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Letter 054 — LIV

54 of 172 parts in Letters to Josephine by Napoléon Bonaparte

Original French

5 octobre 1806.

Il n’y a pas d’inconvénient que la princesse de Bade se rende à Mayence. Je ne sais pas pourquoi tu pleures; tu as tort de te faire du mal. Hortense est un peu pédante; elle aime à donner des conseils. Elle m’a écrit, je lui réponds. Il faut qu’elle soit heureuse et gaie. Le courage et la gaieté, voilà la recette.

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.

October 5, 1806.

There is no objection to the Princess of Baden going to Mainz. I do not know why you are crying; you are wrong to make yourself unhappy. Hortense is a little pedantic; she likes to give advice. She has written to me, and I am answering her. She must be happy and cheerful. Courage and cheerfulness: that is the prescription.

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.

October 5, 1806.

The Princess of Baden may go to Mainz; there is no objection. Why you are crying I cannot tell, but you are wrong to hurt yourself. Hortense is somewhat pedantic and fond of giving advice. She has written to me and I am replying. She must be happy and cheerful. Courage and cheerfulness are the prescription.

About this section

Letter 054 — LIV 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 54 of 172 in the work, which is kept in the European tradition.

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