Sedulia's Translations

Victor Hugo: My father, that hero

After the Battle

My father, that hero with the sweetest smile,
followed by a single hussar whom he loved above all others
for his great bravery and his great height,
was riding, the evening after a battle,
across the field covered with the dead on whom night was falling.
He thought he heard a weak noise  in the shadow.
It was a Spaniard from the routed army
who was bleeding, dragging himself by the road.
groaning, broken, ashen, and more than half dead,
and who said, "Drink! Drink, for pity's sake!"
My father, moved, handed to his faithful hussar
a canteen of rum that hung from his saddle,
and said, "Here, give the poor wounded man something to drink."
Suddenly, at the moment when the hussar bent
leaning over him, the man, a kind of Moor,
seized a pistol that he was still gripping,
and aimed at my father's forehead crying "Caramba!"
The bullet passed so near that his hat fell off
and his horse shied backwards.
"All the same give him something to drink," said my father.

     --Victor Hugo (1802-1885). His father fought in Spain as a general under Napoleon.

Après la bataille

Mon père, ce héros au sourire si doux,
Suivi d'un seul housard qu'il aimait entre tous
Pour sa grande bravoure et pour sa haute taille,
Parcourait à cheval, le soir d'une bataille,
Le champ couvert de morts sur qui tombait la nuit.
Il lui sembla dans l'ombre entendre un faible bruit.
C'était un Espagnol de l'armée en déroute
Qui se traînait sanglant sur le bord de la route,
Râlant, brisé, livide, et mort plus qu'à moitié.
Et qui disait: " A boire! à boire par pitié ! "
Mon père, ému, tendit à son housard fidèle
Une gourde de rhum qui pendait à sa selle,
Et dit: "Tiens, donne à boire à ce pauvre blessé. "
Tout à coup, au moment où le housard baissé
Se penchait vers lui, l'homme, une espèce de maure,
Saisit un pistolet qu'il étreignait encore,
Et vise au front mon père en criant: "Caramba! "
Le coup passa si près que le chapeau tomba
Et que le cheval fit un écart en arrière.
" Donne-lui tout de même à boire ", dit mon père.

Liliane Wouters: To the child I did not have

Will and Testament

For Alain Bosquet

To the child I did not have
but which I received from a man
seventy-seven times and more, to the good child
whose breath and face I formed
seventy-seven times, in a belly like mine,
by nights red with the sun,
by crystalline days of northern dawns,
to the child whose secret initials
I carry inside me, along with your name, Yahweh,
a child conceived, but still unfinished,
that they make in me, that I make, each time I love,
that is undone inside me to give a poem,
to the child that will not come
to close my eyes, to choose the winding-sheet,
to walk behind my weight of bones, of ashes,
to watch me descend into the grave,
to this child I bequeath before God, before
men and my dog, before the living day
(which is only because I am and which will die
as I die) I bequeath, as much as can be,
as much as can be used instead of, in place of
me, its mother and father in one being,
I bequeath all my fleshly and spiritual goods,
of time still counted and of illusory space:

the corner of the sky I have stared at in vain,
the acre of land where I wore out my shoes,
the four walls inside which I stayed,
the six partitions that were their twins;
the money that ran through my fingers--
for the pleasure I had in spreading it--
the false knowledge that they thought they passed me
-- for the happiness of unlearning it just as soon--;

the days I passed that I did not live,
the days lived where I passed nearby,
the mortal time I survived,
the hour, eternal and yet erased;

the love thrown away whose price I did not know,
 the love given to those who could not take it,
the love offered that I took back right away,
the love lost that you can still see waiting outside.

To the child that I did not have,
whom I have all the same, formed
of my seed, conceived in my flesh,
whose existence is perfected in every embrace,
to this child I bequeath for the better but especially for
the worst, what the day has lent me:

the I which I use on credit
at an interest I can't afford,
whose face and sex I could not choose
(you have to take what you get):

a hollow brain in a full head,
a body too soft on bones too strong,
blood too lively for a short breath,
a heart too gentle for this furious blood,

feet that have raised nothing but dust,
arms surprised to have embraced the wind,
knees trapped by prayers,
hands staying empty as before;

eyes closed on a side of things,
-- that half that we all are missing--,
eyes open under their closed pupils
and in the dark seeing more than they should.

To the child I did not have
I bequeath lastly, so that it will pay
attention, so that it will remember
through stubbornness, when the hem
of my passage is ripped out of the ancient fabric:

the fifteen things that I never could do:
bow my head before those greater than I,
walk on those lower, point a finger,
shout with the crowd, or else be silent,
recognize the Black among the Whites,
choose the ten just men, name a guilty party,
find that suitable attitude,
read someone besides myself in the mirrors,
conjugate love in several persons,
resist temptation, wound on purpose,
stay indecisive, say "Nuts"
instead of "Shit," which is more French.

   --Liliane Wouters (1930-). This poem is from the book  Poèmes à dire, ed. by Zéno Bianu, Gallimard (2002). Here is an excerpt from the beginning.

