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Summary: Chapters 32 & 33

Chapter 32

They let Letty through; she has come to negotiate. She looks miserable and despite everything, Robin is filled with an unexpected urge to hug her. It feels wrong for there to be only three of them. Letty condemns Hermes and defends her choice to protect England. She warns them that the Army will storm the tower at dawn, arguing that wealthy people in Parliament don't care if London falls. They can wait out the chaos in their country estates while the poor suffer. Parliament cares only for its wounded pride, and the destruction and casualties will continue. Letty once again begs them to consider a future where the three of them could be together and compliant with the Crown. Robin and Victoire maintain that they cannot stay affiliated with an Empire that attacks their motherlands. When Letty retorts that China and Haiti do not have to be their motherlands, Victoire reminds her that she and Robin will never have the option of being British. 

Letty argues that their strike won't inspire longterm change. Parliament will happily extinguish their resistance and move forward with a new group of dedicated translators as if nothing happened. The strike is bound to fail, argues Letty, so why not try to change the system from within? If the strikers surrender, Parliament will allow Robin, Victoire, and the others to return to Babel. If they don't surrender, they'll die. Robin demands to know why she killed Ramy and she throws his own words back at him, saying she didn't think and suddenly it was over, just as it had been with Lovell. Victoire heartbreakingly tells Letty that they had once loved her and would have died for her. Letty departs. 

Robin finally admits to Victoire that he wants to destroy the tower, using the paradox that Playfair once warned them about. Engraving the word "translate" on silver bars will cause them to self-destruct, launching a ripple effect that will render all of Babel's silver and much of England's silver completely unusable. The process would bring down the tower as well, destroying coveted resources and research. He admits that this has been his plan all along. 

Victoire retorts that it is a cowardly suicide plan and Robin agrees. He no longer wants to live and does not even think he has a right to. He cannot envision the future they are fighting for. He sees this as a way out, to die in a way that does not neglect his responsibility to dissent. She questions whether he will ask her to stay with him but they both know he won't. She begins to cry, furious that the only way to earn people's pity and attention—and to be seen as noble—is through death. Victoire does not want to die; she desperately wants to live and yearns for a chance at happiness. She asks Robin if that makes her selfish. He holds her tight and murmurs, "Be selfish…Be brave."

Chapter 33

Robin tells the others of his plan, acknowledging the inevitable scale of the loss and the unthinkable ramifications for England, a country that cannot survive without Babel's silver, let alone launch a war. Craft argues that England will build everything back up but Robin counters that rebuilding will take time, giving the rest of the world a chance to build up its defenses. The future will be unknowable—fluid, as Griffin once predicted. This is their chance to stop the momentum in its tracks. 

For the plan to ensure unsalvageable destruction, they must stay and repeat the words over a series of bars continuously, killing themselves in the process. But only some of them are needed, leaving others free to escape should they wish. Craft is the first to announce her intention to stay. The others weigh their options: imminent death or a life of persecution and imprisonment. Robin reports Letty's offer to continue their work for Parliament if they pledge unwavering allegiance, bound to be owned by England forever. Yusuf counters that they could return to their home countries. Robin, Craft, Meghana, Ibrahim, and Juliana stay, while Victoire and Yusuf leave. Robin tells Abel to get his men out, handing him Ibrahim's written record of their rebellion. He implores Abel to make sure people see it. 

Robin and Victoire cling to one another in a final embrace. Victoire fears that England will see this only as a minor setback but Robin reminds her that England was never going to listen anyway. Victoire and Yusuf depart. 

Robin thinks about his impending death, which he has craved ever since Ramy died. But when the moment comes, he is terrified. They each head to their stations in separate corners of the tower, facing death alone. As Robin awaits his final moments, he focuses on fleeting details like Victoire's eyelashes and Ramy's voice before he laughed. 

They each begin to utter the word "translate" over the bars. Robin looks at the trembling bars, shaking with their undeniable truth "that translation was impossible." The meaning that silver bars intended to capture could never really be known, and Babel's endeavors were thus fruitless from the beginning. The idea of an Adamic language was preposterous. No singular language could "bully" the others enough to forge uniformity. At its core, language is difference, "a thousand different ways of seeing, of moving through the world," or better yet, "a thousand worlds within one." It is translation's job to move between those worlds.

Robin is suddenly brought to a memory of his first morning in Oxford with Ramy; he remembers falling in love. Though they'd known each other for less than a day, it felt like it had been forever. Ramy thinks this is because when he speaks, Robin listens. Ramy contends that that's all translation and speaking are: "listening to the other and trying to see past your own biases to glimpse what they're trying to say. Showing yourself to the world, and hoping someone else understands.”

Read an analysis of Robin’s conversation with Ramy on the nature of translation.

As the ceiling crumbles, Robin recalls the feeling of waiting for death. He felt it before, as a boy in Canton dying from cholera. He thinks of his mother's smile and she says his name.

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