Several translators from different Arab and foreign countries emphasised the role of Sheikh Hamad Award for Translation and International Understanding (SHATIU) in granting translators and translation the best way to be a qualitative addition in Arab and international libraries.
This came during a remote conference organised by SHATIU, titled “Reading in the experience of the winners of Sheikh Hamad Award for Translation and International Understanding through its past five seasons”, with the participation of some translators who won the award.
The Syrian translator Jamal Shaheed presented an intervention titled “Responsibility of scientific institutions towards the translated work”, and gave an overview of his experience in translating his winning book from French into Arabic in the 2017 award edition, where he indicated that the status of translation in the Arab world has improved in recent decades in a way that indicates the prosperity of the translation movement, and this thanks to the institutions specialized in translation in the Arab world, including Sheikh Hamad Award for Translation and International Understanding.
Dr. Muhammad Gelik from Turkey, who won the first place in 2015 explained what it means to win an international award, stressing that it increased the sense of responsibility and prompted him to further intonation and followup to the most important intellectual works that are suitable for translation from the Arabic and Turkish languages.
Gelik talked about his experience in doing translation, as he needed to read all the works of the author and everything that was written about him before starting the translation.
The last intervention of Dr. Hassan Helmy from Morocco, winner of second place in 2016, talked about the post-award and how the award contributed to giving him a large area of communication with top international translators. He referred to the role of the award in motivating him to translate poetry, as translating poetry poses a great challenge for translators, valuing the role of the award in honouring translators.