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.
Bakunin Library
Louise Michel, “Nadine”
A Corvus Edition [pdf] NADINE by Louise Michel CHARACTERS Michel Bakunin. The Prince. Serge, his aide de camp. The Count Toscof, exile, father of Serge. Patelski. Belly. Miérolowski. Jacques Széla, patriot. Alexander Herzen. Count Wodzicki. Wolf, banker. Kokoski, police officer. Popof, police officer. Two Frenchmen. Two Bourgeois from Krakow. Two Officers. A Sentinel. A Herald. Two Guards. A Miner. Two Krakuses. Princess Nadine. The Countess Sophia Pouskine. Two Women of the People. Soldiers, police officers, peasants, Krakuses, men of the People, miners, bourgeois, valets, officers, lords. TABLEAUX THE REBELLION. THE SPY. THE BAILIFF OF DAMBIEC. THE MINES OF WIÉLICZKA. THE […]
Contr'un
Letter of Henri Rochefort on Louise Michel
Letter of Henri Rochefort on Louise Michel (1) Dieppe, July 6, 1883. My Dear Citizen Argyriadès, I have only known our friend aboard the warship that transported us to New Caledonia. But I know that during the siege she had heroically fait le coup de l’eu against the Prussians, under whose guns she went to gather the wounded. It is likely that none of those who condemned her could have accomplished such exploits. I have recounted before the court of assizes her devotion for her fellow deportees, to whom she gave even her coat and her socks, keeping for herself […]
fiction
Louise Michel, “Old Chéchette” (1884)
[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 […]