Testament

Pour Alain Bosquet

À l'enfant que je n'ai pas eu
mais que d'un homme je reçus
septante fois sept fois et davantage, à l'enfant sage
dont je formai le souffle et le visage
sept fois septante fois, dans un ventre pareil
au mien, par des nuits rouges de soleil,
par des jours cristallins d'aurore boréale,
à l'enfant dont je porte en moi les initiales
secrètes, ainsi que ton nom, Yahvé,
enfant conçu, toujours inachevé,
qu'on me fait, que je fais, à chaque fois que j'aime,
qui se défait en moi pour donner un poème,
à l'enfant qui ne viendra pas
clore mes yeux, choisir l'ultime drap,
marcher derrière mon poids d'os, de cendres,
me regarder dans la fosse descendre,
à cet enfant je lègue devant Dieu, devant
les hommes et mon chien, devant le jour vivant
(qui n'est que parce que je suis et qui mourra
comme je meurs) je lègue, pour autant qu'on pourra,
pour autant qu'il en fasse usage en lieu et place
de moi, ses père et mère en un seul être pris,
je lègue tous mes biens de chair, d'esprit,
de temps toujours compté et d'illusoire espace....

Sabine Sicaud: Speak to you? No. I cannot.

Speak to you? No. I cannot.
I prefer to suffer like a plant,
like the bird that says nothing on the linden tree.
They wait. That's fine. Since they aren't tired
of waiting, I'll wait, with the same waiting.

They suffer alone. One should learn how to suffer alone.
I don't want indifferent people ready to smile
nor friends groaning. No one should come.

The plant says nothing. The bird is silent. What would they say?
This pain is alone in the world, whatever one wants.
It is not the pain of others, it is mine.

A leaf has its ache that the other leaf ignores.
And the bird's ache-- the other bird knows nothing about it.

One doesn't know. One doesn't know. Who is like another?
And if they were, what matter. This evening
I don't want to hear a single vain word.

I wait-- like the old motionless tree
and the mute finch behind the window...
A drop of pure water, a little wind, who knows?
What are they waiting for? We will wait for it together.
The sun has told them it will come back, perhaps....

      --Sabine Sicaud (1913-1928) died at age 15 after much suffering.

Vous parler? Non. Je ne peux pas.
Je préfère souffrir comme une plante,
comme l'oiseau qui ne dit rien sur le tilleul.
Ils attendent. C'est bien. Puisqu'ils ne sont pas las
d'attendre, j'attendrai, de cette même attente.

Ils souffrent seuls. On doit apprendre à souffrir seul.
Je ne veux pas d'indifférents prêts à sourire
ni d'amis gémissants. Que nul ne vienne.

La plante ne dit rien. L'oiseau se tait. Que dire?
Cette douleur est seule au monde, quoi qu'on veuille.
Elle n'est pas celle des autres, c'est la mienne.

Une feuille a son mal qu'ignore l'autre feuille.
Et le mal de l'oiseau, l'autre oiseau n'en sait rien.

On ne sait pas. On ne sait pas. Qui se ressemble ?
Et se ressemblât-on, qu'importe. Il me convient
de n'entendre ce soir nulle parole vaine.

J'attends - comme le font derrière la fenêtre
le vieil arbre sans geste et le pinson muet...
une goutte d'eau pure, un peu de vent, qui sait ?
Qu'attendent-ils ? Nous l'attendrons ensemble.
Le soleil leur a dit qu'il reviendrait, peut-être...          

Lounès Matoub on the death of Mohamed Boudiaf: Algeria will rise from this evil

Hymn to Boudiaf

For so many years far from your country!
You revolted, you turned against tyranny
We were waiting for the new clearness from you
about what the criminals had devoured
but behind you, death rose up
guided by unforeseeable traitors
Miserable ones, may he remind you of it--  
you are the ones who lit the furnace.

Alas, alas, sad widows!
[woman's voice]
We are torn from men who did not deserve to die.
{repeat}

The plotters called you
in that air of terrible oppression
they invited you to the no-man's-land
You came, careless of the tufts of nettles
They undid the bonds of our land
she sank into a bottomless pool
she sank head first
the nations watched her being swallowed up.

Alas, alas, sad widows!
[woman's voice] We are torn apart from men who did not deserve to die.
{repeat}

 You found the country being ravaged
It is torn, gone to rags
Some exalt themselves: "We are Arabs
and nothing was here before us."
As for the know-nothings and their henchmen 
they have sworn never to relent.
They are sharpening the last judgment
against those who affront their plans.

Alas, alas, sad widows!
[woman's voice:] We are torn apart from men who did not deserve to die.
{repeat}

Your name has gone into history,
future generations will find it
this time of suffering is not for always
although today, the Furies are burning us.
Algeria will rise again from this evil
knowledge will put out buds,
you have opened the way to the dignity of our people
rest in peace, honorable Boudiaf.
you have opened the way to the dignity of our people
At present, be in peace, honorable Boudiaf...

[Over, in French: From Abane to Boudiaf, how many crimes have been orchestrated!
Krim, Khider, and others...
Will we leave this ancestral land in the hands of these sad cases who have plunged it into chaos?
Or in the claws of these "lit-up*" cowards? 

