Letter 096 — XCVI
Original French
Finkestein, 24 mai 1807.
Hortense n’est pas raisonnable, et ne mérite pas qu’on l’aime, puisqu’elle n’aimait que ses enfants. Tâche de la calmer, et ne me fais point de peine. À tout mal sans remède, il faut trouver des consolations.
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.
Finkestein, May 24, 1807.
Hortense is not being reasonable, and does not deserve to be loved, since she loved only her children. Try to calm her, and do not give me pain. For every ill without a remedy, one must find consolation.
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.
Finkestein, May 24, 1807.
Hortense is not being sensible. Since she loved nobody but her children, she does not deserve to be loved herself. Try to soothe her, and do not cause me distress. For every misfortune that cannot be put right, we must find some comfort.
About this section
Letter 096 — XCVI 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 96 of 172 in the work, which is kept in the European tradition.
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