This excerpt is clumsily translated by me from pages 85-86.

I so often hide the truth that I never come to tell you more than a half-word. I have forgotten the art of decisiveness. But I really must deliver a blow. I will deal you two.

First: this is a mutiny.

And if our mutiny must succeed, I must name things well, without digression. Without that, you will not break. You will not move. You will not deviate from your certainties.

And so: I am trans.

Like in transgression. I have broken categories, I have removed myself from codes, I have forgotten the orders of men.

I am trans.

Like in translation. I have slid the elements that constitute my person from one state to another. My geometry has varied.

I am trans.

Like in transmutation. My life is an alchemy. I have made gold with lead. I know the formula that whispers the aid of the magician when, after having been cut in two, she comes back together to applause.

I am trans.

Like in transports amoureux. I have known all the heats. Those of women, those of men, and those of those who have left the dance of binaries.

I am trans.

Like in pierced [transie]. By fear, by love, by solitude.

I am trans.

Like in transhumanism. I have changed flock and pasture. I was a sheep. I tried to be a ewe. But in vain. I know today that I am a wolf because I am trans. As in transgender.

And this evening, I am a revolution.

This is an excerpt from the science-autofiction novel Valide by Chris Bergeron. Valide is available in print in French from Philippe Rey or in English from House of Anansi Press.