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=[http://www.corr-proust.org/letter/03787 Marcel Proust à Anna de Noailles <nowiki>[les 26 et 27 mai 1919]</nowiki>]=  
=[http://www.corr-proust.org/letter/03787 Marcel Proust to Anna de Noailles <nowiki>[26 and 27 May 1919]</nowiki>]=  
<small>(Click on the link above to see this letter and its notes in the ''Corr-Proust'' digital edition, including all relevant hyperlinks.)</small>
<small>(Click on the link above to see this letter and its notes in the ''Corr-Proust'' digital edition, including all relevant hyperlinks.)</small>




<div lang="fr" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
102 boulevard Haussmann<ref name="n1" />
102 boulevard Haussmann<ref name="n1" />
</div>


<div lang="fr" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
Madame,
Madame,
</div>


<div lang="fr" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
What bliss of resurrection I felt to see the marvellous loops of your handwriting after so many years, which seem to be capable of protecting the Celestial Garden which the Angel (now become redundant) bearing a blazing sword keeps watch over<ref name="n2" />. Your kindness in writing to me like this, and so quickly (qui cito dat, bis dat)<ref name="n3" /> brought back to me ancient feelings that you have since martyred a little. And I am sad to think, at the time of this renewal of respectful tenderness, that three of my books are about to appear in eight days<ref name="n4" />, in which simply by chance the space you occupy in them is so small, a few lines in a Renan pastiche which you know<ref name="n5" />, a line in a new Saint-Simon pastiche which you do not know<ref name="n6" /> (maybe a word in "Mélanges"<ref name="n7" /> I don't know, I didn't choose the selections). I shall not forget your kindness today and I will have the opportunity in the not too distant future to convey my gratitude worthily. But it pains me that I didn't beg for and receive word from you a month earlier, so that I would have been able to put in the book what I can now only put in another one<ref name="n8" />.
Avec quel bonheur de résurrection j'ai vu après tant d'années les arceaux merveilleux de cette Écriture, desquels il semble qu'ils suffiraient à protéger le céleste Jardin que gardait l'Ange (devenu inutile) porteur de l'épée flamboyante<ref name="n2" />. Cette gentillesse de m'écrire ainsi, et si vite (qui cito dat, bis dat) <ref name="n3" /> m'a ramené aux sentiments anciens que vous aviez depuis un peu martyrisés. Et je suis triste de penser, au moment de ce regain de respectueuse tendresse, que trois livres de moi vont paraître dans huit jours<ref name="n4" />, où la place vous est faite par le hasard si petite, les quelques lignes du pastiche de Renan que vous connaissez<ref name="n5" />, une ligne d'un pastiche de Saint-Simon nouveau que vous ne connaissez pas<ref name="n6" /> (peut-être un mot dans les « Mélanges » <ref name="n7" /> je ne sais pas, ce n'est pas moi qui ai confectionné la sélection). Je n'oublierai pas votre gentillesse d'aujourd'hui et j'aurai l'occasion, pas très lointaine, de traduire dignement ma gratitude. Mais je souffre de ne pas avoir sollicité et reçu ce mot de vous un mois plus tôt, quand j'aurais pu mettre dans le livre ce que maintenant je ne peux plus mettre que dans un autre<ref name="n8" />.
</div>


<div lang="fr" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
I would also like to thank M. de Noailles (how the war has made him grow more handsome!). I will find a way. How good it is of him to remember to speak to you about it<ref name="n9" />, tell him, please do (honestly, don’t forget to tell him) how much I was moved by it.  
C'est Monsieur de Noailles aussi que je voudrais remercier (comme la guerre l'a encore embelli !). Je trouverai un moyen. Qu'il est bon de s'être rappelé de vous parler de cela<ref name="n9" />, dites-lui je vous en prie (vraiment, n'oubliez pas de lui dire) combien j'en ai été ému.
</div>


<div lang="fr" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
Ought I to tell you that your wonderful letter has been just like a priceless drawing, because I have hardly been able to decipher a single word of it. Only the name Bernstein can be made out, and I can understand why he has come to be there<ref name="n10" />. But before daring to bore you with all this, some months ago I telephoned him and, like me, he has mislaid the address. But that's of no importance now, as Guiche (who has been wonderful to me in this frightful tale of moving house, went to see the managers, got from them the money which I believe they owed me), has strained all his ingenuity into searching out cork makers who would be willing to convert my suberin<ref name="n11" /> into bottle corks.
Ai-je besoin de vous dire que votre admirable lettre n'a été pour moi qu'un dessin sans prix car je n'ai pu déchiffrer un seul mot. Seul le nom de Bernstein est apparu et j'ai compris pourquoi il venait là<ref name="n10" />. Mais bien avant d'oser vous ennuyer de cela, il y a déjà des mois, je lui avais fait téléphoner et il avait comme moi égaré l'adresse. Cela n'a pas d'importance puisque Guiche (qui a été sublime pour moi dans toute cette affreuse histoire de déménagement, est allé voir les gérants, a tiré d'eux de l'argent pour moi alors que je croyais leur en devoir) a chargé son ingénieur de rechercher les maisons de liège susceptibles de convertir ma subérine<ref name="n11" /> en bouchons.
</div>


