Letter 070 — LXX
Original French
Posen, le 3 décembre 1806, six heures du soir.
Je reçois ta lettre du 27 novembre, où je vois que ta petite tête s’est montée. Je me suis souvenu de ce vers:
Désir de femme est un feu qui dévore.
Il faut cependant te calmer. Je t’ai écrit que j’étais en Pologne, que, lorsque les quartiers d’hiver seraient assis, tu pourrais venir; il faut donc rester quelques jours. Plus on est grand, et moins on doit avoir de volonté; l’on dépend des événements et des circonstances. Tu peux aller à Francfort et à Darmstadt. J’espère, sous peu de jours, t’appeler; mais il faut que les événements le veuillent. La chaleur de ta lettre me fait voir que vous autres jolies femmes, vous ne connaissez pas de barrières; ce que vous voulez doit être; mais moi je me déclare le plus esclave des hommes: mon maître n’a pas d’entrailles, et ce maître c’est la nature des choses.
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, six in the evening.
I have received your letter of November 27, in which I see that your little head has become excited. I remembered this line:
A woman's desire is a consuming fire.
Yet you must calm yourself. I wrote to you that I was in Poland, that when winter quarters were established, you could come; you must therefore wait a few days. The greater one is, the less one must have a will of one's own; one depends on events and circumstances. You can go to Frankfurt and Darmstadt. I hope to call you here in a few days; but events must allow it. The heat of your letter shows me that you pretty women know no barriers; what you want must be; but I declare myself the most enslaved of men: my master has no compassion, and that master is the nature of things.
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, six in the evening.
Your letter of November 27 has reached me, and I see that your little head has worked itself up. I remembered the verse:
“A woman's desire is a consuming fire.”
You must nevertheless compose yourself. I wrote that I was in Poland and that you could come once winter quarters were established; you must therefore stay where you are a few days. The greater a person is, the less will of their own they ought to have: events and circumstances govern one. You may go to Frankfurt and Darmstadt. I hope to summon you in a few days, but events must permit it. The heat of your letter shows me that pretty women like you recognize no barriers: what you want must be. For my part, I declare myself the most enslaved of men; my master is without compassion, and that master is the nature of things.
About this section
Letter 070 — LXX 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 70 of 172 in the work, which is kept in the European tradition.
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