Here are the most important cultural headlines in the media.

Sahar TV

"Qur'an Suras" (00:50 am) 

Newspapers

Iraqi President’s Diary in Book Fair
--------------

Iran Daily: Iraqi President Jalal Talabani presented his 60-year diary to Tehran’s International Book Fair.
Sending a message along with his diary, President Talabani said he was willing to attend the book fair, but his engagements prevented him from coming to Tehran, IRNA reported.
The 22nd International Book Fair kicked off on Tuesday in the presence of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at Tehran’s Imam Khomeini Grand Prayer Grounds (Mosalla) and will run until May 16.

---------------------

Tehran Book Fair Well Received

Iran Daily: The 22nd Tehran International Book Fair has been warmly received by the public.
Announcing this, Hamid Qobadi, the fair’s deputy executive director, told Fars News Agency that the number of visitors of the fair’s first three days exceeds that of previous years.
“Around two millions visited the exhibit in three days, and the figure was unprecedented compared to previous editions,“ he said.
Qobadi noted that proper planning and information dissemination have led to such a reception.
Some 3,700 domestic and foreign publishers form 78 countries are participating in the event.
Iran’s National Library and Documents Organization holds ten specialized sessions on the sidelines.
The sessions are themed on manuscripts, Iranology and Islamic studies.
The organization also offers 255 titles of books on librarianship.
United Nations’ Tehran Office has also participated in the Seventh International Book Market held concurrent with the event.
Thirteen International organizations affiliated to the UN, including The World Health Organization (WHO) and The World Food Program (WFP) discuss their activities at the UN’s pavilion.
Meanwhile, foreign publishers believe that the fair has improved facilities for participants in this edition.
The Deputy Expert of Turkey’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism Nizar Kara told Mehr News Agency that they have a larger space compared to the previous fair and about 1,700 books are on display at their venue this year.
The representative of VKA Pub from Russia Alexander Levshenko shared other publishers’ views on the facility improvement of the book fair, adding, “I anticipate that this fair will have a bright future.“
The 22nd book fair will run until May 16 at Imam Khomeini Grand Prayer Ground (Mosalla).

---------------------
Turkish Scholar Translating Shahnameh

Iran News: Turkish scholar Nimet Yildirim is translating Ferdowsi’s magnum opus Shahnameh into the Turkish language in its entirety for the first time. “Turkish academic Necati Lugal previously has translated 20,000 couplets into Turkish and I decided to translate the remainder and publish them with Lugal’s translation,” Yildirim told MNA on Saturday.


He has translated 50,000 couplets which were published along with Lugal’s translation and he is now translating 30,000 remained couplets.

“The first volume of the translation, published by Kabalci Publications, contains mostly the couplets translated by Lugal and the next volume will be published in near future,” he added.

He has penned “Dictionary of Persian Myths” which was published by Kabalci Publications.

“I have worked on Persian myths for more than five years and one of my main sources was Mohammadjafar Yahaqqi’s ‘Dictionary of Persian Myths’,” he mentioned.

Ancient Persian religions, Zoroastrian myths, myth and creation, the role of myths and other notions including death, heaven and hell are discussed in his book.

The book is arranged in alphabetical order and each entry concludes with related poems by Iranian poets, he said.

-------------- 

Map Allows Fans to Trace Venues in Writer Stieg Larsson's Trilogy

Iran News: A new map allows fans of the late Swedish writer and journalist Stieg Larsson's best-selling thriller novels to trace venues in Stockholm used as a backdrop in the trilogy. The map is marked with some of the places in the Swedish capital linked to Larsson's protagonists journalist Mikael Blomkvist and computer hacker Lisbeth Salander.

Larsson, who died of a heart attack at age 50 in 2004, has scored posthumous success with his so-called Millennium Trilogy that has been translated into several languages including English and German.

He died a year before the first of the three novels, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, hit the bookstands. The trilogy has sold some 3 million copies in Sweden, a country of some 9 million, alone.

The maps are available in two versions: One is in Swedish/English/French, and the other is in Italian/Spanish/German. They are sold at the Stockholm City Museum as well as the Stockholm Tourist Centre.

Visitors can also go on a two-hour city tour of the venues and backdrops in the novels and the movies, as well as the city's contemporary and previous history.

----------------------------

Id : 40138