Letter 4362a
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French text (original)
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English translation
Copyright © 2010 by Luis Sundkvist
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| Chère et bonne Mademoiselle! |
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Dear and kind Mademoiselle! |
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Vous avez été si bonne, si obligeante, si prevenante envers moi. J'ai été si ingrat, si impoli! Je suis parti de Paris sans avoir profité de Votre trop aimable invitation!!! Soyez certaine que je le regrette infiniment. J'ai dû, par un concours de circonstances, qu'il serait trop long à raconter, quitter subitement Paris, afin de pouvoir remplir un devoir ce qui était impossible à Paris car il s'agit de terminer un travail que l'on attend avec impatience à Petersbourg, et travailler à Paris—est chose impossible. Maintenant je suis sur le point de partir pour l'Amèrique d'ou je compte revenir dans quelques semaines, et je serai à Paris. C'est alors que je viendrai Vous demander excuse et serai heureux de pouvoir obtenir Votre pardon. En attendant veuillez croire à mes meilleurs sentiments et au regret que je ressens de ne pas avoir pu Vous voire.
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You have been so good, so obliging, so helpful to me. I have been so ungrateful, so impolite! I left Paris without taking advantage of your most kind invitation!!! [1]
Rest assured that I regret this infinitely. Due to a coincidence of various circumstances which it would take too long to relate, I have had to leave Paris suddenly, so as to be able to fulfil an obligation—something that was impossible in Paris, because it involves completing some work which is being impatiently awaited in Petersburg, and working in Paris is quite impossible [2]. Now I am about to leave for America, expecting to come back from there in about a few weeks, and then I will be in Paris again [3]. It is then that I shall come to beg your pardon and I will be happy if you grant it. In the meanwhile, allow me to assure you of my friendship and of the regret which I feel at not having been able to see you.
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| Salutations chaleureuses pour Vos parents. |
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My warm regards to your parents. |
Bien à Vous
P. Tchaïkovsky |
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Yours truly,
P. Tchaïkovsky |
Notes:
- Clotilde
Kleeberg's letter to Tchaikovsky of 25 March 1891 [N.S.]
has been published by Thomas Kohlhase in 'Drei bisher unbekannte Briefe Čajkovskijs von 1887, 1891 und
1893' (1995), p. 36. Tchaikovsky had arrived in Paris on 10/22 March 1891 in order to conduct Édouard Colonne's orchestra in a concert of his own works on 24 March/5 April. Clotilde Kleeberg had met Tchaikovsky for the first time five years earlier (see the entry for 10/22 June 1886 in the composer's diary when he was in Paris: "Called on Kleeberg. She plays nicely"
— translated by Wladimir Lakond in: The
Diaries of Tchaikovsky (1973), p. 87), and now in her letter of 25 March 1891 [N.S.]
she invited him to dine with her and her parents after the concert on Sunday 5 April [N.S.] [back]
- Tchaikovsky had gone to Rouen in order to work in peace on the two compositions which he had promised to deliver to the Saint Petersburg Mariinskii Theatre in time for the 1891/92 season: the ballet The Nutcracker and the opera King René's Daughter (which would later receive the title Iolanta) [back]
- Tchaikovsky left Rouen on 5/17 April, reaching the port of Le Havre that same day, and the following morning he set sail for America. After his American tour he did not in fact return to France, but sailed to Hamburg, arriving on 17/29 May. He then immediately made his way to Russia (with only a brief stop in Berlin) [back]
This page was last updated on
26 February 2012 |