The third edition of Ibn Arabi Award for Best Spanish Translation into Persian was held in Ketabsara Publication on Thursday afternoon.
The ceremony was attended by Antonio Perez Hernandez Torra, Spain ambassador in Iran, Mrs. Haji Alari Cole, Sierra Leone’s ambassador in Iran, Shahla Shamsaeifar, the translator of the book ’Layers of Mind’, and Sadegh Samiei, the general manager of Ketabsara Publication.
While presenting his country’s award to Ms. Shamsaeifar, Hernandez Torra expressed pleasure that such an event has been held.
The award is named after Ibn Arabi because he was a great Muslim Arab mystic and philosopher who is also known as Muhyi id-Din (’reviver of religion’) in the Muslim world.
Perceived by the Spanish government, the project aims at promoting Spanish-language throughout the world. They present awards to the best translations from Spanish to other languages each year. The criteria for participating in this competition is that the works should have been translated for the first time.
Samiei, for his part, said, “The first edition of this ceremony was held in Iran five years ago but in view of the time constraints and delays, we have to hold the third edition. The Spanish Embassy in Tehran has assigned our company, Ketabsara Publication to manage the ceremony.
“We have a panel of Iranian judges who select the best works. This year the translation by Shamsaeifar of ’Layers of Mind’ (La Piel de la Memoria) written by Jordi Sierra i Fabra, a celebrated Spanish writer was selected the best. In our view, currently after English, the Spanish language is the real language of the literature. Therefore we hope to establish a center for Spanish literature here,“ he added.
Shamsaeifar, who also evaluates Spanish language books, is a member of international panel of juries for Hans Christian Anderson Biennial.
In 2006 she received 25 books written by Jordi Sierra i Fabra to form a better judgment of his works. She asked him via e-mail to elaborate on his messages and help the translator choose the best equivalents.
Centered on childhood innocence, ’Layers of Mind’ is a fiction based on actual events. The protagonist of the book is a African slave child called Khalil whose father sells him for $14 to buy a cow and provide for his family of eight children. The boy is sent to a cacao camp in Mali. Throughout the story the reader becomes acquainted with the ordeals of not just the child but a society of children.
Shamsaeifar said, “The book both observes the boy’s troubles and his emotional state including his first love. ’Layers of Mind’ has a profound sociological aspect. The writer has earlier drawn on the tribulations of children in various countries such as Sierra Leone, Mexico and even developed countries including Spain.“
She added, “The author has employed a journalistic style of writing in this book to communicate to a variety of audiences with different educational and literary backgrounds. I have tried to remain faithful to his style.“
The translator concluded that to avoid breaching copyright, she asked Fabra to send her a written permission and he wrote, “As a Spanish author, I wrote a book on African children and an Iranian lady is to translate it into Persian. This is the globalization of art.“

An Iranian photographer plans to release a collection of photos of former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto who was assassinated in Rawalpindi on December 27.
Speaking to Fars news agency, Alfred Yaqoubzadeh said, “I have taken photos of Bhutto’s private and political life since 1978.“
He added that the latest photos in the collection focus on Bhutto’s return to her country after an eight-year self-imposed exile.
“I had planned to take pictures of her prior to the parliamentary elections. However, visas were refused for photojournalists due to the state of emergency,“ he said.
Yaqoubzadeh described Bhutto as the first democratically elected woman to lead a modern Muslim country.
The photographer further said that he plans to publish the photos in form of a book.

Jawaharlal Nehru University plans to organize discussion sessions themed ’Acquaintance with Iran’s Contemporary Literature’, in addition to conducting Persian language courses.
Announcing this, deputy secretary of Indian Persian Language Instructors Association and head of Department for Persian Language and Central Asian Studies, Akhtar Mehdi said that the entity is one of the oldest establishments which organizes discussion sessions each year to convene Persian language instructors in one of the Indian cities, ISNA reported.
It wants to convince the Indian government and nation that Persian is not a foreign language; rather it served as the language of the country’s science and culture for over 800 years, he said.
He further stated that the university, as the greatest seat of higher education in the country, plans to put on agenda lectures and sessions to make the Indians further acquainted with contemporary Persian literature.
A scientific workshop on ’How to Learn Persian Language’ will be held in February for three days, he concluded.

