Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts
Jean-Paul Sartre
From The Devil and the Good Lord (1951)
Translated by Kitty Black
ARCHBISHOP: No, no! No details! Especially, no details. A victory described in detail is indistinguishable from a defeat…
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THE WOMAN: Nasti! Nasti, the baker!
NASTI: What do you want?
THE WOMAN: Baker, my child is dead. You must be able to say why, you who know everything.
NASTI: Yes – I know.
HEINRICH: Nasti, I implore you, say nothing. Woe to those through whom evil comes to pass.
NASTI: He died because the rich burghers of our city revolted against the Archbishop, their very rich overlord. When the rich fight the rich, it is the poor who die.
THE WOMAN: Was it God’s will that they should wage this war?
NASTI: God has forbidden them to wage it.
THE WOMAN: This man says nothing happens except by the will of God.
NASTI: Nothing, except evil, which is born of the wickedness of man.
HEINRICH: Baker, you lie. You are confusing the false and the true in order to betray the souls of men.
NASTI: Dare you assert that God permits this mourning and this useless suffering? I say that God is innocent of our sins.
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