Working Translations

Working Translations

Joseph Déjacque, “The Revolutionary Question”

May 13, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur
La question révolutionnaire par Joseph Déjacque Notre ennemi, c’est notre maître (La Fontaine) The Revolutionary Question by Joseph Déjacque Our enemy is our master. (La Fontaine) Extrait du journal ” Le Républicain “ 1. La Société de la Montagne nous prie d’insérer la communication suivante : “La Société de la République universelle la Montagne désirant faciliter autant qu’il est en son pouvoir la propagande républicaine, a décidé qu’elle prêterait la salle de ses séances, chaque fois que la demande lui en serait adressée par une société démocratique n’ayant pas de lieu fixe de réunion, ou lorsqu’un citoyen désirerait faire un lecture ayant pour […]
Anarchist Beginnings

Joseph Déjacque, “The Universal Circulus” (revised translation)(1858)

May 9, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur
[This remarkable bit of libertarian philosophy by Joseph Déjacque poses all sorts of difficulties for the modern reader, not the least of which is it borrowings from, and reworkings of, the works of Charles Fourier and Pierre Leroux. And there are places where it ha been necessary to translate things rather literally, since terms are used suggestively, according to the established uses of none of the writers or schools that they were drawn from. There are also a couple of times when Déjacque’s enthusiasm clearly ran away with the syntax: where catalogs of conditionals come to abrupt stops, without ever […]
Ernest Cœurderoy
Working Translations

Ernest Coeurderoy, Three Letters to the Journal l’Homme – I

April 12, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur
[one_third padding=”0 10px 0 0px”]   [/one_third][two_third_last padding=”0 0px 0 10px”] THREE LETTERS TO THE JOURNAL L’HOMME, ORGAN OF FRENCH DEMAGOGY ABROAD, BY ERNEST CŒURDEROY. “No force can stop the movement of social decomposition. And Demagogy is not even a force.” (Ernest Cœurderoy. — Days of Exile.) LONDON; JOSEPH THOMAS, 2, CATHERINE STREET, STRAND.  ———– THREE LETTERS TO THE JOURNAL L’HOMME, Following a simple complaint that I addressed to it, the journal l’Homme having challenged me to a serious discussion which it later recognized itself incapable of defending against me, I publish the responses that the impartial editing of that […]
Working Translations

Anselme Bellegarrigue, “The Electoral Law”

March 26, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur
[ezcol_2third] Along with the essay “The Revolution,” the second issue of Bellegarrigue’s Anarchy: A Journal of Order also contained this essay: THE ELECTORAL LAW In the first issue of this journal, we have clearly, even audaciously expressed our opinion regarding the present character of electoral rights. The attitude of the people in the face of the partial suppression of this right proposed by Parliament has proven to us that our doctrine was in conformity with the general sentiment. The electorate is not a principle. The popular instinct is more sure than the reasoning of the sophists, for that instinct bears […]
translations

Proudhon’s “Toast to the Revolution” (revised translation)

March 19, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur
Proudhon’s “Toast to the Revolution” was the first major translation I posted on the blog, back in July of 2007. Little did I know at the time how much translating I would end up doing, and I certainly didn’t dream that it would become my primary activity as a radical scholar. But here we are. I’ve winced more than once as I’ve been revising these early translations, but I was pleased to find that there wasn’t much in this one to make me cringe. I’ve clarified a couple of key sections, which were hard to make sense of, either grammatically […]
Working Translations

To the Socialist Democrats of the Department of the Seine, 1850

March 16, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur
   TO THE SOCIALIST DEMOCRATS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF THE SEINE. Some men and women whose devotion to the Republic has cast them into exile, some comrades in belief and in misfortune, lack everything, and we are sad that we cannot do anything to alleviate their sufferings. So far, the cantonal allowances, and some individual assistance have been enough to make their position tolerable; today, our feeble resources are exhausted. The refugees provided for by the State are barracked and subjected to a regime which treats them like prisoners of war. The little food they are given is detestable; no […]
Proudhon Library

Alfred Darimon, “Notice on the Journals of Proudhon” (1884)

March 16, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur
Related links: A New Proudhon Library [project page] Le Représentant du Peuple: specimen issues Le Représentant du Peuple: misc. writings These journals are now available online at Gallica.  From Alfred Darimon, A Travers une Révolution (1884) NOTICE ON THE JOURNALS OF PROUDHON I. — le Représentant du Peuple. The true founder of the Représentant du Peuple was Mr. Jules Viard, a humorous writer who died very young. Mr. Jules Viard published under this title, in 1847, a financial prospectus and two sample issues, one dated October 4, 1847, and the second dated November 13, 1847. It was also M. Jules […]
Ernest Cœurderoy
Working Translations

Coeurderoy and Vauthier, “The Barrier of the Combat” (1852)

March 10, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur
[one_third padding=”0 10px 0 0px”]   [/one_third][two_third_last padding=”0 0px 0 10px”] The Barrier of the Combat, or the last great assault which has just been engaged between the citizens Mazzini, Ledru-Rollin, Louis Blanc, Étienne Cabet, Pierre Leroux, Martin Nadaud, Malarmet, A. Bianchi (de Lille) and other Hercules of the north. Ernest Cœurderoy and Octave Vauthier Bruxelles, 1852   This was written long ago. The slight impact made by the manifestos of Mazzini, Ledru, L. Blanc and their companions had at first discouraged us from publishing it. After the meeting of the outcasts of the Seine, who had taken refuge in […]
Contr'un

Working Translation revisions

February 28, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur
As I’ve mentioned, I’m in the midst of a thorough revision of all my working translations. I’ll be making announcements of the major milestones, but I’ve also been marking the links in the side column here in bold as I complete the work. I’ve signed onto a couple of big, exciting translation projects (about which more soon) and turned a couple of important corners in my own work, and want to square away all of this exploratory material, as I start to tackle material in a considerably more systematic manner. And the revised translations will make up the heart of […]
Critiques and Caricatures

The Feuding Brothers (1850)

February 22, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur
I ran across this one-act parody of French socialism in the January 5, 1850 issue of La Mode, a popular magazine, and was nearly finished with this (rough) translation before I realized that most of the dialogue was lifted straight from the debates between Proudhon, Blanc and Leroux. Indeed, most of the details may have come from a single source, a pamphlet, Actes de la Révolution: Résistance, which reprinted Proudhon’s essays “What is Government? What is God?” and “Resistance to the Revolution.” The second installment of the latter essay is, of course, the source of two partial translations, by William […]