| Author(s) | Friedrich Engels |
|---|---|
| Written | 26 May 1884 |
ENGELS TO LAURA LAFARGUE
IN PARIS
London, 26 May 1884
My dear Laura,
Since the receipt of your letter of the 15th we have had sorrowful times. On the 18th Pumps' little boy died and was buried on the 22nd.
The child suffered from whooping-cough, bronchitis, convulsions and croup, there was but little hope a week before he died. I was under the impression Pumps or Percy had written to you, and they it seems relied on me for letting you know; well, I was busy finishing my pamphlet[1] to which I postponed even the most pressing letters — and finishing it, as you may conceive, under difficulties of every sort. Well, it's done, the last sheets go off tomorrow. How long they will be over the printing of it, I don't know.
I am sorry you won't go in for the 'Akkumulationsprozess des Kapitals'.[2] Think it over again. I am afraid we cannot do without help from without, and to tell you the truth I have deuced little confidence in what assistance I may get here. Aveling has den besten Willen[3] but he is to translate strange matter aus einem ihm unbekannten Deutsch in ein ihm unbekanntes Englisch[4] ; if it was natural science it would be easy enough, but political economy and industrial facts where he is not acquainted even with the commonest terms. And Sam[5] who is doing the first chapter far better than I expected, takes such a time over it. And yet it is daily becoming a greater necessity to have it out, and Kegan Paul and Co. with whom I expect to come to terms soon, are pressing, but unless I can promise the ms. by say November, complete, I cannot well conclude anything. You might try a few pages and see how you get on. A German-English dictionary would be useless; the words you would have to look for, you would not find there; you could leave space for them, and I could fill them in, they will mostly be technical or philosophical terms.
Paul's conferences[6] are a great success,[7] the New Yorker Volkszeitung brings them regular, their own translation, I believe. If the French had two or three people who could and would assimilate German publications in the same manner, it would help them on immensely. I foresee that when my Ursprung der Familie etc.[8] comes out, Paul will be mad after translating it, there are things in it just in his line,[9] but if he begins he will have to take the German words in their own sense and not in the sense he pleases to impart to them, because I shall have no time whatever to work at it. I shall now start with the 2nd volume [of] Kapital and work at it during daylight, the evenings will be for the revision of the various translations in hand and threatened. This pamphlet I just finished will be the last independent work for some time to come. Will you please tell Deville that I have not as yet had the time to read his last conférence, but shall do so before the week is out and hope it is as good as its predecessors.
Now I must conclude, it is past eleven and Nim is moving for bed, she has got 'pains all over', id est slight muscular rheumatism in consequence of cold, and she must stand at the door while I post this letter, as Annie is in bed, so in order to keep Nim no longer from her much needed rest (she has slept a bit in her arm-chair already) I hope you will excuse the blank space at the foot of this.
By the way, it appears Liebknecht has been in Paris, the German papers tell the most extraordinary things about his mysterious proceedings, also that he spoke at a banquet together with that muff Lecler.[10]
Kisses from Nim and
From yours affectionately,
F. Engels