          --Mohamed Boudiaf (1919-1992) was an Algerian patriot who became head of state briefly after a long period of exile, but was assassinated after only four months. The country slid into a long period of violence and civil war, and is only recently emerging. The Berbers (Algerian Berbers are Kabyles) are the original inhabitants of North Africa, and were conquered by the Arabs and converted from Christianity to Islam in the early 700s. Today, the Berber language is a focus of a new sense of Berber pride. Lounès Matoub (1956-1998), a famous Algerian Berber singer, wrote this song about him. Lounès Matoub was himself assassinated in 1998.

You can see Lounès Matoub singing the song here, in the Berber language, with French subtitles. I came across his music for the first time in the French movie Là-bas... mon pays ("Over there...my country"), about a Frenchman who grew up in colonial Algeria and goes back many years later. The music wails across the landscape through most of the film and powerfully evokes a mood of nostalgia, longing, and rebellion.

*The word in the French translation is illuminés, which means "the enlightened ones," but is sarcastic and refers to religious fanatics and crazy people.

Early 2003: Chirac asks theologian to explain George W. Bush's reference to Gog and Magog

U.S. President George W. Bush at prayer

George Bush and the Code of Ezekiel

When he evokes the political situation in the the Middle East, the president of the United States sees Gog and Magog at work--two creatures who appear an apocalyptic vision of the Old Testament! The explanations of Thomas Römer, an expert at UNIL (the University of Lausanne) who was contacted by the Elysées [the French President's residence] in 2003, when Jacques Chirac was trying to elucidate the troubling references of George W. Bush.

"The telephone rang. It was the head of the Biblical Service of the Protestant Federation of France [Service biblique de la Federation protestante de France]. She asked me if I could write a page on Gog and Magog for the French President."  Thomas Römer, a theology professor at the University of Lausanne (UNIL) and specialist in the Old Testament, had just been plunged into the midst of international politics. This apparently banal theological inquiry had unsuspected ramifications, for it was incited by George W. Bush.

"The prophecies are being accomplished."

"I also learned during this phone call that the President of the United States had brought up Gog and Magog in a conversation with Jacques Chirac. The discussion was about current events in the Middle East. After having explained that he saw Gog and Magog at work, George W. Bush added that the Biblical prophecies were coming to pass,"  Thomas Römer continues.

This conversation, which also included the Axis of Evil, took place at the beginning of 2003, a few weeks before the American intervention in Iraq. George W. Bush was then trying once again to convince Jacques Chirac to follow him in his Operation Just Cause, which the Frenchman obstinately refused to do.

As neither Jacques Chirac nor his advisers had understood the American President's reference, Paris got to work. Since George W. Bush belongs to the evangelical Christian movement,  the Elysée turned to French Protestants, who transmitted the request to Thomas Römer. "There is nothing unusual about that," the UNIL researcher continues. "We often collaborate on scientific matters with our neighbors."

So the Lausanne theologian was now given the task of enlightening the French President on Gog and Magog, a work which this specialist in the Old Testament was happy to do, and about which he speaks for the first time today, now that Jacques Chirac has retired, and that this episode belongs to history.

Magog at the Guildhall, London

An uncertain and unclear text

"I wrote a one-page paper which explained the theological foundations of Gog and Magog, two creatures who appear in Genesis and especially in two very obscure chapters of the Book of Ezekiel, in the Old Testament,"  the UNIL theologian remembers, before adding that on more than one account, Ezekiel is a disconcerting book.

"The transcription which has come down to us is not certain, the names that are cited pose a problem, and the text is difficult," Thomas Römer adds. If that were not enough to embroil the 21st-century reader, this book "also contains a message that is a bit hidden. It is part of a kind of writing that speculates on the future, in a cryptic language, and is destined for initiates," the UNIL researcher explains.

However, it is not necessary to be an expert in esoteric studies to understand the outline of this apocalyptic prophecy. In chapters 38 and 39, the authors of the Book of Ezekiel added a vision according to which a great world army will form, and that this coalition of peoples will bring a final battle upon Israel. "This confrontation is willed by God, who wants to take advantage of this conflict to wipe out the enemies of his people before a new age begins," Thomas Römer goes on.

Gog, ally or Prince of Magog?

In his coalition, the author of this text places peoples known to archeologists, like the Persians, the Nubians, the Assyrians, and the Kushites. He adds other names which perplex historians, but which leave no doubt as to the sense of the prophecy. The army that is on the march is huge, and assembles peoples come from all over, but mainly from north of Israel.

According to this text, Ezekiel also announces that this great coalition will be brought together by a certain Gog, perhaps supported by Magog. In different translations of the Bible, one can read "Gog and Magog," "Gog from Magog," "Gog, in the land of Magog," or even "Gog, prince of Magog."

"These names are difficult to decode," Thomas Römer emphasizes, "like the names of Meshek and Toubal, which are also associated with the coalition, and which are also enigmatic."

Recent Hypotheses

This enigmatic Gog has aroused speculation for more than twenty centuries. Today, George W. Bush is probably looking for him in the direction of Iran, which covets atomic weapons, after having tracked him down to Iraq. Before him, another American president [also] believed in the imminent realization of Ezekiel's prophecy.

"As Ronald Reagan knew the Bible well, he believed that the Cold War and the existence of the atomic bomb made it possible for the prophecy of Ezekiel to come to pass, therefore that the moment had come," Thomas Römer continues.

