I have previously posted a short excerpt from Louise Michel’s novel, The Imperial Bastard, which featured Bakunin as a main character. Michel also adapted some elements from that novel in dramatic form as Nadine, a political tragedy set in the Polish rebellions of 1846. I’ve posted a working translation of that play now at the Working Translations blog. As with all of these new translations, there are some rough spots to smooth, but in this case it’s mostly a case of making sense of the details of the stage directions, and I think all the charm of Michel’s Bakunin comes through.
Contr'un
Louise Michel, “The Claque-Dents” (IV-VI)
THE CLAQUE-DENTS [continued] IV There are two little-known islands on the coast of Morbihan. From a distance, Hœdik has the appearance of a seahorse; some bits of land, one having the appearance of bagpipes, the others stamped in the shape of the tail, surround it. Houat is a double star; reefs, where the waves and wind roar, border Hœdik and Houat. On these islands, and on their constellations of islets, live a population of fisher-folk who only know the sea. On the horizon, eating into the coasts of Quiberon and Penmarch, is the sea; between the two harbors, a first […]
Louise Michel
Travels in the Louiseverse
TEXTS: “Why We are Anarchists” — 1891 “Why I am an Anarchist” — 1896 TRANSLATIONS: The Claque-Dents (in progress) Prologue (FR/EN) Chapter I (FR/EN) Chapter II (FR/EN) Chapter III (FR/EN) Chapters IV-VI “The Clavier of My Over-Dream“(1867) (FR/EN) “The Crows” The Imperial Bastard (excerpts) “Nadine” (play about Bakunin) “The Strike” (play) The New Era (1887) The New Era A Final Thought (FR/EN) Memories of Caledonia (poem) (FR/EN) “Old Abraël” (1888) (FR/EN) “Old Chéchette” (1884) (FR/EN) “Today or Tomorrow” (1892) (FR/EN) Louise Michel’s writings are a strange mix of literary brilliance and serious disarray. Many of her published works were issued […]
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Louise Michel as a Fiction Writer / The Claque-Dents
One of the results of my continuing research on anarchism is that I occasionally find whole new genres of anarchist writing opening up in front of me. And recently, between my work on radical feminist writing and my work on the intersection of science fiction and fantasy and radicalism, I’ve been spending a lot of time reading, researching and translating fiction. A work like Jean Grave’s The Adventures of Nono is relatively unique as a children’s story, but the number of adult novels—including some that are very adult—written by anarchists is very large. One of the prolific novel-writers was Louise […]