<div lang="fr" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
Please accept my respectful and grateful admiration Madame,
Daignez agréer, Madame, ma respectueuse admiration reconnaissante
</div>


<div lang="fr" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
Marcel Proust
Marcel Proust
</div>


<div lang="fr" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
After having written to you, for the fiftieth time I am looking at this beautiful arabesque design, and here are the words Cité de Retiro, an Élysée in Élysée which, being named by you become the "Champs-Élysées", glowing in letters of fire. Tomorrow I shall write to Cité de Retiro <ref name="n12" /> to find out what this mysterious address can relate to. No doubt I shall find a use for my cork there as I won’t be able to put it up in my new lodgings which I am leaving boulevard Haussmann for. (I am leaving because the building has been sold to a banker, who in good M. Josse<ref name="n13" /> fashion wants to turn it into a bank, and to do that he is making all the tenants leave, without understanding that it will be the death of at least one of those who he uproots.) Moreover I believe that fortifications, even those of Liège, have had their day<ref name="n14" />. And it occurs to me that it would be better to apply the means of defence to the ears. Mme Simone spoke to me about some ivory balls<ref name="n15" /> (I would really like to find more details about them!) the Duchesse de Guiche mentioned cotton wool in vaseline. But no doubt these ladies are less sensitive to noise than I, who am terribly ill, dying.
Après vous avoir écrit, je regarde une cinquantième fois le beau dessin arabesque, et voici que les mots « Cité du Retiro », un Élysée en Élysée qui nommé par vous devient les « Champs Élysées », brillent en lettres de feu. J'enverrai demain Cité du Retiro<ref name="n12" /> savoir à quoi cette mystérieuse adresse peut correspondre. Sans doute y trouverai-je le placement de mon liège qui n'est pas répartissable dans le logis pour lequel je quitte le boulevard Haussmann. (Je le quitte parce que la Maison a été vendue à un banquier qui en bon M. Josse<ref name="n13" /> veut en faire une banque, et pour cela, fait partir tous les locataires, sans comprendre qu'il y en a au moins un qu'il tue en le déracinant.) Je crois du reste que les forts, même de Liège, ont fait leur temps<ref name="n14" />. Et j'ai l'idée qu'il vaudrait mieux transporter les moyens de défense dans l'oreille. Madame Simone m'a parlé de boules d'ivoire<ref name="n15" /> (comme j'aimerais avoir des précisions là-dessus !), la duchesse de Guiche d'ouate vaselinée. Mais sans doute ces dames sont moins sensibles au bruit que moi qui suis terriblement malade, mourant.
</div>




<div lang="fr" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
<ref name="n16" /> <ref name="n17" />
<ref name="n16" /> <ref name="n17" />
</div>


==Notes==
==Notes==
<references>
<references>


<ref name="n1"> Note 1 </ref>
<ref name="n1"> This letter is to thank Anna de Noailles for her telegram (on the subject of dealers in cork) of Monday [26 May 1919], received by Proust the same day, as is indicated by the sent and received post marks (see CP 03786; cf. Kolb, XVIII, no. 105). Having received it shortly after four o'clock (time stamp of receipt: 16:05), his reply could date from the same Monday 26 May, if he wrote his reply immediately, in the evening or at night, according to his usual habit. The post script however is slightly later, Proust having reread the note to decipher the address of the cork trader, which is difficult to read on account his correspondent's style of writing. Written at separate times this letter likely dates from 26 and 27 May 1919. [PK, FL]  </ref>


<ref name="n2"> Note 2 </ref>
<ref name="n2"> Allusion to the Old Testament: "Genesis", III, 24. It is not a question of an Angel, but two cherubim. - In Sodome et Gomorrhe I (RTP, III, p. 32), confusing (deliberately?) the episode of the destruction of Sodom ("Genesis", III, 18-19) with the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden (ibid., III, 22-24), Proust imagines that at the gates of Sodom were placed two angels with "flaming swords" in order to prevent the inhabitants from fleeing, but that the inhabitants would have scorned them. In the episode about Adam and Eve that he is alluding to in the present letter, on the other hand, the guardians of the Garden of Eden are not at all "redundant", since they do indeed prevent the guilty ones from this now for ever lost paradise. It is therefore possible that Proust was currently working on the pages in Sodome et Gomorrhe I that interweave these two episodes. [PK, ChC, FL] </ref>


<ref name="n3"> Note 3 </ref>
<ref name="n3"> As regards this well-known Latin saying, it was a figure of speech frequently used by Proust to thank his correspondents, see CP 05413, note 6. [FL] </ref>


<ref name="n4"> Note 4 </ref>
<ref name="n4"> Proust is thinking of his three books due out in June: Pastiches et mélanges, the reprint of Du côté de chez Swann, and À l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs. [ChC] </ref>


<ref name="n5"> Note 5 </ref>
<ref name="n5"> Note 5 </ref>

Revision as of 14:02, 4 July 2022


Other languages:

Marcel Proust to Anna de Noailles [26 and 27 May 1919]

(Click on the link above to see this letter and its notes in the Corr-Proust digital edition, including all relevant hyperlinks.)


