CP 05410/en: Difference between revisions

From Corr-Proust Wiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search
(Created page with "=[http://www.corr-proust.org/letter/05410 Marcel Proust à Samuel Pozzi <nowiki>[le 14 ou 15 octobre 1914]</nowiki>]= <small>(Click on the link above to see this letter and i...")
(Created page with "Please accept, dear sir, the offering of my feelings of great respect and gratitude.")
Line 3: Line 3:
<languages />
<languages />


=[http://www.corr-proust.org/letter/05410 Marcel Proust à Samuel Pozzi <nowiki>[le 14 ou 15 octobre 1914]</nowiki>]=  
=[http://www.corr-proust.org/letter/05410 Marcel Proust to Samuel Pozzi <nowiki>[14 or 15 October 1914]</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>


<ref name="n1" />  
<ref name="n1" />  


Cher Monsieur
Dear Sir,


Ce n’est pas, je vous jure, fléchissement d’une gratitude que chaque jour grandit, si je ne vous ai pas écrit tout de suite. Déjà confus que vous eussiez, malgré mes recommandations, pris la peine de m'écrire, au moment où vous vous surmenez à préparer des victoires et où vos correspondants attendent de vous non pas même la « brevitas » mais le « silentium » du général<ref name="n2" />, chaque jour j’ai cru être le lendemain en état de passer chez vous. Mais ma crise s’est prolongée plus que je n’aurais cru. Je pense être en état de causer quelques secondes avec vous d’un jour à l’autre. Ce sera bien assez tôt pour ce que j’ai à vous demander, mais pas assez tôt pour vous dire ma reconnaissance. J’étais malheureux de l’avoir tue jusqu’ici et c’est pour cela que je vous écris. Vous savez peut-être que votre élève, mon frère, ne se montre pas indigne d’un tel maître<ref name="n3" />. Ses infirmières ont écrit à leur présidente<ref name="n4" /> qu’il faisait l’admiration de tous par son courage et son sang-froid. Hélas qui dit courage (elles ont même écrit « héroïsme ») dit danger couru<ref name="n5" />. Et les nouvelles de l’investissement possible de Verdun ne sont pas pour diminuer mon anxiété<ref name="n6" />. Mais c’est déjà trop d’en parler, puisque il n’y a pas en ce moment un Français qui n’ait à craindre pour des vies chères et à s’enorgueillir de vies offertes en sacrifice. Un dernier mot cher Monsieur, il est bien entendu que vous permettrez (vous me rendrez ainsi doublement service sans cela je n’oserais pas) que je vienne en client. Cela ne me privera en rien de la douceur d’être appelé « ami », et cela la laissera plus pure de scrupules. Les termes de client et d’ami n’ont rien d’inconciliable. Vous savez mieux que personne par quelles belles synthèses on peut résoudre de telles antithèses, vous qui avez si bien opposé puis réuni « maître » et « égal » dans votre réponse à la Barre<ref name="n7" />.
It is not, I swear, a diminishment of gratitude that grows each day, if I did not write to you straight away. Already confused that you would, despite my recommendations, bother to write to me, while you are overworking yourself to prepare victories and while your correspondents wait for you not even the « brevitas » but the « silentium » of the general<ref name="n2" />, every day I believed that, come the next, I would be in a state to visit you. But my asthma attack has lasted longer than I could have believed. I think I will be in a state to chat with you for a few seconds one day or another. It is too soon for me to ask you of this, but not too soon to express my gratitude. It saddened me to have kept silent up until this moment and that is why I am writing to you. You may know that your student, my brother, is not unworthy of such a mentor<ref name="n3" />. His nurses wrote to their president<ref name="n4" /> that they have admiration for all that he has done, by his courage and his composure. Alas, who says courage (they had even written “heroism”) says danger faced<ref name="n5" />. And the news of the possible invasion of Verdun is not to reduce my anxiety<ref name="n6" />. But there is already too much to speak about, since there is not at this moment a Frenchman who does not have to fear for dear lives and to be proud of lives offered in sacrifice. One last word, dear Sir, it is natural to ask you to allow me (thus, you will provide me double the service without which I would not dare ask) to come as a patient. That will not deprive me in any way of the sweetness of being called “friend,” and that will leave it purer than doubts. The terms “patient” and “friend” are not entirely incompatible. You know better than anyone by which beautiful methods one can resolve such contradictions, you who have so much opposed then unified “master” and “equal” in your response to the court<ref name="n7" />.


Veuillez agréer cher Monsieur l’hommage de mes sentiments bien respectueux et reconnaissants.
Please accept, dear sir, the offering of my feelings of great respect and gratitude.


Marcel Proust
Marcel Proust

Revision as of 01:15, 30 September 2021


Other languages:

Marcel Proust to Samuel Pozzi [14 or 15 October 1914]

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

[1]

Dear Sir,

It is not, I swear, a diminishment of gratitude that grows each day, if I did not write to you straight away. Already confused that you would, despite my recommendations, bother to write to me, while you are overworking yourself to prepare victories and while your correspondents wait for you not even the « brevitas » but the « silentium » of the general[2], every day I believed that, come the next, I would be in a state to visit you. But my asthma attack has lasted longer than I could have believed. I think I will be in a state to chat with you for a few seconds one day or another. It is too soon for me to ask you of this, but not too soon to express my gratitude. It saddened me to have kept silent up until this moment and that is why I am writing to you. You may know that your student, my brother, is not unworthy of such a mentor[3]. His nurses wrote to their president[4] that they have admiration for all that he has done, by his courage and his composure. Alas, who says courage (they had even written “heroism”) says danger faced[5]. And the news of the possible invasion of Verdun is not to reduce my anxiety[6]. But there is already too much to speak about, since there is not at this moment a Frenchman who does not have to fear for dear lives and to be proud of lives offered in sacrifice. One last word, dear Sir, it is natural to ask you to allow me (thus, you will provide me double the service without which I would not dare ask) to come as a patient. That will not deprive me in any way of the sweetness of being called “friend,” and that will leave it purer than doubts. The terms “patient” and “friend” are not entirely incompatible. You know better than anyone by which beautiful methods one can resolve such contradictions, you who have so much opposed then unified “master” and “equal” in your response to the court[7].

Please accept, dear sir, the offering of my feelings of great respect and gratitude.

Marcel Proust

[8] [9]

Notes

  1. ↑ Note 1
  2. ↑ Note 2
  3. ↑ Note 3
  4. ↑ Note 4
  5. ↑ Note 5
  6. ↑ Note 6
  7. ↑ Note 7
  8. ↑ Translation notes:
  9. ↑ Contributors:
Retrieved from "https://corrproust.web.illinois.edu/wiki/index.php?title=CP_05410/en&oldid=7586"