is my include a PHP or WP problem?

I don’t know either PHP well enough or WP enough.
My WP is in the root. I’ve broken it up to do a bunch of including. This works all fine and good except when I try to call up those includes from different directories.
For example, my archive is a separate include:
<h3><?php _e('Archives:'); ?> im inked</h3>

<?php wp_get_archives('type=monthly'); ?>

From WP in the root, this comes up fine with this:
<?php include('incs/inc_arch.php'); ?>
But if I do this from another directory that has nothing to do with WP, I use this:
<?php include('../incs/inc_arch.php'); ?>
And then I get this:
Fatal error: Call to undefined function: _e() in /home/user/public_html/website/incs/inc_arch.php on line 1
What more do I need to do or what am I doing wrong?
Thanks.