Английская Википедия:Après moi, le déluge
Шаблон:Short description Шаблон:Use British English Шаблон:Use dmy dates Шаблон:For Шаблон:Nihilism Шаблон:Italics title "Шаблон:Lang" (Шаблон:IPA-fr; Шаблон:Lit) is a French expression attributed to King Louis XV of France, or in the form "Шаблон:Lang" (Шаблон:IPA-fr; Шаблон:Lit) to Madame de Pompadour, his favourite.[1] It is generally regarded as a nihilistic expression of indifference to whatever happens after one is gone,[2] although it may also express a more literal forecasting of ruination.Шаблон:Sfn Its meaning is translated by Brewer in the forms "When I am dead the deluge may come for aught I care", and "Ruin, if you like, when we are dead and gone."Шаблон:Sfn
The phrase itself is in reference to the biblical floodШаблон:Sfn and is believed to date from after the 1757 Battle of Rossbach, which was disastrous for the French.Шаблон:Sfn One account says that Louis XV's downcast expression while he was posing for the artist Maurice Quentin de La Tour inspired Madame de Pompadour to say: Шаблон:Lang[3]Шаблон:Notetag Another account states that the Madame used the expression to laugh off ministerial objections to her extravagances.Шаблон:Sfn The phrase is also often seen as foretelling the French Revolution and the corresponding ruin brought to France.Шаблон:Sfn
The remark is usually taken out of its original context. It was made in 1757, a year which saw the crushing defeat of the French army by the Prussians at the Battle of Rossbach and the assassination attempt on the King. The "Deluge" the King referred to was not a revolution, but the arrival of Halley's Comet, which was predicted to pass by the earth in 1757, and which was commonly blamed for having caused the Genesis flood, with predictions of a new deluge when it returned. The King was a proficient amateur astronomer, who collaborated with the best French astronomers. Biographer Michel Antoine wrote that the King's remark "was a manner of evoking, with his scientific culture and a good dose of black humor, this sinister year beginning with the assassination attempt by Damiens and ending with the Prussian victory". Halley's Comet finally passed the earth in April 1759, and caused enormous public attention and anxiety, but no floods.[4]
Karl Marx and Fyodor Dostoevsky apply the phrase in their writings to describe the selfishness and apathy of certain corrupting values.
A phrase of similar meaning is attributed to the Arabic poet Abu Firas al-Hamdani who died in 968 AD. the phrase in the original text is "إذا مِتُّ ظمآنًا فلا نزلَ القطرُ". It roughly translates to: "If I died thirsty, it wouldn't matter for me if it rains ever again".[5]
Usage
Karl Marx wrote in Das Kapital (Vol. 1, Part III, Chapter Ten, Section 5) "Шаблон:Lang" is the watchword of every capitalist and of every capitalist nation. Hence Capital is reckless of the health or length of life of the labourer, unless under compulsion from society."[6]
During the trial of Dimitri Fyodorovich Karamazov in The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoyevsky, the prosecution uses the expression to describe the attitude of the defendant's reprobate father and to lament the deterioration of Russian values more generally. He previously used it in The Idiot, as an epigraph for an article written by one of the characters of the novel.
In his writings of the 1920s, D. H. Lawrence uses the expression a number of times, calling it "the tacit utterance of every man", in his "crisis" of unbearable "loneliness ... surrounded by nullity".[7] But "you mustn't expect it to wait for your convenience," he warns the dissolute "younger generation";[8] "the real deluge lies just ahead of us".[9]
"Шаблон:Lang" was adopted as the motto of the Royal Air Force 617 Squadron, which carried out the "Dambuster" raids on German dams in the Ruhr region on the night of 16–17 May 1943.
Kurt Vonnegut used "Шаблон:Lang" in his novel Player Piano (1952) when the main character Paul talks to Doctor Pond.
Russian-American singer and songwriter Regina Spektor included "Шаблон:Lang" in the chorus of her song "Après Moi" from her album Begin to Hope. The song was later covered by Peter Gabriel.
See also
Notes
References
Sources
- Шаблон:Cite dictionary
- Шаблон:Cite dictionary
- Шаблон:Cite bookШаблон:Self-published source
- Шаблон:Cite book
- Шаблон:Cite book
- Шаблон:Cite dictionary
- Шаблон:Cite web
- ↑ Шаблон:Harvnb; Шаблон:Harvnb.
- ↑ Шаблон:Harvnb; Шаблон:Harvnb
- ↑ Шаблон:Harvnb
- ↑ Antoine (1989) pages 740–41
- ↑ Шаблон:Cite web
- ↑ Das Kapital, Chapter 10
- ↑ "The Crown", IV (1925) in Reflections on the Death of a Porcupine and Other Essays (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988), p280.
- ↑ "Latter-Day sinners" from Pansies (1928) in Poems, Volume 1 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013), p461.
- ↑ "The Memoires of Duc de Lauzun", Version 1 (1926) in Introductions and Reviews (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), p91. Lawrence also uses the phrase in "Whitman" (1923), calling it "the soul's last shout and shriek, on the confines of death", Studies in Classic American Literature (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), p155.