"Because Gog is an enemy who comes from north of Israel, and because Meshek can easily be connected to Moscow, people who read Ezekiel 20 or 25 years ago often associated Gog with communist Russia. They also noticed that the Biblical text says that Gog is said to be "at the head" of this coalition. Now, in Hebrew,  "head" is "rosh." From "rosh," it's easy to get "Russia," therefore communist Russia," says the UNIL theologian, smiling.

After the fall of the Berlin Wall swept away this hypothesis, the imminence of the apocalypse seemed to fade away. For rationalist readers like Thomas Römer, the "threat"  even disappeared more than 2000 years ago.

Gygos, Alexander, and Nero

Because not all the people who read Ezekiel dissect current affairs with the goal of finding there the signs of the arrival of Gog and his apocalyptic armies. Many historians and theologians seek his trace, rather, in the past. "Some researchers have identified Gog with a certain Gygos, who was a king of Anatolia in the seventh century BC. He could be at the origin of this apocalyptic text. I think it is the same process as in the case of the apocalyptic prophecies of Daniel, which concern the great enemy of the time, Antiochus IV."

If one adds to this that many researchers believe that the [Roman] emperor Nero is the famous 666 evoked in the Apocalypse of John, that the Great Whore is Rome, and that the fall announced is that of the Roman Empire, it is noticeable that the past can explain all the apocalyptic Biblical prophecies, a historical analysis that Thomas Römer tends to favor.

The prophecy of Ezekiel would in that case be linked, if one believes the UNIL researcher, to the travels of Alexander the Great. "The arrival of hellenism [Greek culture] in the Middle East constituted a major culture shock," Thomas Römer explains. To the point that the Bible has kept many traces of the passage of the Macedonian king, notably the oracles on the taking of [the city of] Tyre. This episode doubtlessly led people to develop a chronology, to reflect on the succession of reigns, to evoke the advent of [new] forces, and to speculate on the end of times and the irruption of a new time."

No Apocalypse Without Reconstruction of the Temple

The fact remains that not everyone reads the Old Testament as rationally as Thomas Römer. We must therefore state to our most nervous readers that it is not enough for a coalition of countries to attack Israel for the End Times to come. "There is a long section about the reconstruction of the Temple, and this reconstruction is, for certain currents of Judaism, the necessary condition for the return of the Messiah."

This reconstruction of the Temple of Jerusalem is detailed at length in Ezekiel, which consecrates interminable chapters to it, before specifying that the Temple must be rebuilt at its initial location, that is, the famous Temple Mount, in Jerusalem, where today there stands one of the most sacred spots in Islam, the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

In other words, it would require a truly apocalyptic train of circumstances for the conditions evoked in the prophecy to be reunited.

Ezekiel smoothes the way for American support to Israel

More widely, this text of Ezekiel explains the strong ties which have been woven between the United States and the state of Israel. "For George W. Bush, this text has political consequences," Thomas Römer goes on. " Like many American Christians, he believes that God will be on the side of Israel during the final confrontation, so, therefore, the enemies of that country will be on the side of the Antichrist. He will therefore support Israel without weakening, because he is deeply convinced that when the end time arrives, it is necessary to be on the side of Israel."

This may surprise Europeans, more used to analyses based on geopolitics, ratios of power, and oil pipeline maps than they are to religiousness when the foreign policy of the United States is in question.

"This American interpretation is effectively missed by Europeans, who have lost that relationship to Biblical texts," the UNIL theologian continues. "Germans understand George W. Bush more easily than the French or the Swiss. For an American, these questions are central. To forget religiousness in the analysis of the U.S. support for Israel is to be wrong."

Did these political reflections figure in the one-page report that Thomas Römer sent to the French President at the beginning of 2003? "No. I sent a Biblical note. One one page, I explained the context, I explained that it was an apocalyptic prophecy, with a cosmic battle of peoples. I spoke of Gygos and I said when it was written. And I have not heard back either from Jacques Chirac or his advisers."

     --Jocelyn Rochat (who by the way is a man; a woman would be named "Jocelyne"), editor-in-chief of Allez savoir, a university magazine of the University of Lausanne, in Switzerland, in September 2007. The French-language original can be seen here.

This is my translation of the article.

Oddly, Gog and Magog are said to be protectors of Great Britain-- I wonder if George W. Bush knows this.

Top photo: Magog at Guildhall, London. Middle photo: Gog and Magog at the Royal National Hotel, Bedford Way, London. Below: Gog and Magog in the Lord Mayor's Parade, London.

 

Commentary sidebar in the article:

"Only a minority of believers see modern-day Iran as the Persia of which the Bible spoke."

Olivier Favre is a Ph.D in Social Sciences from the University of Lausanne and a pastor of the apostolic evangelical church. He is coauthor of the first empiric study on the evolution of the evangelical movement in Switzerland*. We asked him how the texts of Ezekiel were read by Swiss evangelicals.

Allez savoir! : Are Swiss evangelicals as interested as George W. Bush is in the prophecies of Ezekiel?

Olivier Favre: In Switzerland, apocalyptic themes are much less present today than during the Cold War period. I see a distancing going on with respect to that kind of reading of history and belief in the future. The tendency in Swiss evangelical communities is rather to become more involved in politics again, to develop their message in the here-and-now. We see it notably in their recent involvement (certainly conservative) in politics. These believers have realized that they are not limited to fatalism.

