Working Translations

Featured articles

Joseph Déjacque, “Essay on Religion” (1861)

May 20, 2019 Shawn P. Wilbur
What is Religion today? It is the immutable synthesis of all errors, ancient and modern, the affirmation of absolutist arbitrariness, the negation of attractional anarchism, it is the principle and consecration of every inertism in humanity and universality, the petrification of the past, its permanent  immobilization.

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Utopian and Scientific

Pierre Leroux, “De l’Union européenne” / “Of the European Union” (1827)

May 9, 2019 Shawn P. Wilbur
Decentralizing empires, establishing in each province, in each city its own activity, and at the same time breaking down the barriers that separate nations, this is what liberty, science and industry aim for: so that, if their triumph was complete, we could say of the great society of men what Pascal said of the universe: Center everywhere, circumference nowhere.

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Working Translations

Sylvain Marechal, “A Book Escaped from the Deluge” (1784)

April 15, 2019 Shawn P. Wilbur
A BOOK ESCAPED FROM THE DELUGE, OR, NEWLY DISCOVERED PSALMS; Composed in the primitive language BY S. AR-LAMECH, Of the Family of Noah the Patriarch; TRANSLATED INTO FRENCH BY P. LAHCERAM, Parisipolitan. —– AT SIRAP Or at PARIS. [TRANSLATION IN PROGRESS] […] A BOOK ESCAPED FROM THE DELUGE. PSAUME I. Le Psalmiste annonce sa mission, & prédit les suites qu’elle aura. Dieu de Vérité ! délie ma langue ; je veux t’annoncer aux hommes. Qu’ils ne disent pas de moi : l’Apôtre de la Vérité bégaye. A l’âge où le Christ prêche sur la montagne ; longtemps avant lui, humble Disciple du plus modeste […]
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Sylvain Maréchal, “The Golden Age” (1782)

April 13, 2019 Shawn P. Wilbur
The Golden Age consists of roughly thirty “pastoral tales,” touching on subjects that will be familiar to readers of almost any of Maréchal’s work. I’ve begun at the end of the collection, with “The Just Man,” and will add others as time allows. On dit qu’il fut un Temps appelle l’âge d’or, Où l’on sacrifioit à la Vérité nue, Où marchoit d’un pas sûr l’Innocence ingénue : Pour les cœurs Vertueux ce Temps existe encore. They say there was a Time called the Golden Age, When sacrifices were made to the naked Truth, When artless Innocence walked with a sure step: […]
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Sylvain Maréchal, “Modern Apologues for the Use of the Dauphin” (1788)

April 11, 2019 Shawn P. Wilbur
[one_third padding=”0 10px 0 0px”] When available, parallel French/English texts are linked below the lesson. Related Texts: The Last Judgment of Kings (1793) Posts with commentary: “The Desert Island“ Sylvain Maréchal anticipates the “general strike”? [/one_third][two_third_last padding=”0 0px 0 10px”] MODERN APOLOGUES, FOR THE USE OF THE DAUPHIN. First Lessons for the Elder Son of a King. —– FIRST LESSON. PROMETHEUS. Thus far, the mythologists have misreported the allegorical history of Prometheus. Here are the facts: that ingenious artist of antiquity, having kneaded clay in water, made from it several figures of men, which he animated with the elemental fire. […]
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Sylvain Maréchal anticipates the “general strike”?

April 11, 2019 Shawn P. Wilbur
In an article on “Precursors of Anarchism” in the Encyclopédie Anarchiste, E. Armand gave an account of the career of Maréchal, including the following remarks: [one_half padding=”0 10px 0 0px”] En 1788, ses Apologues modernes à l’usage du dauphin. C’est là que se trouve l’histoire du roi qui, à la suite d’un cataclysme, renvoie chacun de ses sujets chez lui, en prescrivant que, désormais, chaque père de famille sera roi dans son foyer. C’est là que se trouve énoncé le principe de la Grève générale, comme moyen d’instaurer une société où la Terre est propriété commune de tous ses habitants, […]
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Sylvain Maréchal, “The Desert Island” (1788)

March 19, 2019 Shawn P. Wilbur
In the opening pages of Sylvain Maréchal’s play, The Last Judgment of Kings, we find the following notice: [one_half padding=”0 10px 0 0px”] L’idée de cette pièce est prise dans l’Apologue suivant, faisant partie des Leçons du fils ainé d’un roi, ouvrage philosophique du même auteur, publié au commencement de 1789, et mis à l’index par la Police. [/one_half][one_half_last padding=”0 0px 0 10px”] The idea for this play is taken from the following Apologue, part of the Lessons for the Eldest Son of a King, a philosophical work by the same author, published at the beginning of 1789, and put […]
Working Translations

Sylvain Maréchal, “The Pig-Keeper King” (1788)

March 18, 2019 Shawn P. Wilbur
In those days, a young king was inclined to dissipation, even to villainy; it was a hereditary vice. The états-généraux, natural guardians of the sovereign, who had never been emancipated from them, assembled & agreed on a means of correcting the young prince. One day, when he had abandoned himself completely to his foul penchants, and was plunged into a deep sleep, they seized his royal person; from his palace, they transported him on a litter, still sleeping, to a stable.

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