This week the Pittsburgh Review of Books will be publishing an experiment in collective translation featuring a French-language original literary text, its translation as rendered by students in Carnegie Mellon University Teaching Professor Sébastien Dubreil’s course “L’apprenant comme locuteur/acteur” or “The Learner as Speaker/Social Actor.” Part 2 is below.
Salomé Saqué – Résister (Conclusion)
Introduction to Salomé Saqué and her book
By Sébastien Dubreil
Salomé Saqué has imposed herself on the French journalistic scene by the high quality of her investigative work, the depth of her reporting, and the pertinence of her analyses, which she distills in a clear, direct, documented, and far-reaching prose. Having earned degrees in Political Science and English, and a Master’s Degree in International Law, Salomé Saqué studied abroad in Spain before starting her career as a journalist interested in economical issues. In 2021, she joined the independent online media Blast where she continues her work on the economy and increasingly started to focus on issues pertaining to global climate change, feminism, and social justice, as circumstances demanded it. In addition to having become one of the most recognizable voices in today’s French media landscape (contributing to numerous journalistic venues in print, radio, TV), Salomé Saqué has published two books books: Sois jeune et tais-toi: Réponse à ceux qui critiquent la jeunesse (‘Be young and shut up’ — 2023, Éditions Payot) accounts for the complex predicament of today’s youth facing economic and ecological turmoil while often being ignored or discounted. In 2024, she published Résister (‘Resist’ — Éditions Payot), in which she documents and analyzes the rise of the far right and calls for a resistance, leading to death threats from the far right. Having sold more than 400,000 copies, the book was expanded and republished in late 2025. In 2026, Salomé Saqué was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Leuven (Belgium), which noted that “she exposes the mechanisms underlying socio-economic inequalities” and “makes visible certain forms of suffering that are not given a voice.”
Original text in French
Réveillons-nous
Étonner la catastrophe par le peu de peur qu’elle nous fait, tantôt affronter la puissance injuste, tantôt insulter la victoire ivre, tenir bon, tenir tête ; voilà l’exemple dont les peuples ont besoin, et la lumière qui les électrise.
VICTOR HUGO
Ce que j’ai voulu montrer dans ce livre, c’est qu’on ne revient pas indemne d’un tel changement de paradigme. S’il est impossible de prédire exactement ce que ferait l’extrême droite à la tête du pays, il est certain que nous basculerons dans une incertitude où il est permis d’envisager le pire. Dans tous les pays où ce courant politique a gouverné, il a profondément et durablement déstabilisé la démocratie, à des échelles plus ou moins importantes. Comme bon nombre d’historiens, de chercheurs en sciences sociales ou politiques et de journalistes avant moi, mes recherches m’ont menée à une conviction solide : on ne joue pas avec l’extrême droite ; on ne « l’essaie » pas par curiosité ou par dépit ; on la combat, partout, tout le temps, au nom d’un idéal : la démocratie. Sacrifier les valeurs de tolérance et de respect sur l’autel de la peur serait trahir cet héritage précieux.
« Faire barrage » à chaque élection en votant pour des candidats qui participent eux-mêmes à la banalisation et à la montée en puissance de l’extrême droite n’est pas une manière durable de faire société. Ce cercle mortifère ne fait que retarder et consolider la victoire de cette idéologie et de ses partisans qui nous est présentée comme inévitable. Alors qu’elle n’est pas une fatalité, à condition de casser résolument cette dynamique. Si je prends le risque de me positionner ainsi, c’est parce que je suis intimement convaincue que cette rupture est possible.
Mais le laps de temps qu’il nous reste est très court. Dans ce contexte d’urgence, chaque acte, chaque discussion, chaque publication, chaque partage, chaque rencontre comptent. La malinformation n’est pas inéluctable, et cela vaut pour tous les territoires et toutes les classes sociales. La vérité, partagée et vécue, est notre meilleure alliée. L’isolement n’est pas inéluctable non plus, à condition de se rassembler, de retrouver les liens que nous avons oubliés, et à condition de ne pas attendre la période électorale pour se réveiller. J’ai l’audace de croire que cet élan n’est ni naïf ni utopiste. L’irréalisme est plutôt du côté de ceux qui, par désespoir ou par cynisme, abandonnent toute boussole morale, laissent place à la violence et l’intolérance en pensant que cela pourrait améliorer nos vies.
Dans ces lignes, j’ai compilé tout ce qui me semblait utile notamment en matière d’information puisque c’est mon métier, mais il reste tant d’autres domaines à investir, et tant de résistances à créer. Ce livre a l’ambition d’être une petite pierre au pied d’un immense édifice de résistances plurielles, qu’il nous faut consolider et inventer. Il ne prétend par toutes les recenser, ni établir une hiérarchie entre elles ; simplement inciter au mouvement, et vite.
Nous sortons d’une longue période ou la démocratie semblait installée, indéboulonnable. Nous avons aujourd’hui conscience qu’elle peut vaciller à tout moment. Elle a besoin que les citoyens soient derrière elle pour continuer à exister. Et les citoyens, c’est nous. Nous avons le pouvoir de la protéger, de la rendre plus robuste, plus vivante. Nous sommes la démocratie.
