That is, if it is genuinely attributed. The online French archive Gallica can't find any instances of some of the key phrases in it, in any of their works, let alone in their various editions of Choses Vues.....

<i>That is, if it is genuinely attributed.</i>

I inquired, as I could not find it by skimming the year 1848 in <u>Chose vues</u> in an on-line edition, and this is the answer I received:


Oui, dans l'edition, de Hubert Juin de "Choses vues" Folio Classique n° 2944 volume 1, 1830-1848, page 662.

French major, reporting for duty - if anyone is still interested.
Fairly loose translation, don't bother taking out your red pencils...

Yes, let's go forward into 2016 - with these wishes...

You are upset, worried, frightened.
Feeling your way carefully on tiptoes.
You feel as if you are engulfed in darkness.
You can see nothing in front you, no future,
And - alas - you don't even understand what this darkness means.
You ask yourself, with a mounting sense of terror,
If it is you who have become blind,
Or if the whole world has lost its Sun, and has become meaningless.
What a horrible question.
Everyone asks it.
Nobody has the answer.

"Things I've seen", Victor Hugo, March 1848

Some would say that these wishes are suitable for the times, both Hugo's and our own.

Thanks, Fuzzbucket.

Thanks fuzzbucket, Happy New Year to you and thanks, very kind of you.