TN aims to translate over 30 Tamil books into foreign languages this yr

CHENNAI: As a step towards taking Tamil literature abroad, the Tamil Nadu government through the Chennai International Book Fair (CIBF) is taking efforts to translate more than 30 Tamil books into foreign languages this year.

Today is the final day of CIBF.

CIBF is being conducted by the Directorate of Public Libraries, TN Textbook and Educational Services Corporation under the Department of School Education from January 16 to 18 as a co-event of the Chennai Book Fair (CBF) with the aim of knowledge transfer. Nearly over 30 countries are participating in the three-day book fair.

The participants were given an opportunity to promote their books, authors and also exhibit national culture. The international participants also met Tamil publishers and assured them of future collaborations.

Meanwhile, the State government has come up with a translation grant for promoting Tamil, to the publishers who are interested in translating work of fiction and non-fiction from Tamil to the respective country’s native language.

Translating Tamil books into foreign languages and vice versa is the primary mode of knowledge transfer of the CIBF. And, it is to be noted that in the last 100 years, only over a 100 Tamil books have been translated into foreign languages. Hence, CIBF aims to translate at least over 30 books this year and continue to do more in upcoming years.