It's official: Anne Carson's new book, a new translation of Sophokles' Antigone called Antigonick (the title makes sense in the context of the new translation, I swear) is off at the printer, and should be landing on our fair shores sometime in late April. Similar to Nox, this is a lovingly crafted and produced book. This time around, Carson has hand-lettered the text on the pages (see below), and artist Bianca Stone (a former student of Carson's) has provided color illustrations (also below), which are being printed on translucent vellum pages. The end result being that the two will work together, the ghostly presentiment of the text-to-come enhancing the illustrations.
The translation itself is simply beautiful. She's playful with the language and the plot (the chorus has a decidedly sarcastic tone; Kreon enters on a motorboat), and yet it's still the fundamentally human story about death and honor, ethics and the law. It is, essentially what it was when it was written about 2500 years ago: a timeless classic.
First, an example of the text alongside an illustration.
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More sample illustrations.