Letter 068 — LXVIII
Original French
Posen, le 2 décembre 1806.
C’est aujourd’hui l’anniversaire d’Austerlitz. J’ai été à un bal de la ville. Il pleut. Je me porte bien. Je t’aime et te désire. Mes troupes sont à Varsovie. Il n’a pas encore fait froid. Toutes ces Polonaises sont Françaises, mais il n’y a qu’une femme pour moi. La connaîtrais-tu? Je te ferais bien son portrait; mais il faudrait trop le flatter pour que tu te reconnusses; cependant, à dire vrai, mon cœur n’aurait que de bonnes choses à en dire. Ces nuits-ci sont longues, tout seul. Tout à toi.
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.
Posen, December 2, 1806.
Today is the anniversary of Austerlitz. I went to a ball given by the city. It is raining. I am well. I love and long for you. My troops are in Warsaw. It has not yet been cold. All these Polish women are French, but there is only one woman for me. Do you know her? I could paint her portrait for you; but I would have to flatter it too much for you to recognize yourself; yet, to tell the truth, my heart would have only good things to say of her. These nights are long, all alone. All yours.
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.
Posen, December 2, 1806.
This is the anniversary of Austerlitz. I attended a ball in the town. Rain is falling. I am well. I love you and long for you. My troops are at Warsaw. As yet there has been no cold weather. These Polish women are all French, but for me there is only one woman. Can you guess who she is? I could describe her to you, but I should have to flatter the portrait too much for you to recognize yourself. Yet in truth my heart could speak of her only with praise. The nights are long at present, all alone. Yours entirely.
About this section
Letter 068 — LXVIII 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 68 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.