Après moi, le déluge
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"Après moi, le déluge" (pronounced
The phrase itself is in reference to the
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
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".[9]
Usage
Karl Marx wrote in Das Kapital (Vol. 1, Part III, Chapter Ten, Section 5) "Après moi, le déluge!" 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."[10]
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".[11] But "you mustn't expect it to wait for your convenience," he warns the dissolute "younger generation";[12] "the real deluge lies just ahead of us".[13]
"Après moi le déluge" 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 "Après moi le déluge" in his novel Player Piano (1952) when the main character Paul talks to Doctor Pond.
See also
Notes
- ^ transl. "There is no need to grieve; you'll make yourself ill. After us, the deluge."
References
- ^ Mould 2011, p. 43; Lexico.
- ^ Nishitani 1990; Lexico
- ^ a b Brewer 1898.
- ^ Ammer 2013.
- ^ Mould 2011, p. 43.
- ^ Mould 2011, p. 43
- ^ Farlex.
- ^ Antoine (1989) pages 740–41
- ^ "صحيفة عمون : إذا مِتُّ ظمآنًا فلا نزلَ القطرُ". وكالة عمون الاخبارية. Retrieved 2 August 2023.
- ^ 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.
Sources
- Ammer, Christine (2013). "Après moi le déluge". The Dictionary of Clichés: A Word Lover's Guide to 4,000 Overused Phrases and Almost-Pleasing Platitudes. Dictionary of Clichés. New York: Skyhorse Publishing. ISBN 978-16263-6011-2.
- Brewer, Ebenezer Cobham (1898). "Del'uge". Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. p. 342. Retrieved 5 February 2024 – via Internet Archive.
- Mould, Michael (2011). The Routledge Dictionary of Cultural References in Modern French. Routledge. p. 43. ISBN 978-0-203-83092-5.
- ISBN 0791404382.
- "Apres moi le deluge". Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. Farlex. 2015. Retrieved 15 December 2020.
- "Après nous le déluge". Lexico. Oxford. Archived from the original on 22 September 2020. Retrieved 17 October 2020.