Thursday, June 27, 2013

Quoting Camus

Albert Camus was the great French existentialist, and the most important writer in the modern age in French, and maybe any language. He, himself, was not interested in death memorials. He is very quotable, and people may pick up a sentence of his without knowing it was from him.

O light! This is the cry of all the characters of ancient drama brought face to face with their fate. This last resort was ours, too, and I knew it now. In the middle of winter I at last discovered that there was in me an invincible summer.  — Return to Tipasa (1952)

« Au milieu de l'hiver j'ai découvert en moi un invincible été. »

translation found in 1960s English anthologies:
In the depths of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.