Allez savoir!: Do evangelical communities read these apocalyptic texts the same way as George W. Bush?

Olivier Favre: The great majority remains very prudent about this. But at the extremes, we do in fact find a small minority of people who see modern Iran as the Persia of which the Bible spoke, therefore as an enemy of Israel. This minority believes that the Biblical prophecies are coming true. And at the other extreme, there are evangelicals who consider George W. Bush as the Antichrist, and who see in the terrorist attacks of September 11th the proof that God disapproves of American materialism.

Allez savoir!:  These are two very different visions....

Olivier Favre: Yes, because the evangelicals have very different readings of these apocalyptic texts, of Ezekiel but also of Daniel. To simplify, you could say that there are two diametrically opposed positions on the End of Days. But they are very much in the minority. The majority simply waits for the return of Christ without making any pronouncement about the rest of it.

Allez savoir!: There are optimists and pessimists?

Olivier Favre: Those I call pre-millennials are effectively catastrophists. They think that the return of Christ must be preceded by the rise of the Antichrist, whose reign will mean a long period of catastrophes for us. Opposed to this vision, there are the post-millennials who believe that the Church will triumph, and that Christ will come back to a peaceful planet. Finally, very far from from these positions, there is the vision of traditional Protestants, but also of moderate evangelicals, who read these apocalyptic texts symbolically and think that the Bible announces the fall of an empire, notably that of Rome.

Allez savoir!:  How representative is the President of the United States for evangelical ideas?

Olivier Favre: It's necessary to be prudent with the figure of George W. Bush. It is extremely difficult to know what, in his speeches and actions, comes from his personal convictions, and what comes from an instrumentalization of the evangelical faith. Note also that the American evangelical electorate is divided today regarding him. If some of them approve of him, others are now criticizing him, notably because of global warming.

Allez savoir!: What strikes you when you look for Gog and Magog in Wikipedia, the internet encyclopedia, is the difference between the information contained in the French and English versions. There are five lines in French and five pages in English.

Olivier Favre: This shows pretty well that these re-readings of Ezekiel are above all a theme in America. The development of evangelicals in the southern hemisphere (South America, Africa) has marginalized these apocalyptic themes and brought other priorities, because these communities are more concerned about social and ecological problems.

Allez savoir!: More broadly, what does this religious reading of international politics inspire in you?

Olivier Favre: On this side of the Atlantic, strongly in France, but also in French-speaking Switzerland, there is a tendency to believe that no one reasons in religious terms any more. Now, we have populations who are still believers in various ways. Prayer is still practiced, and people keep their faith in a life after death. We could therefore expect, in the future, that the religious component could also surge back here into public life.

            --Interview by J.R.

Bush, Chirac, Gog and Magog

In 2003, Thomas Römer,  a theology professor at the University of Lausanne [Switzerland], received a telephone call from the Elysée Palace [in Paris, home of the President of France]. Jacques Chirac’s advisers wanted to know more about Gog and Magog…. two mysterious names that had been spoken by George W. Bush as he was trying to persuade France to go to war at his side in Iraq. In its September [2007] issue, the University of Lausanne (UNIL)’s magazine, Allez savoir, reveals this story [English translation here], which might seem fantastical if, as Jocelyn Rochat, editor-in-chief of Allez savoir,  emphasizes, it did not reveal the religious basis of Bush’s politics.

Apocalyptic Prophecy. Bush is said to have declared to Chirac that Gog and Magog were at work in the Middle East, and the Biblical Prophecies were being accomplished. It was a few weeks before the intervention in Iraq. The French president, to whom the names of Gog and Magog meant nothing, was stupefied.

In Allez savoir, Thomas Römer explains that Gog and Magog are two creatures who appear in Genesis, and especially in the two most obscure chapters of the Book of Ezekiel in the Old Testament: an apocalyptic prophecy of a worldwide army bringing a final battle to Israel.

“This confrontation is willed by God, who wants to take advantage of this conflict to wipe out the enemies of his people before a new age begins,” Thomas Römer continues.

According to him, George W. Bush is not the first to have looked for an incarnation of Gog and Magog on earth. Ronald Reagan believed that the Cold War and the existence of the atomic bomb were making the prophecy of Ezekiel a possible reality.

If the University of Lausanne is revealing today the explanations given by Thomas Römer to Jacques Chirac, it is because the latter has left office. For Jocelyn Rochat, this little private secret of international politics raises a large question: our lack of religious culture, the lack of knowledge of Scripture, at a time when religious foundations, more often than one might want to believe, are determining political and military decisions. Religiousness is not confined to a private sphere, Rochat concludes. It is a parameter to take into account “or you will understand nothing about the current direction of the world.”

    --Article by Jacques Sterchi of La Liberté, a Swiss daily newspaper, in rue89.com, a French blog written off-duty by professional journalists. 17 September 2007.

Note from Sedulia: I do find it hard to believe that an educated man had never heard of Gog and Magog. Today's France is  astonishingly irreligious for a country that was once called "the eldest daughter of the Church."

