In the Land of Punctuation. By Christian Morgernstern. Illustrated by Rathna Ramanathan, translated by Sirish Rao. Tara Books, 2009. 32pp., illustrated throughout, 23,5x16,5cm. Images from here.
I really love this book, it sort of intersects in many of the areas that really matters to me. It's pretty astonishing the original poem was written in 1905...
The translation - and resulting English verse - by Sirish Rao is very, very good, and the typographic illustrations (or "visual translation", language into image) by Rathna Ramanathan are pretty sensational.
Book description:
"Written in 1905 by the German poet Christian Morgenstern, 'In the Land of Punctuation' is a darkly comic linguistic caprice that holds a resonant mirror to our times.
Situated at the crossroads of language, design, and politics, this illustrated edition is a unique picture book for adults.
Translated faithfully by Sirish Rao, with typographic illustrations by Rathna Ramanathan, this is a brilliantly inventive dance of text and image.
[extract:]
The peaceful land of Punctuation
is filled with tension overnight
When the stops and commas of the nation
call the semi-colons ‘parasites’ "
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