April 15, 2024, By A. G. Voronin, Kazan
As part of the VII festival “Handshake of the Republics” The first teleconference “Kazan – Cairo” took place. The teleconference was attended by Ashraf Aboul-Yazid (Cairo, Egypt) - poet, writer, journalist, president of the Asia Journalist Association (AJA), representative of World Media Cooperation Protocol, member of the Egyptian Writers' Union, vice-president of the Congress of African Journalists (CAJ), Founder of the literary series “Silk Road” and author of an encyclopedia on the countries of the Silk Road, published by the Bibliotheca Alexandria.
Ashraf Aboul-Yazid is the author and translator of 45 books, laureate of the Korean Manhae Prize in Literature and Gold Medal laureate of the Eurasian festival of festivals “LIFFT”. He has been selected as a jury member by various cultural organizations, including the International Songwriters Festival (Costa Rica, 2017), the Kazan International Muslim Film Festival (Russia, Tatarstan, 2021) and the Pan-African Writers Association for the African Poetry Prize (2022).
The teleconference was also attended by Venera Yakupova, the president of the Association of Publishers and Distributors of Printed Products of the Republic of Tatarstan, editor-in-chief of the Kazanskie Vedomosti newspaper, member of the Union of Russian Writers, author of five books of journalism. Famous journalist Shamil Fattakhov has also attended the teleconference, he is a TV presenter and translator.
The organizers of the festival “Handshake of the Republics” called for this teleconference, its author and founder Olga Levadnaya, artistic director of the Kazan poetic theater “Dialogue”, and Alexander Voronin, chairman of the Kazan representative office of the Union of Russian Writers, deputy editor-in-chief of the literary magazine “Argamak, Tatarstan".
The Handshake of the Republics 2024 festival will end on April 20 in Yoshkar-Ola with a gala concert of participants on the main stage of the Palace of Culture named after the 30th anniversary of the Great Victory.
Topics for the video bridge from the newspaper "Kazanskie Vedomosti" showed what is unique about the music and poetry festival “Handshake of the Republics”. Ashraf said that music is the magic carpet to carry poets’ words and cross boundaries. Handshake of the Republics Festival represents the real spirit of music as a language for all alphabets. No need to translate music as it is interpreting itself. In Handshake of the Republics Festival we will discover the Unity that music asks us to understand and perform.
The Egyptian guest added that it is important that the festival takes place on the eve of and within the framework of the BRICS summit meeting. It is great to have this festive event to remind us of factors that unite the peoples. In the summit we seek cooperation. In the festival we act like orchestra playing the same tune to entertain all spirits.
Being asked about the possibilities to enable writers, poets, musicians, cultural figures, artists, sports figures respond to the situation that has developed in the world, to unite people, he answered that people of creative writings should encourage readers to seek peace, to find out the real route of happiness and to build dreams together.
Answering the question of A. G. Voronin about translation problems today, the Arab guest explained: “Translation projects have two roads today; individual road where people like me choose their own projects to fulfill, and institutional projects where organizations plan and perform huge translation projects. Both are needed, but we still need more projects to be done in the field of translation.”
He mentioned to his translation of two epic poems by Abdulla Tukay, whose birthday is being celebrated on April 26, and once he was there when Tatarstan widely celebrated this 125th anniversary! He said that visiting Kazan helped a lot to understand the poetry of Tukay. He also suggested to arrange stay programs for translators to grow knowledge of texts an authors.
The good news that surprised Ashraf Aboul-Yazid, was the intention to perform a short drama on theatre arranged by Olga Levadnaya of his poem (A Street in Cairo) translated into Russian by Eldar Akhadov, the framework of the BRICS summit meeting.
Photos:
Hosts from left Shamil Fattakhov, Olga Levadnaya, Alexander Voronin and Venera Yakupova
Ashraf Aboul-Yazid
During the First “Kazan – Cairo” Teleconference
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