En 2003, le professeur de théologie de l'Université de Lausanne Thomas Römer reçoit un coup de téléphone du palais de l'Elysée. Les conseillers de Jacques Chirac souhaitent en savoir plus sur Gog et Magog… Deux noms mystérieux qui ont été prononcés par George W. Bush alors qu'il tentait de convaincre la France d'entrer en guerre à ses côtés en Irak. Dans sa livraison de septembre, la revue de l'Université de Lausanne (UNIL) " Allez savoir" révèle cette histoire qui pourrait sembler rocambolesque si, comme le souligne le rédacteur en chef d'" Allez savoir" Jocelyn Rochat, elle ne révélait pas les soubassements religieux de la politique de Bush.

Prophétie apocalyptique Bush aurait déclaré à Chirac que Gog et Magog étaient à l'œuvre au Proche-Orient, et que les prophéties bibliques étaient en train de s'accomplir. C'était quelques semaines avant l'intervention en Irak. Stupéfaction du président français, à qui les noms de Gog et Magog ne disent rien.

Dans " Allez savoir" , Thomas Römer précise : Gog et Magog sont deux créatures qui apparaissent dans la Genèse, et surtout dans deux chapitres des plus obscurs du " Livre d'Ezéchiel" de l'Ancien Testament. Prophétie apocalyptique d'une armée mondiale livrant bataille finale à Israël.

" Cette confrontation est voulue par Dieu, qui veut profiter de ce conflit pour faire table rase des ennemis de son peuple, avant que ne débute un âge nouveau" , poursuit Thomas Römer.

Pour lui, George W. Bush n'est pas le premier à chercher une incarnation de Gog et Magog sur terre. Ronald Reagan avait estimé que la guerre froide et l'existence de la bombe atomique rendaient réalisable la prophétie d'Ezéchiel…

Si l'Université de Lausanne révèle aujourd'hui les explications fournies par Thomas Römer à Jacques Chirac, c'est que ce dernier a quitté l'Elysée. Pour Jocelyn Rochat, ce petit secret d'alcôve de la politique internationale soulève une vaste question : notre inculture religieuse, la méconnaissance des Ecritures, à l'heure où les soubassements religieux sont beaucoup plus déterminants que l'on voudrait bien le croire dans les décisions politiques et militaires. Le religieux n'est pas confiné à la sphère privée, conclut Jocelyn Rochat. Un paramètre à prendre en compte, " sous peine de ne plus rien comprendre à la marche actuelle du monde" .

A little German girl meets black American soldiers at the end of World War II

Toward the end of the war, the roar of the artillery fire in Arnsberg came ever nearer, and you could hear it all day long. The first ones went looking for white cloth to show their peaceable intentions. We spent most of our time in the bomb shelter in the house of Aunt Anne and Uncle Karl, where we sat until it was time. Till the Americans came.

We didn't know what awaited us. Were they humans, were they monsters? The Nazi propaganda had prophesied dreadful things. And then they came down the cellar steps: they were people like us, friendly people, thank God! They did not wear hobnailed boots like the German soldiers, whose footsteps always sounded like iron. They swung through the air on soft light crepe soles, that sounded shh-shh-shh-shh.

I liked that and their friendly ways. Probably, as I believe today, they thought all Germans were Nazis and had no idea how much most of us had suffered under the Nazis' rule of terror....

The Americans did steal the Leica camera that was my father's pride and joy. And a collection of Japanese coins disappeared, which perhaps lies in a Pennsylvania museum or a Nebraska garbage dump, what matter!

And how they drove their jeeps, really artistically, especially the dark-skinned Americans! They chewed gum and hurtled crazily around curves with their legs hanging out of the windows. How relieved and happy we were! The war was finished for us, finally! Now we could sleep without cares, safe as in Abraham's lap.

     --From a German-language genealogy website, Die Marnachs [the Marnach family]

Gegen Kriegsende kam das Grollen des Artilleriebeschusses in Arnsberg immer näher, man konnte es den ganzen Tag über hören. Die ersten hielten Ausschau nach weißen Laken, um ihre friedlichen Absichten zu dokumentieren. Wir verbrachten die meiste Zeit im Luftschutzkeller im Haus von Tante Änne und Onkel Karl, wo wir auch saßen, als es soweit war. Als die Amis kamen.

Wir wussten nicht, was uns erwartete. Waren es Menschen, waren es Unmenschen? Die braune Propaganda hatte uns Schreckliches vorhergesagt. Und da kamen sie die Kellertreppe herunter: Menschen wie wir, freundliche Menschen, Gott sei Dank! Sie trugen nicht die Knobelbecherstiefel, wie die deutschen Soldaten, deren Schritte immer klangen wie ein eisernes rätsch-rätsch-rätsch-rätsch. Sie swingten durchs Leben auf weichen leisen Kreppsohlen, die klangen scht-scht-scht-scht.    

Das gefiel mir, auch ihre menschenfreundliche Art. Wahrscheinlich, so denke ich heute, hielten sie alle Deutschen für Nazis und ahnten nicht, wie die meisten von uns unter der braunen Schreckensherrschaft gelitten hatten....

