Paris Slandered in Berlin

by Brett Rutherford

     Adapted from Victor Hugo, l'Annee Terrible, "November 1870, II"

The sinister night is scandalized by dawn,
and the sight of one Athenian
     seems an affront to Vandals.    

Paris, at the same time as one swindles you,
another would like to ambush you
     while calling it a polite arrest;

The pedant helps the ruffian soldier;
     they pull a fast one,
     dishonoring the heroic city

raining down insults with the shells
of their bombardment.
Here the thug kills with knife and sword,
and there the rhetorician with pen and press
utters his lies multiplied by an Academy.[1]

Paris is denounced in the name of morals,
     in the name of their cult,
to ease the way to slit your throat —
     that is why they insult you.
Slander progresses to assassination.

O city, whose people
     are as expansive as any senate,
fight, draw the sword, O city of light
who founded the workshop,
     who defended the cottage —
turn eyes and ears away,
    oh proud chief town of men all equal,
from this awful pile of bigots who howl around you,
black redeemers of altar and throne, hypocrites
who always prohibit clarity,
who stand watch around all gods
     against the reproach of free spirits,
and whose slanders we hear in history,
     at Rome, at Thebes,
     Delphi, Memphis, and Mycenae,
like the distant barking of obscene dogs.

 

---

[1] In January 1871, Emil Du Bois Reymond (1818-1896), noted physiology professor and cultural critic, later secretary of the Berlin Academy of Sciences, delivered a speech denouncing Paris and its manners and morals. He later regretted and apologized for his divisive opinions.