Kalima, an initiative of the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage, announced its intention to make 8 new titles available, including John Milton's Paradise Lost and Paradise Restored. Kalima aspires to make 100 new great works of other languages available in Arabic each year; their ambition is to rectify the current rate of translation of books into Arabic, which is one for every one million Arabs. (Wikipedia tells us that there are between 350 and 422 million Arabs in the world, so you can do the math).
Kalima also requests feedback from Americans on the novel that best embodies the spirit of our country. (The form has no question about your nationality, so I guess non-American lovers of American literature are also welcome to vote). I unoriginally, but sincerely, nominated the Great Gatsby, but easily might have chosen 10 other books. If you are inspired, post your choice in comments.
The Independent (UK) has a brief background on Kalima here. It's important to look at this initiative as a piece of a broader campaign by Abu Dhabi to promote cultural development in literature, science, entertainment, history … and other things yet to come.
With respect to this initiative, I can hear an opposition argument forming in my head that perhaps the importing of foreign literature will stifle the growth of the local/native/national literary scene. I think that argument is, frankly, silly. The idea that a culture can reach a saturation point for books demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of the way that thought communities grow – wide exposure and greater stimulation can only be a good thing.
It will, of course, be curious to observe how Kalima navigates issues of censorship, internally and in their anticipated distribution centers.
(Picture is a the book cover of Kalima's translation of Alan Greenspan's book, The Age of Turbulence).
