Working Translations

Utopian and Scientific

Charles Fourier, “Neology”

July 13, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur
NEOLOGY. Has not a new Science the ability to use some new words and to create for itself, if necessary, a complete nomenclature? Would we refuse to the sciences the prerogative granted to the subordinate functions, which have their collection of technical terms chosen without method? I will use that license with moderation, and when I am forced to resort to neology, it will be with a care to avoid NEOLOGISMS and arbitrariness, and support the denominations already accepted in the fixed sciences. The same regularity will reign in the signs, the special numbers, the gamut  sand series, and the whole […]
Proudhon Library

Proudhon and the coup d’état of 1851

July 13, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur
One of the things that ought to be clear from recent developments here is that sometimes the most interesting, and also the most unexpected, insights into Proudhon’s work come from double-checking those things that “everyone knows” about his work. It was, after all, in the context of tracking down how close he came to saying “anarchy is order” that I ran across the dubious translations in The General Idea of the Revolution, and that has led to a general scouring of his work for discussions of “anarchy” and “anarchism,” which keeps raising interesting points about the early uses of that […]
Working Translations

Louise Michel, “A Final Thought” (1887)

July 5, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur
[The New Era — VIII] [one_half padding=”0 10px 0 0px”] A Final Thought Diving into the past, we see it join with the future like the two extremities of a circular arc, and that circle, like a sound wave, awakens others, infinitely. Eaten away by the world (from ancient India to ourselves), will the lost sciences germinate or are they dead in the flower? Must we wait for new emanations for new beginnings? Will there be enough to return to the soil to provide the seeds of renewal and conditions proper to existence? How many civilizations have fallen, how many scientific […]
fiction

Louise Michel, “Old Chéchette” (1884)

July 5, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur
[one_half padding=”0 10px 0 0px”] Old Chéchette There are some beings so disgraced by nature, so strange to look at or hear, that their aspect alone is a subject for sad studies for some, of wild mockeries for others. Some have not always been this way: some of them have had some accident, whether moral or physical, while others, by letting themselves idly go from fatigue or laziness, are brought low to some degree and, on that slope, there is no reason for them to stop. Others still (and this is dreadful for humanity) become thus under the pressure of […]
Working Translations

Louise Michel, “The Claque-Dents,” Ch. II

July 5, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur
[Chapter I] [one_half padding=”0 10px 0 0px”] II At the home of young Stéphane’s mistress there occurred a scene at once burlesque and sinister. Thirty thousand francs, won at the tables when chance was on his side, had allowed him to buy the bed and the jewels; he tried Lucrèce’s coral necklace on Marguerite. On her marble neck, its red line made the mark of the scaffold. Marguerite was vaguely aware of this thought of Stéphane’s. He saw her put her hand to her neck, as if to a wound. An intuition of the crime passed through him, while a […]
Working Translations

Louise Michel, “The Claque-Dents,” Ch. II

July 5, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur
[Chapter I] [ezcol_1half] II At the home of young Stéphane’s mistress there occurred a scene at once burlesque and sinister. Thirty thousand francs, won at the tables when chance was on his side, had allowed him to buy the bed and the jewels; he tried Lucrèce’s coral necklace on Marguerite. On her marble neck, its red line made the mark of the scaffold. Marguerite was vaguely aware of this thought of Stéphane’s. He saw her put her hand to her neck, as if to a wound. An intuition of the crime passed through him, while a sudden fear engulfed the […]
Saint Ravachol

A Handwritten Manuscript by Ravachol (1892)

July 5, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur
If I had to pick the worst-case scenario for works that I have actually managed to translate, this manuscript piece, handwritten by Ravachol and then reproduced in a newspaper, probably takes the prize. The manuscript combines bad spelling, horrible penmanship, rotten grammar and nonexistent punctuation. Decoding it was a long process, but also a very entertaining one. [one_half padding=”0 10px 0 0px”] A HANDWRITTEN MANUSCRIPT BY RAVACHOL Since his condemnation to death, Ravachol was written a great deal in prison. Here is a long handwritten text that we have been able to obtain, not without great difficulties. We have confided […]
poetry

Louise Michel, “Memories of Caledonia” (1887)

July 4, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur
[A Final Thought] [one_half padding=”0 10px 0 0px”] MEMORIES OF CALEDONIA (SONG OF THE CAPTIVES) Here the winter has no hold, Here the woods are always green; From the Ocean, the fresh breeze Blows over the dreary deserts, And so profound is the silence That the insect which sways Alone troubles the calm of the air. Evening, on these remotes shores, Sometimes rises a sweet song: It is some poor shellfish Which murmurs while it opens. In the forest, the oleanders, The newly blooming flowers Quiver with love in the wind. See, from the starry waves, Breaks a wandering whiteness! […]
Working Translations

Louise Michel, “Old Abraël” (1888)

July 4, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur
LE VIEIL ABRAEL LEGENDE DU VINGTIEME SIECLE Le vingtième siècle allait finir. Les nations, à l’étroit dans le froide Europe, avaient largement essaimé sur le globe. Partout s’élevaient de nouvelles villes, grandissaient de jeunes peuples, se retrempaient les anciennes races. Les émigrés sur les chauds continents avaient recouvré, avec un climat sans hiver, l’énergie de leur origine, il n’y avait plus de place pour le désert. En Afrique, les sables avaient fait place à une vaste mer renversée artificiellement dans son lit primitif et qui rafraîchissait l’air, l’emplissant de vie, au lieu d’y répandre des souffles desséchants ; des canaux l’unissaient […]