TEHRAN – Children’s books “I’ve Got Something to Say that Only You Children Would Believe” and “The Colors” by the Iranian writers Abbas Kiarostami and Ahmadreza Ahmadi have been published in Japanese in Tokyo.

The Japanese publisher Kanoa has purchased the rights to the books from Iran’s Institute for Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adult – Kanoon, the institute announced on Saturday.

With illustrations by Kiarostami, “I’ve Got Something to Say that Only You Children Would Believe” was originally published by Kanoon in 1970. 

Combining photography, graphic arts and painting, some of them prefigure Kiarostami’s future films from “The Colors” to “24 Frames”.

The book is another example of prominent intellectuals and artists using Kanoon’s resources as a pretext to tell their own stories with possibly some political undertones. 

The text might be too experimental for those children within the targeted age group — that age is unclear — but the illustrations by Kiarostami are absolutely exquisite.

This book has poetic language announcing the arrival of seasons, which symbolize struggles for change and are the harbingers of changes and transformations. Ahmadi used a poetic tongue to express the pains and problems facing society.

The writer was summoned by the SAVAK intelligence services for an inquiry about the context of the book.  

“The Colors” was published in 1984. It is also a film for children that Kiarostami made shortly after joining Kanoon.

The picture-book essay about the range of hues that brighten our world has the air of a delightfully playful formalistic exercise. 

In the film, as a narrator runs through the colors one by one, Kiarostami shows us where each appears in nature and human life (which occasions some great views of the prerevolutionary consumer culture in Iran). 

Of course, a little boy is featured in one memorable sequence who fantasizes about being a race-car driver.

The books were introduced during a meeting held on October 9 and 10 at the Izuruba Art gallery in Ota City, Tokyo.

Kumiko Yamamoto, an expert on Kiarostami, talked about the books.  

Photo: A combination photo shows the front covers of the Japanese editions of the Children’s books “I’ve Got Something to Say that Only You Children Would Believe” and “The Colors”.

MMS/YAW