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“Justice” — A Second Attempt

January 7, 2023 Shawn P. Wilbur
The goal is to translate the twelve studies in Justice in the Revolution and in the Church—and to do so, where necessary, twice, producing translations of both the 1858 first edition and the expanded and corrected 1860 edition. I’m revising my 2009 translation of the 1860 “Program” for about the third time and will I will tackle the extensive notes and “Nouvelles de la Révolution” (which make up two of the six volumes of the second edition) as I complete the relevant studies, including La Pornocratie, which appears in manuscript form as one more of the “Nouvelles” sections and was originally intended by Proudhon to follow the two studies on “Love and Marriage.”

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New Proudhon Library

Justice in the Revolution and in the Church: First Study (Parallel French)

January 6, 2023 Shawn P. Wilbur
PREMIÈRE ÉTUDE POSITION DU PROBLÈME DE LA JUSTICE À Son Éminence Mgr Matthieu, Cardinal-Archevêque de Besançon. Monseigneur, Avez-vous eu connaissance d’un petit livre, format in-32, couverture jaune, qui a paru, il y a tantôt deux ans, sous ce titre : Proudhon, par Eugène de Mirecourt, chez Gustave Havard, éditeur, rue Guénégaud, Paris ? — Non, répondez-vous, mes souvenirs ne remontent pas si haut. Je ne connais ni l’auteur ni son ouvrage. — Pardon, Monseigneur : ce petit livre fait partie d’une collection intitulée les Contemporains. Il a pour numéro d’ordre 32. C’est une soi-disant biographie dont l’auteur, M. de Mirecourt, après avoir reconnu, […]
Featured articles

Justice in the Revolution and in the Church: Preliminary Discourse (Parallel English)

January 5, 2023 Shawn P. Wilbur
These draft translations are part of on ongoing effort to translate both editions of Proudhon’s Justice in the Revolution and in the Church into English, together with some related works, as the first step toward establishing an edition of Proudhon’s works in English. They are very much a first step, as there are lots of decisions about how best to render the texts which can only be answered in the course of the translation process. It seems important to share the work as it is completed, even in rough form, but the drafts are not suitable for scholarly work or publication elsewhere in their present state.

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New Proudhon Library

Justice in the Revolution and in the Church: Preliminary Discourse (Parallel French)

January 1, 2023 Shawn P. Wilbur
— 1858 First Edition — — 1860 Revised Edition — DE LA JUSTICE DANS LÀ RÉVOLUTION ET DANS L’ÉGLISE. ÉTUDES DE PHILOSOPHIE PRATIQUE ADRESSÉES A SON ÉMINENCE M. LE CARDINAL MATTHIEU, ARCHEVÊQUE DE BESANÇON. PROLOGUE Sous le nom d’un archevêque, j’adresse ces Études à tous les membres du clergé français. Comme au temps des Césars la société est menacée de se dissoudre ; et comme au temps des Césars l’Église croit avoir seule la puissance de la régénérer. L’ouvrage qu’on va lire ayant pour but de reconnaître la réalité et l’intensité du mal, d’en assigner la cause, d’en découvrir le remède, […]
Working Translations

E. Armand, “Scènes de Noel / Christmas Scenes” (1901)

December 24, 2022 Shawn P. Wilbur
A church or a temple. Light, many lights. Candles that illuminate vast crucifixes, or a Christmas tree laden with toys, a fir tree whose evergreen branches evoke the image of eternity. Organs whose sonic flights seem an echo of celestial hymns. Carols that remind us of those with which our mothers rocked us to sleep… Handsome gentlemen in frock coats, tight at the waist, with eight shining gleams; polished, pomaded, combed, varnished, tied. Beautiful, elegant, fragrant ladies, studded with jewels, real or fake, whose slightly raised skirts reveal an expensively shod foot at the end of a finely arched ankle… Good, honest families in their Sunday best, made respectable, troops of children whose happy faces the symbolic tree illuminates… Ease, comfort, joy!… all that is good.

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