Abdullah Majid Al Ali: The UAE is a cultural beacon for spreading science, knowledge and the culture of tolerance
The National Library and Archives launches the activities of the Second International Translation Conference.

The National Library and Archives launched the activities of the Second International Translation Conference under the slogan “Translation and Preservation of the Memory of the Nation, The Image of the UAE in Cultures, Literatures and World Intellectual Heritage" on Monday, May 9, 2022. His Excellency Abdullah Majid Al Ali, Acting Director General of the National Library and Archives opened the conference with a speech in which he welcomed all the participants, and emphasized that the UAE has been a haven for those of intellect and understanding throughout history. It has become a beaming cultural beacon of science, knowledge, literature and a culture of tolerance and fraternity, and the whole world has witnessed the splendor of its achievements at various levels.
His Excellency praised the rich program of the conference, in which more than 70 researchers, specialists and academics from 25 countries from all continents participate, noting that the conference provided the opportunity of participating with promising research papers for a number of diligent young translators from inside and outside the UAE this year.
The activities of the first day included three consecutive sessions. The first session was moderated by Mr. Hamad Al-Mutairi, Director of the Archives Department, and included the opening speech by Mr. Hamad Al-Hamiri, Director of the Research and Knowledge Services Department at the National Library and Archives. Then, the keynote speech entitled “Journey into the Memory of the Emirates in Many Languages: The National Poetry of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum between History and Legend”, was delivered by Professor Siddiq Gohar, translation expert at the National Library and Archives, and the conference academic activities coordinator. At the end of the session, a documentary film on the history of the United Arab Emirates and the National Archives and the Library was displayed.
In his opening speech, Al-Hamiri stressed that the incorporation of the National Library in the National Archives requires expanding the horizons of translation in order to transfer all branches of knowledge, and nationalize them to achieve further progress, pointing out that the annual translation conference organized by the NLA is a significant contribution  to the translation sector in the Arab world, particularly in light of studies critical of the translation reality in the Arab countries.
In his keynote speech, Professor Gohar explored the national poetry of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum as it chronicles the movement of the Emirati society towards modernity from pre-oil periods until the present, which witnesses the UAE's legendary achievements and miracles in many areas of development.
 The second session held on the first day of the conference was entitled "The Trajectories of Translation between Modernism and Heritage Authentication". It was moderated by Mrs. Aysha Al Dhaheri, Head of the Translation and Publishing Section at the National Library and Archives, and it included a number of research papers. Professor Barbara Michalak-Pikulska presented a paper entitled “The Image of the Emirates in Poland based on Translated Literature and Cultural Heritage”. Professor Abdul Rahman Beggar from Wilfrid Laurier University in Canada presented a paper entitled “Proselyte Geographies, Arabia as translated by Samuel and Amy Zwemer”. The session also included three other research papers presented by Professor Wael Hassan from the University of Illinois in the USA, Professor Igor Maver from the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia and Professor Terrence Craig from Mount Allison University, New Brunswick in Canada, who presented a paper entitled “Postmodernism as Translator’s Block”.
 
There were six research papers dealing with translation issues in the third session of the first day entitled “Academic Approaches in Translation, Culture and Literature”, moderated by Mrs. Sumaya Al Hashimi from the Translation and Publishing Section of the National Library and Archives. The first paper entitled “Corpus-based Discourse Analysis in Translation: Towards a Critical Corpus-based Training of Translators” was presented by Dr.Fahad Otaif from King Khalid University in the KSA. Next, Dr. Asmaa Alduhaim from the Gulf University for Science and Technology in Kuwait presented a paper entitled “Medical Discourse Translation During COVID-19: A Case Study of Translating Medical Terminology into Arabic”. Then, Dr. Lamia Mahmoud Nabil Frere, from Egypt presented the third paper entitled “Narrative Translation in Dramatic Texts”. Then, Dr. Jamal Mohamed Gaber from the United Arab Emirates University presented the fourth paper entitled “Translating Business Advertisements from English into Arabic in the UAE, Problems of Intercultural Communication and Equivalence”. Then, Ms. Sherine Abdel Wahab from Oslo University in Norway presented a paper entitled “Translation of Ibsen’s plays: Challenges and Comparative Perspectives”. Finally, Dr. Mohammed Zagood from the United Arab Emirates University) presented his paper entitled “Euphemism in Translating Children’s Literature: The Case of the Arabic Translation of Twin’s The Prince and the Pauper’”.