THE Malaysian Institute of Translation & Books (ITBM) was founded on Sept 14, 1993, under the name, Malaysian National Institute of Translation (ITNM), translating books from foreign languages into Malay and vice versa, and had great plans.
I remember how a representative from the institute visited the Faculty of Languages and Linguistics at Universiti Malaya (UM) with a long list of the best works of Malay writers that they wanted to translate into foreign languages with the help of UM lecturers.
I thought it was a great idea. While not all of the institute's plans were fully implemented, in 2009, it published the anthology of Russian literature, Golden Rose, compiled and translated by me, and in 2010, my Russian translation of Siti Zainon Ismail's book, Mother's Love.
In Dec 16, 2011, ITNM changed its name to ITBM to reflect a change of its functions.
It got involved not only in translations and their publications, but also the publication of original books, thus becoming a publishing house.
It published my Russian translation of the books by Zurinah Hassan (Facing the Harbour, 2013) and Abdul Ghafar Ibrahim (My Lord Moon Kite, 2014).
Professor A.K. Ogloblin from St. Petersburg said: "It's great that in Malaysia, and not only in Paris or New York, they publish works in Russian. And for local students, it would be useful."
But, unfortunately, since 2017, the situation has changed.
The translation of Malim Ghozali P.K.'s book, The Morning Rain, which had been prepared for publication in 2017 (with beautiful illustrations) wasn't printed, as well a collection of stories by Victoria Tokareva and Bakhitzhan Kanapyanov.
A project initiated by ITBM to publish a book that included works by Malay and Russian writers in Russia and Malaysia also wasn't accomplished, although I had made all the translations and S.M. Zakir had edited it.
Besides, it took almost three years to publish my book, The History of Russian Culture and Civilization, which was launched in February 2018 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Russian-Malaysian diplomatic relations.
Sixty copies were printed this year, thanks to a Russian sponsor. It seems that ITBM is experiencing difficulties.
Translation plays an enormous role in the world, especially in this age of information explosion.
The scientific and technical revolution resulted in an increase of information exchange between countries.
The volume of international trade increased, so did diplomatic activities, cultural communication and international tour- ism.
All that would have been impossible without translation and translators.
In this situation, it is important to have a national translation programme.
The Russian experience in this sense is valuable. I refer to the translation programme implemented from 1967 to 1977.
In this time, publishing house Khudozhestvennaya Literatura prepared and published the Library of the World Literature.
Its goal was to give an opportunity to Russian readers to become acquainted with the best classical works of world literature.
I hope ITBM will play its role to increase translations.
The writer, writing from Russia, is a former lecturer of Universiti Malaya
