Letter 111 — CXI
Original French
Erfurt, le 9 octobre 1808.
J’ai reçu, mon amie, ta lettre. Je vois avec plaisir que tu te portes bien. Je viens de chasser sur le champ de bataille d’Iéna. Nous avons déjeuné dans l’endroit où j’avais passé la nuit au bivouac. J’ai assisté au bal de Weimar. L’empereur Alexandre danse; mais moi, non; quarante ans sont quarante ans. Ma santé est bonne au fond, malgré quelques petits maux. Adieu, mon amie. Tout à toi. J’espère te voir bientôt.
Musean translation
Machine-assisted Musean English translated from the French of the 172 Napoleon letters selected from Tancrède Martel, ed., Œuvres littéraires de Napoléon Bonaparte, tome 1 (Albert Savine, Paris, 1888). French Wikisource contributors supplied the scan-backed transcription: https://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Livre:Bonaparte_-_Œuvres_littéraires,_tome_1,_1888.djvu (page histories credit contributors). The transcription is CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/; this adapted text and translations are shared under the same license. Extraction removes markup and editorial notes; selected transcription repairs were checked against print images.
Erfurt, October 9, 1808.
I have received your letter, my dear friend. I am glad to see that you are well. I have just been hunting on the battlefield of Jena. We had breakfast at the place where I spent the night in bivouac. I attended the ball at Weimar. Emperor Alexander dances; but I do not; forty years are forty years. My health is good at bottom, despite a few minor ailments. Farewell, my dear friend. Wholly yours. I hope to see you soon.
Plain English translation
Independent machine-assisted Plain English translation from the 1888 Martel French edition, not a historical English translation. French Wikisource contributors supplied the scan-backed transcription: https://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Livre:Bonaparte_-_Œuvres_littéraires,_tome_1,_1888.djvu (page histories credit contributors). The adapted transcription and translation are shared under CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/. Extraction removes markup and editorial notes and makes documented transcription repairs. French-source model review is not human specialist certification or a complete scan collation.
Erfurt, October 9, 1808.
My friend, I have received your letter and am happy to see that your health is good. I have just hunted on Jena's battlefield. We had breakfast at the place where I had bivouacked for the night. I went to the ball at Weimar. Emperor Alexander dances; I do not: forty years are forty years. In spite of a few little complaints, I am fundamentally well. Farewell, my friend. All yours. I hope to see you soon.
About this section
Letter 111 — CXI is part of Letters to Josephine by Napoléon Bonaparte. This page sets the French original beside 2 direct-source translations, so any line can be checked against the source. It is part 111 of 172 in the work, which is kept in the European tradition.
Open the work page for the full contents, every edition, and the download links, or go back to Explore to browse other complete works in the European tradition. The reader keeps your place when you are signed in and lets you compare the original with each translation, one edition at a time.