Enfin.

[montagnarde1793]

I finally finished the paper I just spent the past eight hours writing.
And thus, I bring you randomness, courtesy of Saint-Just:

Okay, so I was flipping through Saint-Just's Oeuvres completes (yes, I managed to insert a quote by Saint-Just into a paper on modern Africa) and found this very short and random "letter to one of his sisters":

Lille, 20 Pluviose [8 February 1794]

My dear sister,

What you ask of me is contrary to you; it is impossible for me to accord it to you. I embrace you with all my heart.

Okay, now I'm curious. Anybody have any theories as to what Saint-Just's sister could have been asking him at that date? Naturally, we're not going to find out the answer, but there's no harm in speculating, is there?

Oh, and a dialogue also written by Saint-Just concerning Organt (which I am too tired to translate at the moment):

M. D. : Monsieur est l'auteur du poème d'Organt ?
L'Auteur : Oui.
M. D. : Vous êtes bien corrompu pour votre âge.
L'Auteur : Et bien sage, peut-être.
M. D. : Que vous ont déjà fait les hommes pour allumer chez vous ce fiel satirique ?
L'Auteur : Je voulais leur plaire.
M. D. : Pourquoi ces malignes allusions ?
L'Auteur : J'ai travaillé d'après des hommes, tant mieux si j'ai attrapé la ressemblance.
M. D.: Vous sapez les rois !
L'Auteur : J'aime les rois, je hais les tyrans.
M. D. : Vous foulez aux pieds les établissements les plus sacrés !
L'Auteur : Ces établissements sont déchus, ils ne sont plus sacrés mais vils.
M. D. : Votre Charlemagne est le roi; votre Cunégonde est la reine.
L'Auteur : C'est vous qui l'avez dit.
M. D. : Votre singe Étienne Péronne est le chevalier Dubois.
L'Auteur : Respectez mon singe.
M. D. : Votre Pépin est le comte d'A... Il acheta, il y a quelques années, un cheval 1 700 louis. Ce cheval s'appelait Pépin et...
L'Auteur : Que Pépin s'appelle cheval !
M. D. : Vous avez honni les états généraux. Ne craignez-vous pas ?...
L'Auteur : Je ne crains rien de rien.
M. D. : Quelle horrible impiété règne dans votre livre !
L'Auteur : Priez pour moi.
M. D. : Quel portrait d'une reine !
L'Auteur : Quel original !
M. D. : Quelle diatribe contre le Parlement, le théâtre, et l'Académie !
L'Auteur : Quelle diatribe contre le bon sens que ces trois corps !
M. D. : Quelle peinture horrible de ?... et de la Trinité.
L'Auteur : Vous riez !
M. D. : Ne craignez-vous pas maître Antoine, dont vous avez honni le cochon et le cochon n'est-il point maître Antoine ?
L'Auteur : Apparemment.
M. D. : On vous rôtira.
L'Auteur : Je m'en fous.

It always cracks me up for some reason.

Comments

[estellacat.livejournal.com]

*feels bad for having gotten it immediately, and quite by chance*

It does seem a distinct possibility, but why would that seem "contrary" to her?

[daughtermestizo.livejournal.com]

*shakes fist at you*

Er, because she would get a husband? And Saint-Just wanted a husband, but she was telling him to get a wife?

[estellacat.livejournal.com]

*wails* I'm sorry!

There's something in that logic I'm not quite getting...

[daughtermestizo.livejournal.com]

Well, how did he mean "contrary to you"?

[estellacat.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure; he just says, "ce que tu me demandes est contraire a toi; il m'est impossible de te l'accorder."

[daughtermestizo.livejournal.com]

See....yeah...that's confusing. Maybe Antoine secretly had a bad grammar problem.

[estellacat.livejournal.com]

I'm sure she understood what he was talking about. Still, that's not particularly useful, is it?

[daughtermestizo.livejournal.com]

I was going to say that, actually. Curses! If only we could find the original letter!

[estellacat.livejournal.com]

Well assuming it wasn't completely illegible, I doubt how that would help...

[daughtermestizo.livejournal.com]

Sorry, my comment wasn't very clear. *facepalm* I meant his sister's letter.

[estellacat.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes. That would be helpful. It might be around some place...

[daughtermestizo.livejournal.com]

Do you think he kept it?

[estellacat.livejournal.com]

We'd have to know his general letter-keeping habits to figure that out.

[daughtermestizo.livejournal.com]

Hell. Though, speaking of which, what were Maxime's general letter-keeping habits?

[estellacat.livejournal.com]

If I recall, I think he was supposed to have filed them all and kept them for... a really long time.

[daughtermestizo.livejournal.com]

Hee hee! *pictures Maxime with Rolodex*

[estellacat.livejournal.com]

*cracks up* Not. that. kind. of. filing.

[daughtermestizo.livejournal.com]

*stifles laughter* I know, I know...

[estellacat.livejournal.com]

I think someone said he used to keep those love letters random women wrote to him under his mattress XD.

[daughtermestizo.livejournal.com]

Radnom women as in Saint-Just? I mean, that must've gotten to be a pretty big pile after a while.

[estellacat.livejournal.com]

I mean of the more traditional sort. *sporfle* From what I hear, you're probably right...

[daughtermestizo.livejournal.com]

I can see his mattress teetering precariously on top of a pile of letters, with Eléonore just sort of frowning at it.

[estellacat.livejournal.com]

I think she takes some of them and burns them when he's not looking, every now and then, so the mattress will lay flat.

[pakaboori.livejournal.com]

Hi, just passing by from daughtermestizo's journal. You may already have thought of this, but to me it seemed that he was saying "What you ask of me is not characteristic of you; I cannot accept that it is coming from you." Something along those lines -- translating the sense of the words a bit roughly? Or at least how I understood them. Maybe she did something shameful and wanted him to ignore her -- proposing some kind of estrangement. Maybe, on the other hand, because of something he did.

Interesting fragment though. Is there really no way of finding out what it was about?

[estellacat.livejournal.com]

Hello! It's possible you're right about that, but I doubt, in answer to your last question, that there's any way of knowing.
...Unless the archives have something on it, that is.