qui n’a voulu le tout que pour manquer de tout

20:19 May 26, 2010 

Actually, yes—while in my kudoz question I translated "l'être-trapéziste" as "the trapeze artist-being" for clarity (because there's not much context), I actually have it as "the being-a-trapeze-artist." Sort of like Heidegger's "being-in-the-world." For the rest of the article I have "the trapeze-artist-being."

22:09 May 25, 2010 

I'm also puzzling over that last sentence; I can't help thinking it needs to be interpreted as: "only wanted everything in order to lack everything" — i.e. with an element of purpose there? It seems to me (vaguely, through a very dense fog...) as if the writer is saying that this person was a born 'lacker', and their only reason for wanting everything was so that they could then lack it all...

I'd rather stick to nuts and bolts, meself...

22:05 May 25, 2010 

I just wanted to chip in to suggest that « l'être » might of course also mean 'the state of being', i.e. perhaps 'existence', as well as referring to an actual 'being'. Not having read the rest of your document (and being baffled by the philosophy anyway!), I wouldn't like to say for sure... but it might be worth bearing in mind, and could possibly help to make (some!) sense of that sybilline first sentence.