How do "we Arabs" know about the other, and how does the "non-Arab" other know about us? A simple question, but the answer requires multiple articles, even seminars, radio and TV interviews. It also necessitates organizing cultural conferences, with an audience comprising of both us Arabs and the other who speaks different languages. However, I will skip all this effort to directly arrive at the conclusion of all these seminars, conferences, and journalistic, radio, or televised meetings, to tell you, dear reader, that the succinct answer lies in a single word that can replace everything and is also the essence of everything. This word is: "Translation". Faithful translation is the most important means of transferring knowledge, thought, and culture between different cultures and civilizations.

In our Arab world, there is a significant translation movement from various languages into Arabic, always in a state of activity that allows us to easily keep up with the latest from others, through translating their literary works, as well as intellectual and scientific books.

The presence of publishing houses, authorities, and official institutions that receive these works from translators, and even encourage them to translate by providing a financial incentive, then proceed to publish and sell them, helps promote and expand the translation from various languages into Arabic.

On the other hand, and this is the second part of our proposition, how does the world know about us? Following the same logic, we say through translation. Herein lies the problem, because the other rarely translates from Arabic, which is far from enough to convey a comprehensive and true picture of the thoughts, culture, and sciences of Arabs. The Arab translator himself rarely translates from Arabic into other languages, only amounts to a few drops in an ocean, simply because he has not found an entity or institution to commission him for these translations and pay him for his effort. No foreign publishing houses are waiting for translations of Arabic works into various languages to print and publish them, and even official Arabic institutions concerned with translation focus all their attention on translating from all languages into Arabic, while they do not care at all about translating from Arabic into various languages. The number of publishing houses, authorities, or international awards that translate and translate winning works accurately is negligible compared to the vast amount of intellectual and cultural Arabic production..!!

With the absence of translation from Arabic, our Arabic literature is globally in a predicament because, in short, we create for ourselves and our voice does not reach non-Arabs. Our literature and our Arab writers deserve to reach an international status with their more than wonderful works, compared to shallow intellectual works that have received global acclaim simply because they have been translated and managed to reach every hand on a global level. If the works of Arab writers were fairly translated into different world languages, Arabic literature would reach the status it deserves, and the Arab writer would reach his deserved status in international awards, such as the "Nobel" prize for example.

In this series of my articles "In the Realm of Arabic Literature", which I am pleased to publish on Arab Life and translated into English and Chinese, we will present in each article a glimpse of an Arab writer or one of the Arabic literary works, in a way that conveys to the "non-Arab" the thoughts, culture, and creativity of Arab writers.