An innovative plan called ‘Translation of Persia (TOP)’ to encourage translators to translate Persian works to other languages, has been devised by Iran’s Islamic Culture and Relations Organization (ICRO).
Accordingly, the ICRO partly finances interested foreign publishers, in an effort to encourage them to participate in the translation of Persian books to the targeted readership globally, said ICRO director Abuzar Ebrahimi-Torkaman. “The plan is a step towards expansion of Iranian contemporary literature,” Fars news agency quoted him as saying.
The TOP is “a national plan,” and its objective is to encourage foreign translators and publishers to translate and publish Persian books “in a bid to improve the knowledge of other nations about Islamic and Iranian culture,” he said.
This is the path taken by many countries which have valuable cultural works and literature, he said, adding that via appropriate policymaking and comprehensive planning to support translation efforts, “they have succeeded in disseminating their literature in the international arena.”
Cultural Interaction
Some countries have included the translation promotion in their national development plans and even set up special organizations to this end, he added.
The ICRO has devised the translation promotion plan on similar lines, which has been approved by the organization’s international council. “As a result, by spreading our culture and literature around the world, we have managed to develop cultural interaction with other countries,” the official noted.
The ICRO has prepared the necessary preliminaries to implement the TOP plan which would be publicized by Iran’s cultural centers in over 60 countries around the world in the near future.
Iranian scholars and writers have contributed to a rich collection of literary works, which have not been fully introduced globally, due to lack of translations in other languages. He hoped that the plan would help Iranian literature to be offered in international book markets.
