Alice the Translator

To tell you the truth, I didn't think my Hebrew was good enough to translate short stories. Then Uri Meir, the guy who published his first book with me, said he thinks I should translate the first story of the collection to English.
I said my Hebrew was not good enough to understand what he wants, but he just kept insisting. He can be stubborn at times, let me tell you.
Then he said if I could do it for Jowan, I had to do it for him too, and there was nothing else I could say, so I translated 'The Smoke of Time'. You will find it in the post above this one. I hope you like it. Feel free to comment.

Yasmina

Yasmina

Lyrics: Jowan Safady
English Translation: Alice Liddell

She’s leaving,
And keeps me out,
She’s never off, off my case.
She lies to me,
And cheats me,
Then she comes back to yell at me.

I swear I don’t get it,
What did I do,
To make you treat me so?
Yasmina...

She curses me,
And Beats me up,
Then she comes back to yell at me.
She threatens me,
And kicks me out,
Everything to punish me.

I swear I don’t get it,
What did I do,
To make you treat me so?
Yasmina…

I tried, every possible way,
To make you satisfied,
To make me stay,
I tried.

I swear I don’t get it,
What did I do,
To make you treat me so?
Yasmina...

Golda

Former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir once said about the Palestenian right of return: “The Old ones are going to die, and the young ones will forget.”

Golda

Lyrics: Jowan Safady
English translation: Alice Liddell

The old ones are gonna die,
And the young ones will forget,
But the enemies will remind us,
whenever we forget.

How to forget the day before?
When today there is only more?
And tomorrow, very likely,
Will have another war?

Falling helpless forever in the fall,
Wandering from pitfall into trap,
Some became a vowelless grave,
or a rose upon the grave.
Some still don't even know,
Do not even know what they became.
But the justice is in heaven,
only in heaven it remains.

The old ones are gonna die,
And the young ones will forget,
But the enemies will remind us
Every time we dare to forget.
Whenever we forget...

Lenzez

Let me tell you about my friend Jowan Safady.
The guy is talented. He teaches Arabic, he composes music, and he sings.
I was so happy I could use the Arabic he has taught me, and translate some of his lyrics to English. In the two posts above this one, you will find two of his poems translated by yours truly.

And here's the Logo

I promised here. Is it anything like you imagined?

Oh, You remembered!

I guess they remember at the English Wikipedia.
They said this about me:
1862 – In a rowing boat travelling on the River Thames from Oxford to Godstow, Lewis Carroll told Alice Liddell and her sisters a story that would eventually form the basis for his children's book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (illustration of Alice pictured), first published exactly three years later.
Aren't they sweet?
Only one thing. With you blogger guys it's still the 3rd, but here in the east it's already the 4th!
Well, I had a marvelous time, what, 145 years ago today.
Hope you all have a great day!

Hebrew logo design, finished at last

It's a very simple, clean-lined logo, almost abstract. It depicts a leaf carrying a drop of water that sparks with light. The leaf breaks through a rectangular frame that carries the title "Drop of Light" in Hebrew. Care to imagine it in your head before I show you the actual image? I, for one, find that the possible is always more exciting than the actual :-)

Book in progress

I'm Rachel, an illustrator who recently has started to work on a children book that's gonna be published by Alice. It's a very cute story about penguins, and it's really fun to draw.
Here are some explanations about the illustration process:

Every illo starts with a thumbnail sketch -


Lately I've started to do those digitally. I use the thumbs to examine several layouts and compositions. After I choose the best option, I enlarge it to the real size of the illo and draw another sketch, using transparent paper -



In this sketch I work on the lines and detais of the illo. After I'm satisfied with the 2nd sketch, I copy it to thick paper using a light-table. I've decided to use watercolors for this project, because most of the story happens outdoors and I prefer to use watercolors to draw landscapes. I also use colored pencils to draw the outlines and add depth. Here is the almost final version of this illo:



I still have to add a few details. You'll see the final version in the book...
Click on the image to view it larger.
Visit my blog to see more illustration works:
Pink flamingos.

A Picture

I really wanted to show another picture of me, so I guess, here it is...
I think this picture shows the boldness and innovation of my character, and therefore the boldness and innovation of this new publishing house I've decided to run after taking such a long vacation from things...
Please tell me if you think it's the picture I should have also in my 'About Me' section.

Some Modest Progress

The books came out on time. The festival in Beer Sheva was great. I sold 4 books there, and another 7 in a festival in Jerusalem. Altogether, of the first print run, of 200 copies, I sold 56 so far, and at least another 30 are out there. In My Humble Opinion that is good progress.
The next print run, a lot better, will come out the beginning of July. We, that is me and the rest of our bright publishing team, are currently also working on two others books, but more about all that later...