Letter 077 — LXXVII
Original French
Varsovie, le 7 janvier 1807,
Mon amie, je suis touché de tout ce que tu me dis; mais la saison est froide, les chemins très mauvais, peu sûrs, je ne puis donc consentir à t’exposer à tant de fatigues. Rentre à Paris pour y passer l’hiver. Va aux Tuileries; reçois, et fais la même vie que tu as l’habitude de mener quand j’y suis; c’est là ma volonté. Peut-être ne tarderai-je pas à t’y rejoindre; mais il est indispensable que tu renonces à faire trois cents lieues dans cette saison, à travers des pays ennemis, et sur les derrières de l’armée. Crois qu’il m’en coûte plus qu’à toi de retarder de quelques semaines le bonheur de te voir; mais ainsi l’ordonnent les événements et le bien des affaires. Adieu, mon amie, sois gaie et montre du caractère.
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.
Warsaw, January 7, 1807.
My friend, I am touched by everything you tell me; but the season is cold, the roads very bad and unsafe, and so I cannot consent to expose you to such hardships. Return to Paris to spend the winter there. Go to the Tuileries; receive guests and lead the same life you are accustomed to lead when I am there; that is my wish. Perhaps I shall soon join you there; but you must give up the idea of traveling three hundred leagues at this season, through enemy countries and behind the army. Believe me, it costs me more than it costs you to delay by a few weeks the happiness of seeing you; but events and the good of affairs demand it. Goodbye, my friend, be cheerful and show character.
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.
Warsaw, January 7, 1807.
My friend, everything you tell me touches me, but the season is cold and the roads are very bad and unsafe. I cannot agree to expose you to so much hardship. Return to Paris for the winter. Go to the Tuileries, receive visitors and follow your usual routine, just as you do when I am there. That is what I want. Perhaps I shall join you there before long, but you must abandon any thought of a three-hundred-league journey in this season, through enemy territory and behind the army. Believe me, putting off the happiness of seeing you for a few weeks costs me more than it costs you, but events and the good of affairs require it. Goodbye, my friend. Be cheerful and show some character.
About this section
Letter 077 — LXXVII 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 77 of 172 in the work, which is kept in the European tradition.
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