Imaginez une conversation avec les générations futures. Que leur dirons-nous? Aurons-nous été à la hauteur du défi qui est le nôtre aujourd’hui? Aurons-nous préservé cette flamme fragile qu’est la démocratie pour pouvoir la leur transmettre, plus vive encore?
Je fais aujourd’hui le pari que oui. Car ensemble, nous aurons su résister.
Collective Translation by Ellie Karthaus, Thomas O’Brien, Anna Shi, and Rene Xu
Wake Up
To astonish the disaster with how little we fear it, at times confronting unjust power, at times insulting intoxicated victory, to hold steady, to hold your ground; this is the example the people need, and the light that electrifies them.
VICTOR HUGO
What I wanted to show in this book is that we won’t return unscathed from such a paradigm shift. If it is impossible to predict exactly what the far right would do at the head of the country, there is no doubt that we are tipping into an uncertainty where it is possible to envision the worst. In all the countries where this political current has governed, it has profoundly and indelibly destabilized democracy, to substantial scales. Like a great number of historians, social and political scientists, and journalists before me, my research has led me to a strong conviction: one does not play with the far right; one does not “try it on” out of curiosity or spite; one fights it, everywhere, all the time, in the name of one ideal: democracy. To sacrifice the values of tolerance and respect on the altar of fear would be to betray this precious legacy.
To “obstruct” every election by voting for candidates who themselves participate in the normalization of the far right and its rise to power is not a sustainable means of building society. This deadly cycle only slows and consolidates the victory of this ideology and its partisans that is presented to us as inevitable. While this ideology is not a death sentence, on the condition that this dynamic be decidedly broken. If I take the risk to position myself thus it is because I am intimately convinced that this rupture is possible.
But the time that remains is very short. In this urgent context, every act, every discussion, every publication, every sharing, every meeting counts. Misinformation is not inevitable, and this applies for all territories and social classes. The truth, shared and lived, is our best ally. Isolation is not unavoidable either, as long as we assemble, rediscover the ties that we have forgotten, and as long as we do not wait until election time to wake up. I have the audacity to believe that this impulse is neither naive nor utopian. Delusion is rather on the side of those who, out of hopelessness or cynicism, abandon all moral compass, give way to violence and intolerance thinking it could improve our lives.
Within these pages, I have compiled everything that seems useful, specifically in regards to information since it is my discipline, but there remains so many other areas to explore, and so many resistances to create. This book has the ambition of being a small stone at the foot of an immense edifice of pluralistic resistance, which we must consolidate and invent. It does not claim to name them all nor to establish a hierarchy between them; simply to incite movement, and quickly.
We are leaving an age where Democracy seemed settled, unshakeable. Today, we are aware that she can falter at any moment. She needs the citizens to be behind her to continue to exist. And we are the citizens. We have the power to protect her, to make her more robust, more alive. We are democracy.
Imagine a conversation with future generations. What will we tell them? Will we have risen to the challenge that faces us today? Will we have preserved this fragile flame that is democracy to pass on to them, yet still alive?
I wager today that we will. Because together, we will have known to resist.
Essay by Ellie Karthaus, Thomas O’Brien, Anna Shi, and Rene Xu
We started our translation efforts focused on the Victor Hugo quote featured at the beginning of the passage. This presented a different challenge compared to the rest of the translation of the essay. In translating this quote we were able to find countless different translations of Victor Hugo’s works, and while this provided guidance on areas of discord, it also further complicated the task by adding countless interpretations of the quote. These discrepancies were ultimately settled through unanimous agreement on overall phrasing.
The main difficulties in translating this text arose when faced with specific expressions and turns of phrases that are common in French but do not have a direct English translation that makes logical sense. As such, we spent the most time discussing word choice and verbiage that protect the integrity of the original writing. For example, “il est permis” directly translates to “it is allowed.” In the context of both the French language and the text, a more appropriate translation is to say that it is “possible.” This flexibility, however, opens up many possibilities for how it can be interpreted as a translator. As a result, we had more discussions around these small phrases of less consequence in the writing as a whole, as opposed to arguments of the text that we mostly agreed on without issue.
Additionally, some of the smaller consistent choices we made throughout also served to better establish the political context for English readers (e.g. far right being a more common term than extreme right, though the latter is more of a literal translation from the French l’extrême droite). These choices served as a form of cultural mediation as while the far right is ultimately built upon the same ideals and values everywhere, in order to survive it must adapt to the cultures in which it arises and thus manifests in different ways for different countries, communities, languages.
One stylistic choice we made was to personify democracy in the third last paragraph. While democracy is feminine in French, like most common nouns, it doesn’t have a gender in English. However, we noticed that the imagery of the people coming together to defend democracy felt more powerful when we referred to her as a woman. In French, Marianne is an icon of democratic ideals; in the United States, we have Lady Liberty. Therefore, we decided to refer to democracy with feminine pronouns for that paragraph. This personification applied only to that one paragraph, which begins with the capitalization of Democracy in the first sentence to introduce her as a proper noun. Although democracy comes up a few more times before and after that paragraph, we keep it a common noun in those instances.
