Letter 136 — CXXXVI
Original French
Schœnbrunn, le 26 août 1809.
Je reçois ta lettre de Malmaison. L’on m’a rendu compte que tu étais grasse, fraîche et bien portante. Je t’assure que Vienne n’est pas une ville amusante. Je voudrais fort être déjà à Paris. Adieu, mon amie. J’entends deux fois par semaine les Bouffons; ils sont assez médiocres; cela amuse les soirées. Il y a cinquante ou soixante femmes de Vienne, mais au parterre, comme n’ayant pas été présentées.
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.
Schönbrunn, August 26, 1809.
I have received your letter from Malmaison. I have been told that you are plump, fresh, and well. I assure you that Vienna is not an amusing city. I very much wish I were already in Paris. Farewell, my friend. Twice a week I hear the Bouffons; they are rather mediocre, but they entertain one in the evenings. There are fifty or sixty women of Vienna there, but in the pit, since they have not been presented.
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.
Schönbrunn, August 26, 1809.
I have received your letter from Malmaison. I hear that you are plump, fresh-looking, and healthy. I can assure you that Vienna is not an entertaining city. I wish I were back in Paris already. Goodbye, my dear. Twice a week I listen to the Bouffons; they are rather mediocre, but they pass the evenings. There are fifty or sixty Viennese women there, though they sit in the pit, since they have not been presented.
About this section
Letter 136 — CXXXVI 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 136 of 172 in the work, which is kept in the European tradition.
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