Die Amis klauten uns zwar die Leica, die der ganze Stolz meines Vaters gewesen war. Und eine japanische Münzsammlung war weg, die jetzt vielleicht in einem Museum in PA oder auf einer Müllkippe in Nebraska liegt, was solls! -        

Und wie sie ihre Jeeps fuhren, echt artistisch, besonders die dunkelhäutigen Amerikaner! Sie kauten Kaugummi, sausten wie wahnsinnig um die Kurven, und hatten dabei noch die Beine aus dem Autofenster hängen. Wie waren wir erleichtert und glücklich! Der Krieg war zu Ende für uns, endlich! Nun konnten wir ohne Sorgen schlafen, sicher wie in Abrahams Schoß.

Sabine Sicaud: Pain, I hate you

[Written in response to L'Honneur de souffrir * by  Anna de Noailles]

Pain, I hate you! Oh! How I hate you!
Suffering, I hate you, I fear you, I loathe
your insidious surveillance, that shudder that stays
after you, in my flesh, in my heart...

After you, sometimes before you,
I have felt this inexpressible horrible thing:
an invisible animal with tiny teeth
who comes like a mole and fumbles and bites and digs
into my beautiful confident health-- while
the air is blue, the sun calm, the water so cool!

Oh! "The honor of suffering"? ...Suffering with dry lips,
ugly suffering, whatever they say, whatever
your disguise is-- suffering
like a thunderbolt or tenacious or both at the same time--

I see you as a sin, as an offense
against the cheerful sweetness of living, of being healthy
among the shining fruit, the green leaves,
among gardens gesturing through the open windows....

Lively ducks run towards the pools,
pigeons swim over the town, crazy in space.
Swim, run, struggle with the wind that blows,
isn't it my right, then, since life there is 
so simple in appearance-- in appearance!

Must we be these defeated bodies, these weary minds,
because we meet you one day, Suffering,
or believe in that honor of belonging to you
and saying that it is great, perhaps, to suffer?

Great? Who is sure of it and what do I care?
What do I care for the name of the illness,
great or small, if I no longer have in myself, frank and strong,
joy with its clear face? He lies, he lies to himself,
the poet who, to ennoble you, sings of you.... I hate you.

You are cowardly, unfair, criminal, ready for
the worst betrayals! I know
that you will be my tireless enemy
from now on... From now on, since it cannot be
that the tenderest park fragrant with lilac,
the most secret path of weeds or of sand,
will allow me to flee you or forget you!

Dear ignorance in your little pinafore,
barefoot ignorance, bare-armed, bare-headed,
through the seasons, innocent ignorance
whose laugh rang so high. My Ignorance,
from Before, when you were a stranger to me,
what have you done, what have you done with her, old Suffering?

Forgive you for this that changes the world for me?
I hate you too much! I hate you too much for having killed
that little blond girl
whom I see in the depths of a fogged-up mirror...
An Other is there, pale, so different!

I cannot, I cannot get used to
knowing that you stand between us, always there,
a sinister  godmother against whom the young fairies
vainly oppose their powers of rescue!

Once upon a time...
Once upon a time-- poor suffocated voices!
Who will bring them back to life, who will give me back the voice
of that spring, a fairy among all the fairies,
where all ills are curable?

    --Sabine Sicaud (1913-1928) was a French girl who became known for her remarkable poetry at an early age.  Anna de Noailles wrote the preface to a collection of Sabine's poems published when she was thirteen years old. Sabine died of a bone disease at fifteen. According to Robert Sabatier, "she wrote the most beautiful poems there are on suffering and death."

Douleur, je vous déteste ! Ah ! que je vous déteste !
Souffrance, je vous hais, je vous crains, j'ai l'horreur
De votre guet sournois, de ce frisson qui reste
Derrière vous, dans la chair, dans le coeur...

Derrière vous, parfois vous précédant,
J'ai senti cette chose inexprimable, affreuse :
Une bête invisible aux minuscules dents
Qui vient comme la taupe et fouille et mord et creuse
Dans la belle santé confiante - pendant
Que l'air est bleu, le soleil calme, l'eau si fraîche !

Ah ! " l'Honneur de souffrir " ?... Souffrance aux lèvres sèches,
Souffrance laide, quoi qu'on dise, quel que soit
Votre déguisement - Souffrance
Foudroyante ou tenace ou les deux à la fois -

Moi je vous vois comme un péché, comme une offense
A l'allègre douceur de vivre, d'être sain
Parmi des fruits luisants, des feuilles vertes,
Des jardins faisant signe aux fenêtres ouvertes...

De gais canards courent vers les bassins,
Des pigeons nagent sur la ville, fous d'espace.
Nager, courir, lutter avec le vent qui passe,
N'est-ce donc pas mon droit puisque la vie est là
Si simple en apparence... en apparence !

Faut-il être ces corps vaincus, ces esprits las,
Parce qu'on vous rencontre un jour, Souffrance,
Ou croire à cet Honneur de vous appartenir
Et dire qu'il est grand, peut-être, de souffrir ?

Grand ? Qui donc en est sûr et que m'importe !
Que m'importe le nom du mal, grand ou petit,
Si je n'ai plus en moi, candide et forte,
La Joie au clair visage ? Il s'est menti,
Il se ment à lui-même, le poète
Qui, pour vous ennoblir, vous chante... Je vous hais.

Vous êtes lâche, injuste, criminelle, prête
Aux pires trahisons ! Je sais
Que vous serez mon ennemie infatigable
Désormais... Désormais, puisqu'il ne se peut pas
Que le plus tendre parc embaumé de lilas,
Le plus secret chemin d'herbe folle ou de sable,
Permettent de vous fuir ou de vous oublier !

