Wall Street Journal article of June 12: For the anniversary of ‘Alice in Wonderland,’ translations into Pashto, Esperanto, emoji and Blissymbols

This post contains excerpts from the WSJ article, which emphasizes Alice translations, including a preview of the ground-breaking three volume set, Alice in a World of Wonderlands.

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“Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland,” Lewis Carroll’s 1865 classic about a pert girl in a pinafore who falls down a rabbit hole into a magical and menacing underground world, is marking its 150th anniversary with new translations. She is Alis (in Yiddish), or Alisi (in Tongan) or Anya (in Russian), and, despite her advanced age, to readers everywhere she remains a curious youngster whose adventures have never gone out of print.

Two Yale professors are translating “Alice” into Late Egyptian hieroglyphs. A language consultant in California is putting the finishing touches on a Kazakh translation. There is an emoji version. An edition in Scouse, the dialect of Liverpool, is with the publisher; so are ones in Cockney rhyming slang and in two Afghan languages, Dari and Pashto. The Gothic translation came out just last week.

Alice in a World of Wonderlands

Lewis Carroll’s 1865 classic ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland,’ is probably second only to the 17th-century allegory, ‘The Pilgrim’s Progress,’ as the most translated English novel. A three-volume work documents more than 170 translations, from Afrikaans to Zulu.

Sinhala translation of ‘Alice in Wonderland,’ 1963
Georgian translation, 1969
Armenian translation, 1971
Bosnian translation, 1980
Marathi translation, 1982
Papiamento translation, 1988
Asturian translation, 1989
Gujarati translation, 1950
Occitan translation, 1998
Bengali translation, 2004
Albanian translation, 2006
Manx translation, 2006
Tamil translation, 2008
Assamese translation, 2008
Indonesian translation, 2009
Slovak translation, 2010
Persian translation, 2012
Sinhala translation of ‘Alice in Wonderland,’ 1963
Sinhala translation of ‘Alice in Wonderland,’ 1963 Oak Knoll Press
Georgian translation, 1969 Oak Knoll Press
Armenian translation, 1971 Oak Knoll Press
Bosnian translation, 1980 Oak Knoll Press
Marathi translation, 1982 Oak Knoll Press
Papiamento translation, 1988 Oak Knoll Press
Asturian translation, 1989 Oak Knoll Press
Gujarati translation, 1950 Oak Knoll Press
Occitan translation, 1998 Oak Knoll Press
Bengali translation, 2004 Oak Knoll Press
Albanian translation, 2006 Oak Knoll Press
Manx translation, 2006 Oak Knoll Press
Tamil translation, 2008 Oak Knoll Press
Assamese translation, 2008 Oak Knoll Press
Indonesian translation, 2009 Oak Knoll Press
Slovak translation, 2010 Oak Knoll Press
Persian translation, 2012 Oak Knoll Press
Sinhala translation of ‘Alice in Wonderland,’ 1963 Oak Knoll Press
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