spotlight, thanking the King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz International Translation Award staff, who gave him this opportunity to encourage him and others to exert more efforts.
For her part, Dr. Laila Saleh Babsail, a former assistant professor at King Saud University and recipient of the Translation Award in Natural Sciences, who translated a book on physics for medical and health science students from English to Arabic, expressed in a statement, her appreciation and happiness over winning the ward, highlighting the great interest that she observed from organizers and donors of the award. She also thanked them for their moral support that helped her complete her translation journey with determination and strength.
She said “such awards highlight the achievements of translators, and give translation its well-deserved recognition due to its great importance in transferring knowledge and communicating other sciences to all those interested.”
More than 60 countries applied for the award, and about 1,500 works in 41 international languages, were presented during the past sessions, with 457 arbitrators participating in its arbitration. During previous sessions, nearly 123 translators won the award.

Source: Saudi Press Agency