(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - The session was held on Monday (May 21, 2012) at the University of Quranic Sciences.
In her opening speech, Masoumeh Yazdan Panah said, “There are no real translators of the holy Quran in the world. Frankly speaking, no one has managed to present a real translation of the book in any languages in the world. ‘Translator’ is a term erroneously applied for the one who presents divine words in a different language. We, translators, are still unable to render terms like Alrahman and Alrahim into other languages.”
Elsewhere in her address, she asserted that every social stratum needs their specified version of a Quranic translation. “Different kinds of translations should be presented to them and no one can say which translation is better than the other because every translator translated the book of Quran based on their knowledge and contemporary culture. What matters is that translations should be done with Godly intentions.”
Later in the ceremony, Hujatoleslam Naghdi, head of Tarjoman Vahi (translation of revelation) center, reviewed the center’s activities since its establishment in 1994 and said, “publication of Quranic translations, providing an archive of articles and theoretical discussions about translation of the holy Quran into Persian , creating an database of articles about translation of the holy Quran into English, developing a Persian bibliography of Persian translations of the holy Quran and developing a descriptive bibliography of all the printed translations of the holy Quran are some of the engagements of the center since its establishment.”
As he added, the center has so far published Quranic translations into English, French, Azeri Turkish, Chinese, Turkish, and Spanish in countries like the US, France, the UK, Canada, Spain, India, Azerbaijan, Turkey and China.
Right now translation of the book into 12 languages including Russian, Italian, Georgian and Pashtu is underway in the center.
He went on to say that interest for Quranic translations increased after the 9/11 events. “We are constantly after expert translators and sign contracts with translators from different countries for translation of the holy Quran into different languages of the world.”
He further argued that translations should be done by Muslims only not to mean that non-Muslims have evil intentions but they mostly lack enough information about Islam which definitely affects their work.
/106