Letter 069 — LXIX
Original French
Posen, le 3 décembre 1806, midi.
Je reçois ta lettre du 26 novembre; j’y vois deux choses: tu me dis que je ne lis pas tes lettres; cela est mal pensé. Je te sais mauvais gré d’une si mauvaise opinion. Tu me dis que ce pourrait être par quelque rêve de la nuit, et tu ajoutes que tu n’es pas jalouse. Je me suis aperçu depuis longtemps que les gens colères soutiennent toujours qu’ils ne sont pas colères; que ceux qui ont peur disent souvent qu’ils n’ont pas peur; tu es donc convaincue de jalousie; j’en suis enchanté! Du reste, tu as tort; je ne pense à rien moins, et dans les déserts de la belle Pologne l’on songe peu aux belles. J’ai eu hier un bal de la noblesse de la province; d’assez belles femmes, assez riches, assez mal mises, quoique à la mode de Paris.
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 3, 1806, noon.
I have received your letter of November 26; I see two things in it: you tell me that I do not read your letters; that is ill judged. I resent your having so poor an opinion of me. You tell me it might be because of some dream in the night, and you add that you are not jealous. I have long noticed that angry people always insist they are not angry; that those who are afraid often say they are not afraid; so you stand convicted of jealousy, and I am delighted! Besides, you are wrong; nothing is further from my thoughts, and in the wilderness of beautiful Poland one thinks little of beautiful women. Yesterday I attended a ball given by the provincial nobility; some fairly beautiful women, fairly rich, rather badly dressed, although in the Paris fashion.
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 3, 1806, noon.
I have your letter of November 26, and two things strike me. You say I do not read your letters; that is a poor notion, and I resent your having such a bad opinion of me. You say it may be because of some dream in the night, and add that you are not jealous. I have long observed that angry people always maintain they are not angry, and that those who are frightened often claim to have no fear. You are therefore proved jealous, and that delights me! All the same, you are wrong: nothing is further from my mind, and in the deserts of beautiful Poland one seldom thinks of beauties. Yesterday the provincial nobility gave a ball for me. The women were reasonably pretty and rich, and rather poorly dressed, though in the Paris fashion.
About this section
Letter 069 — LXIX 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 69 of 172 in the work, which is kept in the European tradition.
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