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<p><b>New page</b></p><div>{{letterhead<br />
|Date=18/30 August 1886<br />
|To=[[Félix Mackar]]<br />
|Place=[[Maydanovo]]<br />
|Language=French<br />
|Autograph=[[Paris]] (France): {{F-Pn}}<br />
|Publication={{bibx|1968/16|Revue de musicologie}}, tome 64 (1968), no. 1, p. 56<br/>''{{bibx|1970/8|Советская музыка}}'' (1970), No. 9, p. 64 (Russian translation)<br/>{{bib|1971/89|П. И. Чайковский. Полное собрание сочинений ; том XIII}} (1971), p. 435. }}<br />
<br />
<br />
==Text and Translation==<br />
{{Lettertext<br />
|Language=French<br />
|Translator=Luis Sundkvist<br />
|Original text={{right|''Maïdanowo''<br/>18/30 Août 1886}}<br />
{{centre|Mon cher ami!}}<br />
Je V[ou]s avais {{sic|ecrit|écrit}} que j'avais commencé les traductions de mes romances et effectivement il y en avait deux toutes faites. Mais ensuite, voyant que l'opéra m'absorbait trop et qu'il se passerait beaucoup de temps avant que le tout soit prêt, — je me suis adressé à une pauvre jeune fille qui justement me demandait un travail quelconque à faire et lui ai confié la tâche de traduire tout ce dont V[ou]s avez besoin. Le travail est prêt et demain je V[ou]s l'expédie. On ne peut pas dire que la traduction soit parfaite et que cette demoiselle manie le français comme une vraie française ; — mais enfin le poète que V[ou]s chargerez de mettre cela en vers aura une traduction très juste et très {{sic|conscientieusement|consciencieusement}} faite, et c'est, il me semble, tout ce qu'il faut. <br />
<br />
J'ai passé un été assez triste car j'ai été souvent malade. Mais du reste, il n'y a rien de grave, — ce {{sic|n'était|n'était}} que des {{sic|refroidissement|refroidissements}} perpétuels que j'attrapais {{sic|tantôt|tantôt}} en restant trop longtemps dans l'eau de la rivière, tantôt à cause à cause de courant d'airs dont je ne me garantissais pas assez. Maintenant cela va tout à fait bien. <br />
<br />
J'espère, mon cher ami, que V[ou]s allez bien et que Madame Mackar se porte bien aussi. Saluez la bien de ma part, ainsi que les Condemines quand V[ou]s les verrez.<br />
<br />
Je V[ou]s serre bien cordialement la main. <br />
<br />
Votre dévoué ami,<br />
{{right|P. Tschaïkovsky}}<br />
En parcourant la traduction j'ai remarqué bien de fautes d'orthographe. Ce n'est rien, n'est-ce pas ?<br />
<br />
|Translated text={{right|''[[Maydanovo]]''<br/>18/30 August 1886}}<br />
{{centre|My dear friend!}}<br />
I wrote to you last time <ref name="note1"/> that I had started work on translating my romances, and right enough I had by then done two of them. But then, seeing that I was becoming so engrossed in my opera and that it would take a long time before everything was ready, I got in touch with a poor young girl who had just happened to ask me for work of some kind that she could do, and I entrusted her with the task of translating everything that you need <ref name="note2"/>. The job is now complete, and tomorrow I'll send it to you. It can't be said that her translation is perfect or that this young lady has a command of French equal to that of a true Frenchwoman, but, still, the poet whom you engage to turn this into verse will have a very precise and very conscientiously done translation to work from, and that, as I see it, is all that is required <ref name="note3"/>. <br />
<br />
I have had a rather sad summer, because I have been frequently ill. I should add, though, that it was nothing serious: it was simply that I kept catching some perpetual chills, be it because I'd stay in the river too long when bathing, be it because of draughts which I failed to take sufficient precautions against when indoors. Now I am perfectly fine, however. <br />
<br />
I hope, my dear friend, that you are all right, and that Madame Mackar <ref name="note4"/> is also well. Give her my regards, and likewise to the Condemines <ref name="note5"/> when you see them.<br />
<br />
I shake your hand most cordially.<br />
<br />
Your devoted friend,<br />
{{right|P. Tchaikovsky}}<br />
While looking through the translation I noticed quite a lot of spelling mistakes. That doesn't matter, isn't that so?<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Notes and References==<br />
<references><br />
<ref name="note1">This letter to [[Mackar]] has not come to light.</ref><br />
<ref name="note2">Tchaikovsky entrusted the task of producing a prose translation into French of his various sets of songs to a certain Nina Valeryanovna Kondratyeva, who worked as a proofreader for [[Jurgenson]]'s firm.</ref><br />
<ref name="note3">[[Mackar]] would eventually engage the poet [[Paul Collin]] to turn these prose translations of Tchaikovsky's romances into verse, but the publisher was not happy with the final product, as he himself informed Tchaikovsky in a letter from [[Paris]] on 15/27 October 1888. [[Collin]]'s free translations of the texts of some of Tchaikovsky's songs have survived in the archives at [[Klin]]. It seems that these translations were mismatched with the music. Nevertheless,[[Mackar]] did publish a few of Tchaikovsky's songs as translated by [[Collin]] (though the poet seems to have had to revise his original versions). See {{bib|1970/6|Чайковский и зарубежные музыканты}} (1970), p. 160 and p. 165, note 28.</ref> <br />
<ref name="note4">[[Mackar]]'s wife, Valérie. In 1888, Tchaikovsky would dedicate to her one of the prints made by the [[Hamburg]] photographer E. Bieber on 6/18 January 1888. He wrote on it the following inscription: "Madame Valérie Mackar souvenir affectueux" and sketched three bars from the ''Andante cantabile'' of his [[String Quartet No. 1]] — see {{bibx|1968/16|Revue de musicologie}}, tome 64 (1968), no. 1, p. 94. The portrait in question appears as [[:File:Photo060.jpg|Photo 60]] in our [[Photographs|Catalogue of Photographs]].</ref><br />
<ref name="note5">The brothers Henri and Charles Condemine who were friends of [[Mackar]]'s. Tchaikovsky had met the pianist Henri Condemine at [[Mackar]]'s house in [[Paris]] earlier that summer.</ref><br />
</references></div>Brett