Louise Michel Archives - Page 2 of 3 - The Libertarian Labyrinth

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! […]

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 […]

Louise Michel, “The Clavier of My Over-Dream” (1867)

July 4, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur

[one_half padding=”0 10px 0 0px”] The Clavier of My Over-Dream A few days ago, I slept in a lovely dream. I was free, in a boundless space, where I ascended as easily as one follows the paths of our valleys. I found myself in a monument, so vast that its edges seemed like a distant horizon. Silence filled the vaults, but I sensed their incredible resonance. I sat down at an instrument whose keyboard included so many rising and so many descending notes, that it must include many sounds indistinguishable to the human ear. When I put my hands on […]

Louise Michel, “Today or Tomorrow” (1893)

July 4, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur

[ezcol_1half] Today or Tomorrow. Everything is good that strikes or stings. [1] So much the better if these bandits have finished their work. The scaffold has started the party, and the fire will beat its wings over the apotheosis. The blood of Ravachol splashes, from his false collar to his cuffs, the cold man of the Élysée. The Élysée! That’s the spot that draws the looks! From it the grand finale, the final bouquet will rise into the air, and the cross of Our Lady of the Slaughter will be the streetlamp. [2] The sun has risen red in the […]

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

July 4, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur

[Prologue] I A whole unhinged crowd jostled, for one dizzy day, at the division of spoils, accomplished at the Hôtel des Ventes, of the furniture of Lucrèce Milot, a madwoman of the best class, now tragically dead. The distracted, daft, and jaded vied for the smallest of trinkets. A blood-soaked rag was sold for the price of an objet d’art. Those things touched by the crime were worth their weight in human folly. Little Muscadet had spent the last bits of his wife’s dowry there; young Madulphe had taken “an enormous toll” on his expectations, his parents not being very […]

Louise Michel, “The Claque-Dents”

July 4, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur

THE CLAQUE-DENTS [ Claque-dents: the chatter of teeth in unheated rooms, the wretches who live there, the hovels and brothels where they live, the vampires in human guise who keep them there in order to drain the life from them, the clank of gold and, finally, the gnashing of teeth in the death throes. The word itself chatters. How would we choose just one meaning, when all of these, together with the event they signal—the final exhaustion of the Old World—are so obviously the composite protagonist of Louise Michel’s tale? ] [one_half padding=”0 10px 0 0px”] The claque-dents: these are the death […]

Louise Michel, Today or Tomorrow (1892)

May 18, 2015 Shawn P. Wilbur

Today or Tomorrow. Louise Michel Everything is good that strikes or stings. So much the better if these bandits have finished their work. The scaffold has started the party, and the fire will beat its wings over the apotheosis. The blood of Ravachol splashes, from his false collar to his cuffs, the cold man of the Élysée. The Élysée! That’s the spot that draws the looks! From it the grand finale, the final bouquet will rise into the air, and the cross of Our Lady of the Slaughter will be the streetlamp. The sun has risen red in the prologue, […]

Louise Michel, “Today or Tomorrow” (on Ravachol, 1892)

February 2, 2013 Shawn P. Wilbur

[Here’s another of the articles written shortly after Ravachol’s execution, in which Louise Michel added her bit to the Ravachol myth. There was a good deal of reference between the various contributions to L’Endehors. Michel began her article with a line from an article by Zo d’Axa and references Gustave Mathieu’s “The Little Ravachols will Grow.” This working translation is a little rough, but I’ll be finishing these as a group.] Today or Tomorrow. Louise Michel Everything is good which strikes or stings.[1] So much the better if these bandits have finished their work. The scaffold has started the party, […]

Louise Michel’s “Nadine,” a drama featuring Bakunin

January 26, 2013 Shawn P. Wilbur

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 […]

Travels in the Louiseverse

January 10, 2013 Shawn P. Wilbur

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 […]