NOTE: All notes have been supplied by the translator.
1. The French word chronique means both “chronicle” (noun) and “chronic” (adjective) in English. Thus, chronique philosophique means “philosophical chronicle” and maladie chronique means “chronic illness.”
2. The connections among this series of words, all of which begin with auto (“self”), including automobile, are more apparent in French than in English.
3. “In the Homeric works, Moira is the personification of Destiny, the power that determines the fate of man from the time of his birth. It imposes itself even on the gods and above all, Zeus; sometimes it appears identical to their will and one thinks that they can transgress it.” La Grande Encyclopédie, vol. 23, s.v. “Moira.”
4. In French, the word politique is used both as an adjective (“political”) and as a substantive (“politics”). The meaning of the word as substantive also changes according to whether it is feminine (la politique ) or masculine (le politique ). La politique can mean either “politics” as an activity or “policy,” while le politique refers to the domain of politics, as opposed, for example, to that of social welfare (Harrap’s Unabridged French-English Dictionary ).
5. Paul Verlaine, Sagesse (Wisdom ), bk. 1, poem 8; this is the first line.
6. The reference is to Abbas Kiarostami’s film titled La vie continue in French and Life and Nothing More in English.
7. The quote is the last line of the poem entitled “Zone.”