Alisi Ndani ya Nchi ya Ajabu

Lewis Carroll ni jina la uandishi: Charles Lutwidge Dodgson ndilo jina halisi la mwandishi wa kitabu hiki, na alikuwa mhadhiri wa hisabati huko Christ Church, Oxford. Dodgson aliianza hadithi hii tarehe 4 Julai mwaka 1862, pale alipofanya matembezi katika mashua ya makasia huko Oxford katika mto Thames akiwa pamoja na Mchungaji Robinson Duckworth, Alice Liddell (aliyekuwa na miaka kumi), binti wa Mkuu wa kitivo huko Chirst Church, pamoja na dada zake wawili Lorina (aliyekuwa na miaka kumi na mitatu), na Edith (aliyekuwa na miaka minane). Kama inavyoonekana wazi katika shairi pale mwanzoni mwa kitabu, mabinti hawa watatu walimwomba Dodgson awahadithie hadithi, na kwa kusita sita akaanza kuwahadithia ile hadithi ya awali. Kiswahili ni lugha ya Kibantu inayozungumzwa huko Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, DRC, Somalia na nchi nyingine zilizo jirani na nchi hizi za Afrika ya mashariki. Kiswahili kimekirimu tafsiri za kigeni kwa karne nyingi na pia tafsiri imekuwa na jukumu muhimu la kukuza lugha hii kisiasa, kijamii, kiuchumi na kiutamaduni. Pia katika karne ya 19, tafsiri ilikuwa ndiyo chanzo cha riwaya ndani ya fasihi ya Kiswahili, hivyo imeweza kuathiri waandishi muhimu. Tafsiri hii ni ya kifasihi zaidi, pia imelengea kiuaminifu zaidi hadithi ya awali. "Alisi" ilitafsiriwa kwa mara ya kwanza mwaka 1940 ambapo mfasiri alifupisha hadithi hiyo na kuiita "Elisi katika Nchi ya Ajabu". Pia alimgeuza mhusika mkuu kuwa mtoto wa Kiafrika aliyemwita Elisi. Hii tafsiri mpya iliyofanywa na Ida Hadjivayanis, imetolewa kama mojawapo ya kazi zinazosherehekea kuazimia kwa miaka 150 tangu kuchapishwa kwa toleo la kitabu hiki la mwaka 1865. Tafsiri hii itamwezesha msomaji wa 'Alisi' wa Kiswahili apate hisia zilizokusudiwa na mwandishi hapo awali. --- Lewis Carroll is a pen-name: Charles Lutwidge Dodgson was the author's real name and he was lecturer in Mathematics in Christ Church, Oxford. Dodgson began the story on 4 July 1862, when he took a journey in a rowing boat on the river Thames in Oxford together with the Reverend Robinson Duckworth, with Alice Liddell (ten years of age) the daughter of the Dean of Christ Church, and with her two sisters, Lorina (thirteen years of age), and Edith (eight years of age). As is clear from the poem at the beginning of the book, the three girls asked Dodgson for a story and reluctantly at first he began to tell the first version of the story to them. Swahili is a Bantu language that is largely spoken in Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, DRC, Somalia and parts of many countries that neighbour these East African countries. Swahili has accommodated translation for centuries and it has played a vital role in the political, social, economic and cultural growth and development of the Swahili language. Translation was central to the formation of Swahili prose literature in the 19th century and also in influencing important Swahili writers. "Alice" was first translated in 1940 in an abridged edition called "Elisi katika Nchi ya Ajabu", which adapted Alice by making her a little African girl, Elisi. This new translation by Ida Hadjivayanis, made for the 150th anniversary of the publication of Alice in 1865, is a more literary translation, faithful to the original. This translation should offer the Swahili reader the 'Alice' experience that was originally intended by the author.