Page 1662 - les-miserables

CHAPTER II

ROOTS

Slang is the tongue of those who sit in darkness.
Thought is moved in its most sombre depths, social phi-
losophy is bidden to its most poignant meditations, in the
presence of that enigmatic dialect at once so blighted and
rebellious. Therein lies chastisement made visible. Every
syllable has an air of being marked. The words of the vul-
gar tongue appear therein wrinkled and shrivelled, as it
were, beneath the hot iron of the executioner. Some seem
to be still smoking. Such and such a phrase produces upon
you the effect of the shoulder of a thief branded with the
fleur-de-lys, which has suddenly been laid bare. Ideas al-
most refuse to be expressed in these substantives which are
fugitives from justice. Metaphor is sometimes so shameless,
that one feels that it has worn the iron neck-fetter.
Moreover, in spite of all this, and because of all this, this
strange dialect has by rights, its own compartment in that
great impartial case of pigeon-holes where there is room for
the rusty farthing as well as for the gold medal, and which
is called literature. Slang, whether the public admit the fact
or not has its syntax and its poetry. It is a language. Yes, by

1662 Les Miserables