Chère ignorance en petit tablier,
Ignorance aux pieds nus, aux bras nus, tête nue
A travers les saisons, ignorance ingénue
Dont le rire tintait si haut. Mon Ignorance,
Celle d'Avant, quand vous m'étiez une inconnue,
Qu'en a-t-on fait, qu'en faites-vous, vieille Souffrance ?

Vous pardonner cela qui me change le monde ?
Je vous hais trop ! Je vous hais trop d'avoir tué
Cette petite fille blonde
Que je vois comme au fond d'un miroir embué...
Une Autre est là, pâle, si différente !

Je ne peux pas, je ne veux pas m'habituer
A vous savoir entre nous deux, toujours présente,
Sinistre Carabosse à qui les jeunes fées
Opposent vainement des Pouvoirs secourables !

Il était une fois...
Il était une fois - pauvres voix étouffées !
Qui les ranimera, qui me rendra la voix
De cette Source, fée entre toutes les fées,
Où tous les maux sont guérissables ?

["The honor of suffering"; a book published in 1927 by Anna de Noailles]

Mary Queen of Scots: What use is my life?

What am I, alas! And what use is my life?
I am nothing but a body bereft of a heart,
a vain shadow, an object of bad luck,
who wants nothing more than to die.

Don't be envious, O enemies,
of one who has no more taste for grandeur.
I have consumed excessive grief;
in short, your wrath will be sated.

And you, friends, who held me dear,
remember that without fortune, without health,
I cannot do any good work.

Wish then for the end of my calamity
and that, having been punished enough on this earth,
I may have my part in the infinite joy.

      --Mary Queen of Scots (1542-1587). Her mother was French and she grew up at the French court. If you know the source of this poem, please let me know.

Que suis-je, hélas ! et de quoi sert ma vie ?
Je ne suis fors qu'un corps privé de coeur,
Une ombre vaine, un objet de malheur,
Qui n'a plus rien que de mourir envie.

Plus ne portez, ô ennemis, d'envie
A qui n'a plus l'esprit à la grandeur,
Ja consommé d'excessive douleur.
Votre ire en bref se verra assouvie.

Et vous, amis, qui m'avez tenue chère,
Souvenez-vous que sans heur, sans santé,
Je ne saurais aucun bon oeuvre faire.

Souhaitez donc fin de calamité
Et que ci-bas, étant assez punie,
J'aye ma part en la joie infinie.

Countess Marion Dönhoff finds out she must flee from East Prussia

In the evening-- it was already dark-- I made a phone call once again from the road to the local district leadership in Prussian Holland [a town], which at that time had to give permission for every train trip. I asked if I could buy a train ticket, since early the next morning at six I wanted to go to Königsberg*, to take care of some problems at Friedrichstein**, the second property I had to take care of. For several seconds the voice at the other end was silent, then I heard the words, "Ja, don't you even know that the entire district has to be evacuated before midnight?"

"I had no idea," I answered without surprise, and yet I was surprised. "Where are the Russians?"

"No idea," he answered.

"Ja, and how are we supposed to leave, and where are we supposed to go?"

The voice, which up till then had never tired of reaffirming that the officials would take care of everything, that there was no need for unrest, answered this question: "We don't care at all-- by land, by water or through the air...."

       --Marion Hedda Ilse Dönhoff (1909-2002) was an East Prussian aristocrat of anti-Nazi sympathies. She had to flee the advancing, vengeful Russian army with millions of other German refugees in the middle of January, 1945, in subzero temperatures. Although, unlike many Prussians, she had known the moment would come, it came more suddenly than expected, and was announced in this manner. Up until the very day of departure, the Nazi authorities in beleaguered East Prussia had forbidden anyone, even children, to be sent west to safety. From Dönhoff's book Namen die Keiner Mehr Nennt [Names No Longer Named] (1961, 2004).

* Now Kaliningrad, Russia

** Now Kamenka, Russia

Gegen Abend, es war schon dunkel, rief ich von unterwegs noch einmal die Kreisleitung in Preußisch Holland an, die zu jener Zeit jede Eisenbahnfahrt genehmigen mußte. Ich bat darum, mir eine Fahrkarte auszustellen, da ich am nächsten Morgen früh um sechs Uhr nach Königsberg fahren wolle, um in Friedrichstein, dem zweiten Besitz, für den ich mit zu sorgen hatte, nach dem Rechten zu sehen. Sekundenlang schwieg die Stimme auf der anderen Seite, dann hörte ich die Worte: "Ja, wissen Sie denn gar nicht, daß der Kreis bis Mitternacht geräumt sein muß?"

"Keine Ahnung," antwortete ich ohne Überraschung und doch auch wieder überrascht, "wo sind denn die Russen?"

"Keine Ahnung," antwortete er.

"Ja, und auf welche Weise, und wohin sollen wir?"

Auf diese Frage antwortete die Stimme, die bisher nie müde geworden war zu beteuern, die Behörden sorgten für alles, es gäbe daher keine Grund zur Beunruhigung: "Das ist uns ganz egal, zu Lande, zu Wasser oder durch die Luft..."