Seyyed Jafar Shahidi

The documentary ’Love Is Dear’, a film about the life of Seyyed Jafar Shahidi, noted Iranian historian and literary figure, who died recently due to old age, will be screened concurrent with a ceremony to mark the 40th day of his death.
According to ISNA, the film directed by Manouchehr Moshiri is the outcome of 15 months of filming about his teaching career, involvement in Dehkhoda Dictionary Institute as well as his travels.
The 55-minute ’Love Is Dear’ was produced by Mohammad Davoudi based on an order placed by Tehran Municipality’s Cultural Artistic Organization.
The film is part of a project to produce three films on the lives of Ali Akbar Dehkhoda, Mohammad Moein and Shahidi, three noted men of letters who were involved in compiling ’Dehkhoda Dictionary’.
The film ’I Underwent Such Pain, Do Not Ask’ deals with the life of Dehkhoda and different stages of compiling the dictionary while the film ’Remember Dead Candle’ revolves on the life of Moein.
After Dehkhoda died in 1955, Moein continued his job until 1967 and following him, Shahidi undertook the same.
Moshiri is also producing another film featuring interviews with Shahidi’s friends, colleagues and students. Earlier, he produced films on Nima Youshij, father of Persian new poetry and other literary figures.

A poster for the 26th Fajr International Film Festival (FIFF) has been released as the countdown to the event has already begun.
According to ISNA, two graphic artists, Miranda Ansari and Elham Aivazi, designed the poster, the order for which was placed by Culture and Islamic Guidance Ministry’s Cinematic Department.
The poster features teahouse painting on the beige background with a man seated on Persian ’Eslimi’ or arabesque designs in the center.
The festival’s logo designed in ’Nastaliq’ style of calligraphy is seen at the top.
The 26th Fajr International Film Festival will be held from February 1-11.

A number of artists commented on the Fourth Seminar on Ashura Rituals which concluded recently in Tabriz, East Azarbaijan.
Ashura is the tenth day of the lunar mourning month of Muharram which marks the anniversary of the martyrdom of Imam Hussein (AS), the third Imam of the infallible household of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), along with 72 of his loyal companions in Karbala, Iraq.
According to ISNA, Morshed Ahmad Ahadi said that ’Pardeh-Khani’ (a traditional recital of epic poems and historical tragedies) and Tazieh (passion play) are among the basic elements of religious ceremonies to mark the ritual.
Hamid Ebrahimi, another participant at the event, contended that proper conditions were not prepared for the groups to perform their programs. This is while officials had earlier promised to provide sufficient support to the event, he complained.
Regretting his presence at the event, Ebrahimi further said that even the elementary facilities were not available.
However, Sirous Hemmati described welfare facilities such as hotel accommodations and equipment for performing as satisfactory.
Saeed Najafian also described the quality of the fourth seminar as low and said that Tehran has all professional facilities and no city in the country can match the capital in this respect.

Bono, the frontman of the Irish rock group, U2 said: “The G8 are not making good--largely--on their commitments.“ “The Millennium Development Goals look like they’re not going to happen. This is a scandal. It makes the dialogue between social change movements are having with governments look preposterous,“ he added.
On Friday, 25 January, UK’s Prime Minister Gordon Brown also called on the world to refocus on the Millennium Development Goals, reported Independent.
Bono was sharing a platform with the former US Vice-President Al Gore, who has spent many years campaigning against climate change, winning the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts. Despite his disappointment at Western governments’ failure to move faster on aid to Africa, Bono was in an equable mood, telling the 7.45 am meeting: “If anyone sees my band would they please not tell them I was up this early.“
Pointing out that the poor in areas such as the Horn of Africa and Darfur are the least able to deal with the consequences of climate change, Bono confessed to feeling slightly like a sinner telling all to “Father Al“, and a “little unsettledness“ as a “rock star with blue suede shoes and a big carbon footprint“.
Bono appeared again yesterday with Bill Gates, Brown and Kofi Annan.