Working Translations

Ricardo Mella, “Beyond the Ideal” (1913)

Believe, fight and cling to the dead cult—all the believers do the same. It doesn’t matter whether the idol is made of clay, bronze or meat. It doesn’t matter whether it is dissolved in the mental haze or in the whirlwind of passion. For the ideal, first living and then dead, the inhuman law of sacrifice is fulfilled. … Do not strip away their illusion, their precious illusion. They will defend themselves like lions, tear at you like panthers, howl like hyenas. There is no animal more fierce than the believer. […]

Working Translations

Marius Jean, “The Anarchists’ Ideal” (1929)

As a passionate lover of truth, beauty and liberty, the anarchist struggles for the establishment of an environment within which individuals would be free from all constraint and all authority outside of themselves, an environment in which each individual could rid themselves of all the metaphysical ideas to which, even today, they feel bound to sacrifice themselves. […]

Working Translations

Maurice Imbard, “O Anarchy!!!” (1928)

Ah! that word anarchy appeared to me for a long time, in the days of my youth, as a sort of myth.

The change that has occurred in my mindset has not changed my opinion on the grandeur of the word and the beauty of the thing. My aim is still and always to work, to struggle, to hasten the coming of the anarchist life—a life without authority, without obligation, without brutality; a gentle, tolerant, normal, natural life, where people will learn to understand one another. […]