illustrated by Lewis Carroll, design, typography &
translation by Adriana Peliano @adriana_peliano, translation of the
poems by Myriam Ávila, published by @EditoraScipione in 2011
Comments by Semper Lux
at @Semperluxus
Lewis
Carroll illustrated the very first version of his Alice story, which he
gave as a present to little Alice Liddell. Carroll's illustrations are
less known than the later ones by John Tenniel.
Adriana
Peliano, the founder & president of the Lewis Carroll Society of
Brazil, wanted to recreate Carroll's own manuscript in Portuguese, so
she not only translated the story, but also created a Portuguese font
that recreated Carroll's handwriting:
"When
I decided to recreate the manuscript in Portuguese, I intended to have
it be as close as possible to the original object. Carroll's handwriting
was recreated, as if he had written the book in Portuguese for each one
of us."
She received the Brazilian Book Guild Jabuti award for the graphic design of this book.
"Peliano’s
book is a triumph of translation & calligraphic skill. Each page of
the Portuguese translation mirrors Carroll’s handwritten original; the
transformation of the language is subtle & quite magical." Rachel
Eley
"In a meeting of the Lewis Carroll Society of North
America at Harvard, Dr. Selwyn Goodacre, one of the most respected
Carrollians in England.... referred to Adriana's Portuguese
translation—with typeface and layout matching the original—as "a total
gem." I could not agree more. With care and scrupulous attention to
detail, it almost convinces me that Carroll did indeed merely translate
it from the Portuguese original. Her volume is a most attractive
artifact of the love Adriana has for Carroll, her intelligence and
artistry, and of the playfulness that abounds around Carroll's world."
Mark Burstein
President emeritus, The Lewis Carroll Society of North America
1: The brown leather cover looks blue when photographed, a most Alicedelic phenomenon
2: Alice & her sister. The Portuguese font & typography are just like Carroll's own, except in a different language
3:
Alice with the little key. Her hair is dark, long & flowing, very
much like the Pre-Raphaelite esthetic of the time. Dante Gabriel
Rossetti's 1853 drawing of ‘Delia’ in the ‘Return of Tibullus’ has a
very similar look.
Peliano: "In Carroll’s own
illustrations Alice is spontaneous and spiritual, but also anguished and
melancholic, close to the idealized image of the artist’s soul. She
echoes romantic myths of the Pre-Raphaelites and their languid feminine
figures, with oblique gazes and overflowing locks that would enchant the
surrealists. She seems closer to a magical world than a logical one."
4: Alice cries as she can't get through the door. A most strange hybrid mouse is next to her
5:
Rabbit "splendidly dressed, with a pair of white kid gloves in one
hand, and a nosegay in the other". The term nosegay is fifteenth-century
Middle English, a combination of nose and gay ("gay" meant "ornament").
A nosegay is an ornament that appeals to the nose.
"The
White Rabbit’s face and whiskers resemble a mouse’s, and his ears are
akin to a donkey’s. Carroll dresses his character in a full suit that
covers many of the White Rabbit’s essential rabbit features — his
haunches, bottom paws, and fluffy tail. The result is a character who
looks like a man wearing an enlarged donkey/mouse/rabbit head mask."
6: A plethora of animals including a monkey follow Alice, who "swims" rather unconvincingly
7:
"Keep Calm and Carry On": everyone rushes to offer alcohol to poor Bill
- Rabbit offers him a glass of claret, the guinea pig offers
elderflower liqueur. Alcohol, not a strong cup of tea, seems to be the
solution for the stiff upper lip of the British classes
8:
The Knave carries an enormous crown as the King & Queen follow.
There are no heart symbols to be seen, & the Queen carries an
umbrella, just like the Wicked Witch of the West in the Wizard of Oz
9:
A tiny Alice watches an unusual dance. Mock Turtle has the head of a
seal & the body of an armadillo. Gryphon has no wings & rather
unusual ears for an eagle head.
Peliano: "We
glimpse hybrid and metamorphic creatures in the book that invoke the
grotesque beings of Hieronymus Bosch. Are these drawings not among the
precursors of the surrealist bestiaries, a mix of dream worlds and
fabulous monsters?"
10:
In this very medieval tableau, Rabbit has very hairy legs, like a satyr
from Narnia. The trumpet he holds looks like an oversized funnell.
This book is indeed most unusual dream world...
From Adriana:
"2. Underground
In Carroll’s own illustrations from the Under Ground manuscript, Alice
is spontaneous and spiritual, but also anguished and melancholic, close
to the idealized image of the artist’s soul. She echoes romantic myths
of the Pre-Raphaelites and their languid feminine figures, with oblique
gazes and overflowing locks that would enchant the surrealists. She
seems closer to a magical world than a logical one. At the same time, we
glimpse hybrid and metamorphic creatures in the book that invoke the
grotesque beings of Hieronymus Bosch. Are these drawings not among the
precursors of the surrealist bestiaries, a mix of dream worlds and
fabulous monsters?
But when the expanded work was published in London, it was illustrated
by John Tenniel, a famous illustrator from the Victorian periodical
Punch. A commonly held belief remains that rarely was an author as well
served by an illustrator as was Lewis Carroll by John Tenniel, even
though the work has been illustrated subsequently by thousands of
artists throughout the world.
We still confuse the images and the text, which together seem to tell
the same story. We often lose sight of whether the images are in fact
faithful to the text or whether we create, from them, a new text. Is
fidelity possible among images and texts of these Alices? Does Tenniel’s
Alice remain the most perfect illustration of the work for the
contemporary eyes?"
Adriana Peliano in The Hunting of Alice in Seven Fits
"2
Subterrâneo
A amizade entre Lewis Carroll, suas amiguinhas e Alice Liddell também
nos ensinam sobre a amizade com o tempo. Entre cartas de amor,
piqueniques, passeios de barco, risos, jogos, poses, fantasias, olhares
enigmáticos, fotografias, sonhos maravilhosos. A história da estória de
Alice trás o chamado amoroso para a aventura e o mistério, para o afeto e
o desejo. Somos convidados a viajar por mundos impossíveis sem sair do
lugar.
Nas ilustrações do manuscrito Alice é afetiva, espiritual e espontânea,
mas também angustiada e melancólica. Ela ecoa mitos românticos do
pré-rafaelismo e brilha entre um mundo lógico e um mundo mágico. Ao
mesmo tempo vislumbramos seres híbridos e metamórficos, que invocam
bestiários fantásticos e os seres grotescos de Hieronymous Bosch. Não
estariam esses desenhos entre os precursores dos bestiários
surrealistas, entre mundos oníricos e monstros fabulosos?
Mas quando a obra foi publicada em Londres, foi ilustrada por John
Tenniel, famoso ilustrador do Punch, periódico vitoriano, caricaturista
que criou as ilustrações das primeiras edições de Alice no país das
Maravilhas (1865) e Alice através do Espelho (1872). Ainda é comum a
crença de que raramente um autor foi tão bem servido por um ilustrador
como Lewis Carroll foi por John Tenniel, mesmo que a obra já tenha sido
ilustrada por milhares de artistas em todo mundo desde então.
Ainda confundimos as figuras e o texto que parecem contar juntos a mesma
estória. Perdemos muitas vezes a noção se as figuras são de fato fiéis
ao texto ou se criamos a partir delas um novo texto. Pode existir de
fato fidelidade entre figuras e textos com os das Alices? Será que Alice
de Tenniel continua sendo a mais perfeita ilustração da obra para um
olhar contemporâneo?"
Adriana Peliano em "A caça à Alice em sete crises"
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