System Number: 09659
Date: [30 January 1899][1]
Author: JW
Place: [Paris]
Recipient: Théodore Duret[2]
Place: [Paris]
Repository: Metropolitan Museum of Art, Library and Archives, New York
Call Number: Met 192 W57/W576
Document Type: ALS
Mon cher Duret!
Je ne saurais trop vous remercier! - La traduction[3] que vous m'avez faite, je trouve étonnante de simplicité - et de sympathie parfaite, si j'ose le dire, qui m'a beaucoup touché -
Pourtant gare à vous! J'aurai [p. 2] peutêtre la témerité des reconnaissants! Je reviendrai abuser de votre gentille amabilité!
Une chose - croyez vous que l'on puisse peutêtre changer le mot "travaille", en le petit verset de la bible? - Je sais bien que "laboure" n'a pas le même sens que "laboureth" en Anglais - Mais aussi "travaille", içi, me semble ne point rendre toute la force voulue - Que dites vous de "s'acharne"[4]?
On lirait alors:
"Il y a celui qui s'acharne, qui prend de la peine, qui se hâte, et qui reste d'autant plus en arrière."
How would that do? -
Just send me one little line to say whether you approve -
Toujours à vous
[butterfly signature]
'30 Janvier 99'[5]
This document is protected by copyright.
Translation:
My dear Duret!
I cannot thank you enough! - The translation you have made for me is astonishing in its simplicity - and in perfect sympathy, if I may say, which has much touched me -
But beware! I shall have [p. 2] perhaps the temerity of the grateful! I shall come back to abuse your kindly helpfulness!
One thing - do you think we could perhaps change the word "travaille", in the little verse from the Bible? - I know of course that "labour" does not have the same sense as "laboureth" in English - But "travaille", here, does not seem to me to give the full strength needed - What do you say to "s'acharne"?
We would then have:
"Il y a celui qui s'acharne, qui prend de la peine, qui se hâte, et qui reste d'autant plus en arrière."
How would that do? -
Just send me one little line to say whether you approve -
As always
[butterfly signature]
Notes:
1. [30 January 1899]
Date added in another hand; see below.
2. Théodore Duret
Théodore Duret (1838-1927), art critic and collector [more].
3. traduction
The translation by Duret is of JW's Proposition No. 2. The Pennells note that Duret made a translation of A Further Proposition (see #13166), which was hung on the walls of the Académie Carmen in Paris in February 1899, in English and in French; they mention also that Proposition No. 2 was hung there the following month (see Pennell, Elizabeth Robins, and Joseph Pennell, The Life of James McNeill Whistler, 2 vols, London and Philadelphia, 1908, vol. 2, p. 236). The date given with this letter agrees with these dates. For a lithographic copy of the French text written out by JW, see #06825; for the printed text in English, first published in the catalogue for 'Notes' - 'Harmonies' - 'Nocturnes', Messrs Dowdeswell, London, 1884, see #13163; for a manuscript copy in English, see #09542. JW himself asked E. R. Pennell if the lithographed Propositions had been recorded in an article on the Académie Carmen ([26 September 1899], #07684). The translations and references to JW's texts are at #06793; #06793; #13379; #00991; #06826; #13818; #00992; #13816; #06825; #09659.
4. s'acharne
Fr., 'works furiously.' The French text written out by JW, referred to above, keeps 'travaille'.
5. '30 Janvier 99'
Written in another hand.