Working Translations
E. Armand, “La première impulsion / The First Impulse” (1916)
You reproach me for yielding too often to my first impulse — for treating as an adventure what is in reality only a banal event in my life; […]
Working Translations
Anarchist Beginnings
Tomás Ibáñez, “Pourquoi j’ai choisi l’anarchie / Why I Have Chosen Anarchy” (1962)
If, among the wide range of ideas that have presented themselves to me, I have finally chosen the libertarian ideal, it is because, like every person on the planet, I am fundamentally egoistic. […]
Bakunin Library
Bakunin — Article for “Il popolo d’Italia” (1865)
A letter from Paris, published in your newspaper on September 2, contains a serious attack against a little paper by the name of Candide, written by young Parisians, whose publication was immediately interrupted by order of the imperial censor. Your correspondent, who does not seem to be an enthusiastic admirer of the illustrious exterminator of thought and freedom who reigns over France today, takes his side this time to the point of almost congratulating him on having avenged religion and public morals by suppressing a newspaper written by young people “uneducated or unexperienced, who, impelled by base culpable vanity, have dared to calmly affirm things that will sow eternal doubt in the minds of all decent people.” […]
Working Translations
E. Armand — misc. translations
To restrain the passions! To narrow the horizon of the enjoyment of living? Christianity has attempted it and failed. Socialism will try to reduce humanity to a similar denominator of necessities and it will fail. Fourier saw clearly when he coined this masterful expression: “the use of passions.” […]
Anarchist Beginnings
Why I Am an Anarchist (Four Statements, 1885-1951)
I am an anarchist because I think with despair of all the poor kids who, every year, enter the great stupefying machine, who will never know the intoxication of a free and fraternal life, who will always tremble with the fear of ghosts. […]
Working Translations
Sylvain Maréchal, “Cult and Laws of a Society of Men without God” (1797)
CULTE ET LOIS D’UNE SOCIETE D’HOMMES SANS DIEU. L’an Ier de la Raison. VI de la République Française. EXTRAIT Du Discours prononcé par le Président du Conseil des Cinq-Cents, sur la fête du premier Vendémiaire, […]
Working Translations
Gabriel in “l’en dehors” (1922-1925)
— Pour faire réfléchir Parce qu’un littérateur, un philosophe, un savant s’expriment avec clarté et simplicité, de façon à être compris du plus grand nombre possible d’individus, il n’y à pas pour ça abaissement, […]
Working Translations
Catherine Campoursy, “Joie de vivre / Joy of Living” (1933)
To appreciate life, to taste with joy, even with delight all of the infinitely brief and fleeting moments, the succession of which forms the weft of our existence, to feel a pleasure in starting each new day; this is the only way of being desirable for an individual who has killed in themselves every germ of mysticism, and who scoffs at all forms of asceticism — holding this practice to be contrary to healthy equilibrium, as the prerogative of nervous temperaments and weak stomachs. If they do not possess this fund of optimism, life, for the free individual, has no reason to exist. […]
Working Translations
Featured articles
Alceste, “Louis Moreau, Engraver” (1923)
A serious or charming illustrator of daily labor, wanting to bring into the life of the humble a little hope and a bit of the ideal, Louis Moreau, with a big heart overflowing with kindness and justice, strives to stylize in a few sober notations the touching environment where the workers work and live. […]