The Mexican Embassy in Egypt — in cooperation with the National Centre for Translation — announced in a ceremony held on Sunday that Rehab Wahdan won first palace in the Mexican Literary Translation Competition.
The book that Wahdan translated was ‘The Wild Book’ by Mexican writer Juan Villoro, who is currently in Cairo to attend this celebration.
During the ceremony, Wahdan was honoured along with three other translators and received a prize of $1,000, a certificate of appreciation, a collection of works on Mexican literature, and a guarantee that her translated version of the book will be published within the publications of the National Centre for Translation.
It is worth mentioning that the National Centre for Translation launched the first round of the competition in cooperation with the Mexican Embassy in Cairo last September, as it aims to build bridges of communication by translating Mexican culture and transferring it to the Arab reader.
For his part, Mexico’s Ambassador to Cairo José Octavio Tripp said that the presence of the great writer Villoro increases the importance of this event and the activities that will be held in the coming days in Cairo, which will undoubtedly spread Mexican literary production.
“His presence is also an incentive for specialists in Spanish literature and a great contribution to the cultural relations between Mexico and Egypt,” he added.
Tripp also affirmed that Wahdan’s version of the book would be issued with the contribution of the National Centre for Translation to make it available for reading in all countries from the ocean to the Gulf.
Furthermore, he revealed that the number of those interested in this competition reached nearly 200 translators from various Egyptian universities, which shows the competition’s success thanks to the attractiveness of the works of the writer and thanks to the constant interest in Mexican literature.
For her part, Wahdan expressed her happiness for winning, revealing that it was her first time participating in a translation competition. She added that she was keen to participate in the competition despite many personal challenges that she faced, including juggling the matter with her work and PhD.
She also thanked both the Mexican Embassy in Cairo and the National Centre for translation, stressing that literature and language are natural bridges of communication.