102 boulevard Haussmann[1]

Madame,

What bliss of resurrection I felt to see the marvellous loops of your handwriting after so many years, which seem to be capable of protecting the Celestial Garden which the Angel (now become redundant) bearing a blazing sword keeps watch over[2]. Your kindness in writing to me like this, and so quickly (qui cito dat, bis dat)[3] brought back to me ancient feelings that you have since martyred a little. And I am sad to think, at the time of this renewal of respectful tenderness, that three of my books are about to appear in eight days[4], in which simply by chance the space you occupy in them is so small, a few lines in a Renan pastiche which you know[5], a line in a new Saint-Simon pastiche which you do not know[6] (maybe a word in "Mélanges"[7] I don't know, I didn't choose the selections). I shall not forget your kindness today and I will have the opportunity in the not too distant future to convey my gratitude worthily. But it pains me that I didn't beg for and receive word from you a month earlier, so that I would have been able to put in the book what I can now only put in another one[8].

I would also like to thank M. de Noailles (how the war has made him grow more handsome!). I will find a way. How good it is of him to remember to speak to you about it[9], tell him, please do (honestly, don’t forget to tell him) how much I was moved by it.

Ought I to tell you that your wonderful letter has been just like a priceless drawing, because I have hardly been able to decipher a single word of it. Only the name Bernstein can be made out, and I can understand why he has come to be there[10]. But before daring to bore you with all this, some months ago I telephoned him and, like me, he has mislaid the address. But that's of no importance now, as Guiche (who has been wonderful to me in this frightful tale of moving house, went to see the managers, got from them the money which I believe they owed me), has strained all his ingenuity into searching out cork makers who would be willing to convert my suberin[11] into bottle corks.

Please accept my respectful and grateful admiration Madame,

Marcel Proust

After having written to you, for the fiftieth time I am looking at this beautiful arabesque design, and here are the words Cité de Retiro, an Élysée in Élysée which, being named by you become the "Champs-Élysées", glowing in letters of fire. Tomorrow I shall write to Cité de Retiro [12] to find out what this mysterious address can relate to. No doubt I shall find a use for my cork there as I won’t be able to put it up in my new lodgings which I am leaving boulevard Haussmann for. (I am leaving because the building has been sold to a banker, who in good M. Josse[13] fashion wants to turn it into a bank, and to do that he is making all the tenants leave, without understanding that it will be the death of at least one of those who he uproots.) Moreover I believe that fortifications, even those of Liège, have had their day[14]. And it occurs to me that it would be better to apply the means of defence to the ears. Mme Simone spoke to me about some ivory balls[15] (I would really like to find more details about them!) the Duchesse de Guiche mentioned cotton wool in vaseline. But no doubt these ladies are less sensitive to noise than I, who am terribly ill, dying.


[16] [17]

Notes

  1. ↑ This letter is to thank Anna de Noailles for her telegram (on the subject of dealers in cork) of Monday [26 May 1919], received by Proust the same day, as is indicated by the sent and received post marks (see CP 03786; cf. Kolb, XVIII, no. 105). Having received it shortly after four o'clock (time stamp of receipt: 16:05), his reply could date from the same Monday 26 May, if he wrote his reply immediately, in the evening or at night, according to his usual habit. The post script however is slightly later, Proust having reread the note to decipher the address of the cork trader, which is difficult to read on account his correspondent's style of writing. Written at separate times this letter likely dates from 26 and 27 May 1919. [PK, FL]
  2. ↑ Allusion to the Old Testament: "Genesis", III, 24. It is not a question of an Angel, but two cherubim. - In Sodome et Gomorrhe I (RTP, III, p. 32), confusing (deliberately?) the episode of the destruction of Sodom ("Genesis", III, 18-19) with the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden (ibid., III, 22-24), Proust imagines that at the gates of Sodom were placed two angels with "flaming swords" in order to prevent the inhabitants from fleeing, but that the inhabitants would have scorned them. In the episode about Adam and Eve that he is alluding to in the present letter, on the other hand, the guardians of the Garden of Eden are not at all "redundant", since they do indeed prevent the guilty ones from this now for ever lost paradise. It is therefore possible that Proust was currently working on the pages in Sodome et Gomorrhe I that interweave these two episodes. [PK, ChC, FL]
  3. ↑ As regards this well-known Latin saying, it was a figure of speech frequently used by Proust to thank his correspondents, see CP 05413, note 6. [FL]
  4. ↑ Proust is thinking of his three books due out in June: Pastiches et mélanges, the reprint of Du côté de chez Swann, and À l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs. [ChC]
  5. ↑ Note 5
  6. ↑ Note 6
  7. ↑ Note 7
  8. ↑ Note 8
  9. ↑ Note 9
  10. ↑ Note 10
  11. ↑ Note 11
  12. ↑ Note 12
  13. ↑ Note 13
  14. ↑ Note 14
  15. ↑ Note 15
  16. ↑ Translation notes:
  17. ↑ Contributors:
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