Germinal

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« C’était la vision rouge de la révolution qui les emporterait tous, fatalement, par une soirée sanglante de cette fin de siècle. Oui, un soir, le peuple lâché, débridé, galoperait ainsi sur les chemins ; et il ruissellerait du sang des bourgeois. Il promènerait des têtes, il sèmerait l’or des coffres éventrés. Les femmes hurleraient, les hommes auraient ces mâchoires de loups, ouvertes pour mordre. Oui, ce seraient les mêmes guenilles, le même tonnerre de gros sabots, la même cohue effroyable, de peau sale, d’haleine empestée, balayant le vieux monde, sous leur poussée débordante de barbares. Des incendies flamberaient, on ne laisserait pas debout une pierre des villes, on retournerait à la vie sauvage dans les bois, après le grand rut, la grande ripaille, où les pauvres, en une nuit, efflanqueraient les femmes et videraient les caves des riches. Il n’y aurait plus rien, plus un sou des fortunes, plus un titre des situations acquises, jusqu’au jour où une nouvelle terre repousserait peut-être. Oui, c’étaient ces choses qui passaient sur la route, comme une force de la nature, et ils en recevaient le vent terrible au visage. »

…..

“It was the red vision of the revolution, which would one day inevitably carry them all away, on some bloody evening at the end of the century. Yes, some evening the people, unbridled at last, would thus gallop along the roads, making the blood of the middle class flow, parading severed heads and sprinkling gold from disembowelled coffers. The women would yell, the men would have those wolf-like jaws open to bite. Yes, the same rags, the same thunder of great sabots, the same terrible troop, with dirty skins and tainted breath, sweeping away the old world beneath an overflowing flood of barbarians. Fires would flame; they would not leave standing one stone of the towns; they would return to the savage life of the woods, after the great rut, the great feast-day, when the poor in one night would emaciate the wives and empty the cellars of the rich. There would be nothing left, not a sou of the great fortunes, not a title-deed of properties acquired; until the day dawned when a new earth would perhaps spring up once more. Yes, it was these things which were passing along the road; it was the force of nature herself, and they were receiving the terrible wind of it in their faces.”

…..

“Era a visão vermelha da revolução que arrastaria a todos, fatalmente, numa dessas noites sangrentas desse fim de século. Sim, uma noite, o povo em torrentes, desenfreado, correria assim pelos caminhos, gotejando o sangue burguês, exibindo cabeças, semeando o ouro dos cofres arrombados. As mulheres gritariam, os homens abririam suas queixadas de lobos, prontos para morderem. Sim, seriam os mesmos farrapos, o mesmo matraquear de tamancos grosseiros, a mesma turba assustadora, suja, de hálito fétido, varrendo o mundo caduco com a sua irresistível avalanche de bárbaros. Arderiam incêndios, nas cidades não ficaria pedra sobre pedra, regredir-se-ia à vida selvagem das florestas após o grande cio, o grande rega-bofe, em que os pobres, numa só noite, extenuariam as mulheres e esvaziariam as adegas dos ricos. Não sobraria nada, as fortunas e os títulos das situações adquiridas desapareceriam, até o dia em que talvez desabrochasse uma nova sociedade. Sim, eram essas coisas que estavam passando pela estrada, como uma força da natureza, e vinha delas o vento terrível que lhes açoitava os rostos.”

Émile Zola – “Germinal” (1885)

 

 

Lisboa, Portugal, 1980

 

(but it could be

yesterday,

or today,

or tomorrow,

or the day after...)

 

 

 

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