Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Smile

This has got to be one of the most bizarre magazine covers of the 20th century. The name of the magazine translates as Smile, and I translate the caption as saying:

—It was the best of women
—Now, Sir, we are confident
I assume with the cannibalistic belief that you take on the qualities of the vanquished eaten. Oy.
Auguste Roubille —Le Sourire — July 10, 1913

Read the comments for a more accurate translation.

3 comments:

Li-An said...

Excellent cover with the combination of misogynie (?) and racism. All a vanished period :-)

Pierre D said...

Hi !
I'm not so good at english, so the first line of your translation is ambiguous to me; I just want to make sure you understood he's talking about one woman.
- She was really the best of all women!
And the other line reads :
- Now, ('Sire' in french refers to a king or high rank person), we are certain of it.

The drawing itself is called 'Simple Inquiry'; typically those titles sound often odd and unmatching, I own a few illos like this.

Sorry to be so long for such a tiny thing...
Awesome blog !

Thomas Haller Buchanan said...

I think this is certainly a case of 'lost in the translation'. Thanks for the further elucidation.