Project →

Type Translation—The length and Width of Loneliness

Categories →
Typography/Editorial Design

Year →
Spring 2021

Fonts In Use →
Interstate Condensed

Objective →
Visualize a given poem in a language you cannot read by experimenting with the typography. The English translation will be given at the end of the class, and you may draw new connections and consider new metaphors or visual projections.

Approach →
Assigned with a Hebrew poem titled "Length" by Israeli poet Nadia Adina Rose, I attempted to interpret the poem's emotions and feelings by extending, deconstructing, and reconstructing the type. I made a bunch of variations of the type forms and cut them off the paper and reshape them into something new.

אֹרֶךְ

אִילַן‭ ‬מִשְׁפַּחְתֵּנוּ‭ ‬לֹא‭ ‬
הִצְמִיחַ‭ ‬עֲנָפִים‭ ‬רַבִּים‭.‬לַהֲקוֹת‭ ‬נָשִׁים‭ ‬
רַוָּקוֹת‭ ‬
יָשְׁבוּ‭ ‬עֲלֵיהֶם‭ ‬
כְּמוֹ‭ ‬עַל‭ ‬מִטּוֹת‭ ‬יָחִיד‭ ‬
‭.‬צָרוֹת

דּוֹדָה‭ ‬אָנָה‭ ‬וְדוֹדָה‭ ‬לֵאָה‭ ‬
קָטְפוּ‭ ‬תַּפּוּחִים‭ ‬
‭.‬לְמִלּוּי‭ ‬שְׁטְרוּדֶלִים
אֶת‭ ‬הַבָּצֵק‭ ‬שֶׁתָּפַח‭ ‬
וְתָפַח‭ ‬בַּלֵּילוֹת‭ ‬
רִדְּדוּ‭ ‬לְאֹרֶךְ‭ ‬
‭.‬וּלְרחַֹב‭ ‬בְּדִידוּתָן
פֵּרוּרֵי‭ ‬הַיָּמִים‭ ‬חֻלְּקוּ‭ ‬ ‬בֵּין‭ ‬צִפֳּרִים

LENGTH

Our family tree has not
sprouted many branches.
Flocks of
single women
sat on them
like on single narrow
single beds.

Aunt Anna and Aunt Leah
picked apples
for strudel filling.The dough that swelledand swelled in the nights
they rolled out flat to the length
and width of their loneliness.
Crumbs of the days were scattered
among the birds.

©2015, Nadia Adina Rose
From: Snow Ink
Publisher: Helicon-Afik, Tel Aviv, 2015

©Translation: 2020, Linda Zisquit
First published on Poetry International, 2020