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Jean Grave, The Adventures of Nono — Chapter VI

October 15, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur

THE ADVENTURES OF NONO by JEAN GRAVE [continued from Chapter V] VI THE END OF THE EVENING The children rushed to the sheds where the tools and props were kept, and there, helped by Labor, and some of his little genies, they pulled poles and canvas from it, and carried them onto the esplanade. There they raised an immense, square tent, facing the front steps, which would serve as bleachers for the spectators. Nono was amazed to see Labor’s elves rush about; with their help, the heaviest poles were raised by half a dozen of infants without more effort […]

Jean Grave, The Adventures of Nono — Chapter V

September 23, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur

THE ADVENTURES OF NONO by JEAN GRAVE [continued from Chapter IV] V GLUTTONY PUNISHED The castle that the children headed towards stood on a broad, well-sanded esplanade, cut through large lawns, some of which were planted with trees. Under these trees those not at work harvesting fruit, or milking cows, had set some large, square tables, which, this evening, in honor of the new arrival, on been arrange end to end, but were ordinary set up apart from one another, covered with fine tablecloths, bearing plates and dishes embellished with simple designs in raw tones. Chairs indicated the place […]

Jean Grave, The Adventures of Nono — Chapter IV

September 9, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur

THE ADVENTURES OF NONO by JEAN GRAVE [continued from Chapter III] IV IN THE COUNTRY OF AUTONOMY The sun continued its course. If he did not want to let himself by caught by nightfall in his solitude, it was necessary that our wanderer not let himself be beaten down by sadness. He must, on the contrary, summon all his energy and get on his way again. So, shaking his head, as a sign of his resolution and to chase away unwelcome ideas, he got up to resume his journey, but not before tying up two of the baskets of […]

Jean Grave, The Adventures of Nono — Chapter III

September 7, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur

THE ADVENTURES OF NONO by JEAN GRAVE [continued from Chapter II] III WE LEARN BY TRAVELING The reflections of our little friend were not cheerful: In what country was he? Would he find something to eat? Was he doomed to die of hunger, or, like a new Robinson Crusoe, would he be forced to make the best of his life, far from every companion? Robinson, in his shipwreck, had been able to save weapons, tools, and provisions. He had landed on an island stocked with game and edible fruits. In his walk Nono had seen nothing edible, apart from […]

Jean Grave, The Adventures of Nono — Chapter II

September 3, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur

[I ended up neglecting The Adventures of Nono for longer than I had intended, while some other projects came together, but it’s time to return to our anarchist children’s novel.] THE ADVENTURES OF NONO by JEAN GRAVE [continued from Chapter I] II. FIRST ADVENTURES When Nono awoke, it was broad daylight. But, surprisingly, instead of being in his bed he was lying on a lawn thick, filled with flowers raising their petalsover the green grass. The sun lit up that place, making the floral colors gleam, shimmering off the variegated wings of the countless insects that fluttering in its […]

2012 translation plans / an anarchist-communist children’s book from 1901

January 1, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur

I’m in the process of working out my 2012 plan of action, including which works I’m going to concentrate of translating. I’m collaborating with a colleague on some of Charles Fourier’s more entertaining writings, and will be serializing The Exploits of Ravachol in the “Gallery of Rogues,” but what I generally find is that I can only give one translation project so much attention in a given day or week, before the work gets dull and, more importantly, I don’t get a chance to process and internalize what I’ve learned from translating a given set of passages. If some of […]

Working Translations

Octave Mirbeau, Preface to Moribund Society and Anarchy

May 25, 2011 Shawn P. Wilbur

[ezcol_2third] Voltairine de Cleyre translated Jean Grave’s Moribund Society and Anarchy (1899; first published in French in 1893 as La Société mourante et l’Anarchie), though she admitted she was not in complete agreement with it. “As to the principal object of the work,” she said in her Preface, “that of furnishing an inclusive criticism of the institutions of our moribund society and the necessity of its speedy dissolution, I think any fair-minded reader will be convinced that it has been pretty thoroughly done. As to the “What next?” it is far less certain. With this, however, Jean Grave,—sturdy, patient, indomitable […]

The Manifesto of the Sixteen (1916)

May 25, 2011 Shawn P. Wilbur

From various sides, voices are raised to demand immediate peace. There has been enough bloodshed, they say, enough destruction, and it is time to finish things, one way or another. More than anyone, and for a long time, we and our journals have been against every war of aggression between peoples, and against militarism, no matter what uniform, imperial or republican, it dons. So we would be delighted to see the conditions of peace discussed—if that was possible—by the European workers, gathered in an international congress. Especially since the German people let itself be deceived in August 1914, and if they really believed that they mobilized for the defense of their territory, they have since had time to realize that they were wrong to embark on a war of conquest.

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