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Last Friday evening, the Manggha Museum of Japanese Art and Technology in Krakow hosted the ceremony for this year's Transatlantyk Awards. This is the most prestigious award for ambassadors of Polish literature abroad. This year, the jury of the award presented by the Book Institute decided to honour Hatif Janabi - poet, essayist, critic, and the most outstanding contemporary translator of Polish literature into Arabic.
The ceremony was hosted by Marek Zając. The journalist and presenter inaugurated the evening by reading a poem by the laureate. He then gave the floor to the Director of the Book Institute, Dariusz Jaworski, who first welcomed the audience and read out a letter addressed to the laureate and the audience by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage, Piotr Gliński.
After the reading of the letter, the Director of the Book Institute said a few words about the Transatlantyk Award and this year's winner.
"Today, for the 19th time, we will present the award to an outstanding ambassador of Polish literature in the world. An ambassador, that is someone who not only represents the ideas and values enshrined in Polish literature, but also shows love and affection for our country," said Dariusz Jaworski.
"There have previously been laureates translating Polish literature into major literary languages such as English, German, and Italian, but also those who popularise Polish literature in less widely spoken languages such as Czech, Romanian, Serbian, or Estonian. The language into which today's laureate translates the most important works of Polish literature is one of the greatest languages in the world. It is spoken by approximately three hundred million people every day. It is spoken by people in the Middle East, North Africa, but also - as we know - by many people who live next door to us, in Europe, on a daily basis,' said Dariusz Jaworski.
In the following part of the ceremony, Professor Marek M. Dziekan, Head of the Department of Middle East and North Africa at the University of Łódź, faculty member of the Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies at the University of Warsaw and the Laboratory for Arabic Language and Culture at the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, as well as the President of the Polish Oriental Society, read out his commendation to the laureate.
"The Transatlantyk Award is an extremely important accolade and one that Hatif Janabi deserves more than most. I am proud and happy that his universal activity for the popularisation of Polish culture in the Arab world has been recognised by the Book Institute. I appreciate this also as an Arabic scholar, because I too am passionate not only about the popularisation of Arabic culture in Poland, but also about what Hatif is undertaking, since I myself also do not want to be perceived in the Arabic world as ‘a man from nowhere’," said Prof. Marek M. Dziekan.
After the commendation, the laureate appeared on stage to receive the statuette, designed by Łukasz Kieferling, from the hands of the Director of the Book Institute, Dariusz Jaworski.
"I would like to express my sincere thanks to the honourable body that nominated me for this award, to the esteemed jury for awarding this laurel to me, as well as to Dariusz Jaworski and all the extremely kind staff of the Book Institute. This award is addressed to a community that Minister Gliński once called a community of literature that knows no geopolitical boundaries. I have been exploring and translating Polish poetry, prose, and essays for many years and have popularised them in Arab countries. Apart from my own work, this was my greatest passion and most important daily activity," said Hatif Janabi.
The laureate then thanked his wife for her patience and forbearance as he deeply immersed himself in Polish poetry and prose. He also mentioned, among other things, his difficult beginnings in Poland (when he came to our country, he did not know the Polish language at all), as well as his friendship with Tadeusz Różewicz. Janabi's speech showed his affection for Polish culture.
“Without throwing around any grandiose words, I have to tell you that Poland has become my second, chosen homeland over the years, and maybe even something more. One of the key reasons why I devote my efforts, time, and nerves to Poland is simply my love for Poland. It seems to me that without this love, I would not have survived for so long as a translator. The great poet and mystic, Rumi, once said that even if the whole world was ablaze with light, no one would behold it unless they had light in their hearts. If the Polish light had not been in my heart, there would be none of this shine today," said the grateful recipient of the 2023 Transatlantyk Award.
Finally, Prof Barbara Michalak-Pikulska, Head of the Department of Arab Studies, Director of the Institute of Oriental Studies at Jagiellonian University, and a long-time friend of Hatif Janabi, Prof George Yacoub of the Department of Arab and Islamic Studies at Warsaw University, and Raoof Ziyad, Plenipotentiary of the Kurdistan Regional Government in Poland, also took the floor. All three not only warmly congratulated the winner, but also shared some anecdotes and memories related to the laureate.
The 2023 Transatlantyk Award ceremony also featured a musical performance. Mariusz Lubomski and his band performed in front of the audience at the Manggha Museum of Japanese Art and Technology. In addition to his own works, the artist included a special surprise in his repertoire for tonight - he performed one of the poems by this year's laureate, Hatif Janabi.
Hatif Janabi, this year's winner of the Transatlantyk Award, is the most outstanding contemporary translator of Polish literature into Arabic and a true Renaissance man. In addition to translations from and into Arabic, he is involved in critical-literary activities, the promotion of Polish literature abroad, and has also published - with much success - poetry and essays. Born in 1952, he left Iraq for political reasons in August 1976. Three years later, he obtained his MA in Polish philology from the University of Warsaw, and as early as 1983, he obtained his PhD in theatre studies. He was a lecturer in the Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies at the University of Warsaw for three decades. He translated Mickiewicz, Słowacki, Leśmian, Czechowicz, Broniewski, Iwaszkiewicz, Gałczyński, Grochowiak, Miłosz, Różewicz, Herbert, Szymborska, and other giants of Polish literature into Arabic.
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The Transatlantyk Award is an annual award from the Book Institute for an eminent ambassador of Polish literature abroad. The winner may be a translator, a publisher, a critic, or an animator of cultural life. This year, the Transatlantyk Award was presented for the 19th time.
The award was presented for the first time in 2005 during the Conference of Polish Literature Translators. It was awarded to Henryk Bereska, the translator of such giants of Polish literature as Jan Kochanowski, Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz, Jerzy Andrzejewski, Stanisław Wyspiański, Cyprian Kamil Norwid, and Tadeusz Różewicz. The award is worth 10,000 euros; moreover, the winner receives a commemorative certificate and a statuette designed by Łukasz Kieferling.
So far, this prestigious award was given to such outstanding personalities as Anders Bodegård, Albrecht Lempp, Ksenia Starosielska, Biserka Rajčić, Pietro Marchesani, Vlasta Dvořáčková, Yi Lijun, Karol Lesman, Bill Johnston, Laurence Dyèvre, Constantin Geambaşu, Lajos Pálfalvi, Antonia Lloyd-Jones, Hendrik Lindepuu, Ewa Thompson, Tokimasa Sekiguchi, and Silvano De Fanti.