Letter 4813

Tchaikovsky Research
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Date 5/17 December 1892
Addressed to Ilya Gintsburg
Where written Saint Petersburg
Language Russian
Autograph Location Klin (Russia): Tchaikovsky State Memorial Musical Museum-Reserve (a3, No. 37)
Publication П. И. Чайковский. Полное собрание сочинений, том XVI-Б (1979), p. 199

Text and Translation

Russian text
(original)
English translation
By Brett Langston
5 дек[абря] [18]92

Дорогой, милый, добрый Илья Яковлевич! Ей-Богу, невозможно быть у Вас, — да если бы и был, то Вам бы несносно было взирать на столь усталого, измученного в нервном отношении человека! Буду у Вас, когда кончатся мои терзания, и вместо одного, если хотите, 2 раза. Во всяком случае буду у Вас во вторник, 8 числа, в 10 часов.

П. Чайковский

5 December 1892

Dear, sweet, kind Ilya Yakovlevich! My God it's impossible to be with you — and even if it were, then it would have been unbearable for you to look upon such a haggard and nervously exhausted figure of a man! I will visit you when my torment has come to an end [1], and twice, rather than once, if you wish [2]. In any case I shall be with you on Tuesday the 8th, at 10 o'clock.

P. Tchaikovsky

Notes and References

  1. Tchaikovsky had been attending numerous rehearsals of his opera Iolanta and ballet The Nutcracker at the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg.
  2. Ilya Gintsburg wanted Tchaikovsky to pose for a small figurine he wished to sculpt (see Photograph 107).