Letter 4311a

Tchaikovsky Research
Date 19/31 January 1891
Addressed to Louis Gallet
Where written Frolovskoye
Language French
Autograph Location unknown [1]
Publication Tschaikowsky-Gesellschaft Mitteilungen, Heft 21/I (2014), p. 96-98 (extracts and facsimile of p. 1 only)

Text and Translation

This incomplete text is based on the extracts published in Sotheby's 1990 catalogue [2], and may contain differences in formatting and content from Tchaikovsky's original letter.

French text
(original)
English translation
By Brett Langston
Kline, près Moscou
19/31 Janvier 1891

Cher Monsieur!

Vous ne sauriez croire combien Votre bonne lettre m'apporté de plaisir et de soulagement! Quel jouissance, quelle satisfaction de pouvoir Vous parler à cœur ouvert, de n'avoir rien à dissimuler devant Vous, de ne pas considérer Sadia comme un devoir pènible à remplir, vu les circonstances, mais au contraire comme un vrai règal que je me promets pour un avenir plus ou moins éloigné. Car, ce que je Vous ai dit par rapport au libretto de [...]

Je choisis "La Dame de Pique" et je Vous l'expèdie en même temps que cette lettre, avec la traduction française. Cette traduction a été faite par une pauvre jeune fille qui me demandait du travail il y a quelques mois et j'ai eu l'idée de la lui commander en vue de l'avenir — car vaguement j'ésperais que tôt ou tard j'en aurais besoin. Je vous préviens que ce n'est qu'une traduction littérale, mot pour mot, que la demoiselle n'a que des notions élémentaires de la langue française! [...]

Klin, near Moscow
19/31 January 1891

Dear Monsieur!

You cannot imagine how much pleasure and relief your kind letter brought me! What delight, what satisfaction to be able to speak to you frankly from the heart, not to have to conceal anything from you, not to consider Sadia as a painful obligation to fulfil [3], given the circumstances, but on the contrary as a real treat that I promise myself for the more or less distant future. Because, as I have told you regarding the libretto of [...]}

My choice is "The Queen of Spades" and I am sending it at the same time as this letter, in a French translation. This translation was made by a poor young woman who asked me for work some months ago, and I had the idea of commissioning it for the future — because I was vaguely hoping that sooner or later I would need it. I forewarn you that this is not a literal translation, word for word, and that that the girl has only elementary notions of the French language! [...]}

Notes and References

  1. The autograph was auctioned in 1990 by Sotheby's, London.
  2. Sotheby's, London. Fine Printed and Manuscript Music. Wednesday 21st November 1990 (lot 301), p. 183.
  3. For more details see Luis Sundvkist's article, Čajkovskijs Opernprojekt Sadia (La Courtisane) (2014), p.96-98.