The nonprofit online magazine Albawtaka Review is translating and recording English audio books into Arabic for Egypt’s blind

Hala Salah Edin likens translation to a form of alchemy.

“Translating literature is much like putting two precious metals into one pot and melting them to reach a new form of rareness, which allows the reader to see the life of others from different perspectives,” she said. “Having previously been melted by the heat of prejudice, readers are being re-shaped with a bird’s eye view of the world, free of judgment.”

This idea of exposing people to new points of view is part of the reason Salah Edin, founded the Albawtaka Review, a nonprofit online magazine that features contemporary English literature translated into Arabic. It also inspired the nonprofit’s latest project, which aims to bring international literature to an even more neglected population – Egypt’s blind.

Assuming they won’t make high profits, publishing houses have long neglected producing audio versions for books and novels. Salah Edin’s project is dedicating to remedying the shortage of books available to the blind by producing about 10,000 recordings. More.

See: Daily News Egypt

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