| Author(s) | Friedrich Engels |
|---|---|
| Written | 16 February 1883 |
ENGELS TO LAURA LAFARGUE
IN PARIS
London, 16th February 1883
My dear Laura,
I begin this letter — 4 p. m.— uncertain when I may be able to finish it, the constant interruptions I have lately been subjected to leave me no quiet time except at night and then I dare not write much, as that affects my eyes.
Your Salas y Gomez[1] is on the whole a masterpiece. There is the same roughness of language as in the original — roughness as we like it in young good red wine, gesunde Herbigkeit,[2] and which makes Chamisso's terzine come nearer to Dante's than those of any other poet. I compared it with the original line for line and am astonished at the fidelity of the reproduction. Still I would wish you to try and alter a few passages so as to make it perfect. The end, you say yourself, is hurried and so indeed it is. But for details.
Introduction. Terz. 3. Thus towered it — it could not 'tower' while it could only be descried from the mast-head.— From the Ruric: impossible, because Chamisso himself was on board the Ruric.
Terz. 5. I think wants re-moulding. Den Versuch zu wagen"[3] applies merely to the risk of getting the boats safely through the breakers caused by coral reefs which encircle all islands in those latitudes.
Terz. 7, 3. One syllable short, our cannot be used bisyllabic. Terz. 15. The translation: albeit... that might obliterate, is open to misleading. The original says clearly that it is the men's own steps that have obliterated the writing.
Terz. 31, 1. This cold rock will never do while it burns his feet through his soles.
1st Tablet. Terz. 1. Ich sah bereits im Geiste[4] — that cannot be suppressed in the beginning. The reader, from the translation, must believe that the man was already in full possession of all these fancied treasures, and only at the end, Terz. 8, there is an indication, and that, after the previous omission, not strong enough, that all this was a mere fancy-dream. The character of the adventurous seafarer in quest of wealth forms the basis of the whole piece, and ought therefore to come out strong from the beginning of the story.
Terz. 4, 1: and for myself too were content and gain, is not to be understood without reference to the original.[5]
Terz. 9, 3: the cabins gives a syllable too much in the verse, and is not literal. Der untre Raum is in ship's language the hold, and moreover monosyllabic.
2nd Tablet. Not a fault to find except one and that is one in copying. Terz. 16, 1: For they (have) sighted me, the have is omitted.
3rd Tablet. Terz. 7. 'Worser far' I prefer, but will the philistine public? And will you turn philistine enough to say 'worse by far'?
Terz. 15-20: your own variations indicate that you are not quite satisfied with your work. I do believe that here a fresh attempt might be made with advantage. The conclusion again is very good.
As usual the beginning, when one is not yet recht im £ug,[6] and the end when one gets tired a little, are the weak points, but I think after you have had it laid aside for a time, you will be able to go at it again with fresh vigour and make it what indeed you can make it.
Mohr wants to read it too, but not yet. Latterly he has had very bad sleepless nights which have broken down his intellectual appetite, so that he began to read, instead of novels, publisher's catalogues. However the night before last was good and he was quite another man yesterday; another good symptom: his feet, previously ice-cold in the evening and only to be warmed by hot mustard-baths, for the last two nights were quite warm and no baths required. The chronic inflammation of the larynx and bronchiae is slowly becoming subdued, but swallowing still painful and the voice very hoarse. I shall continue to-night after I have seen him. His appetite was very good yesterday, Nim[7] surpasses herself in inventing new dishes for his case.
17th February. It was 1 o'clock when I came back last night from Maitland Park,[8] so I could not finish this letter. Mohr was going on pretty much as usual, but he had given up the catalogues and returned to Frédéric Soulié, anyhow a good sign. What do you say to this, that he drinks a pint of milk a day, he who could not bear milk to be on the table! Anyhow it does him good. Besides rum now and then (in the milk especially) he takes a bottle of brandy about every four days.
The worst is that his case is so complicated that while the most pressing things, the breathing organs, have to be attended to, and now and then a sleeping draft is to be given, other things have to be neglected, for instance the stomach which is as you know none of the most perfect organs of digestion. But still his appetite keeps up pretty well, and we do our best to supply him such food chiefly as contains much nourishment in a small compass.
I think our friends have been in too great a hurry with the new Egalité. What is to become of the paper if Paul[9] and Guesde get 'time to serve' at Moulins, and that is after all not quite impossible?
Guesde's opening article[10] is not at all what it should be. What he says of judges elected by universal suffrage, is quite as applicable to universal suffrage itself, to the Republic, to any political institution. If Messieurs les français do not know how to use this universal suffrage tant pis pour eux.[11] Give our people in Germany the right to elect the judges and they will carry the election in all large towns and make Berlin too hot a shop for old William and Bismarck, unless they have recourse to a coup d'état. But to say: white because my adversary says: black, is simply subir la loi de son adversaire, et une politique de bébés.[12] I am afraid Guesde's old anarchist rodomontades are cropping up again rather fast, and in that case he will lose himself. Paul's deux embêtés[13] are charming. That is just his line.[14]