London, 16th February 1883 

My dear Laura, 

I begin this letter-—— 4 p. m.— uncertain when I may be able to fin- 
ish it, the constant interruptions I have lately been subjected to leave 
me no quiet time except at night and then I dare not write much, as 
that affects my eyes. 

Your Salas _y Gomez? is on the whole a masterpiece. There is the 
same roughness of language as in the original — roughness as we like 
it in young good red wine, gesunde Herbigkeit,” and which makes Cha- 
misso’s terzine come nearer to Dante’s than those of any other poet. 
I compared it with the original line for line and am astonished at the 
fidelity of the reproduction. Still I would wish you to try and alter 
a few passages so as to make it perfect. The end, you say yourself, is 
hurried and so indeed it is. But for details. 

Introduction. Terz. 3. Thus towered it —it could not ‘tower’ while it 
could only be descried from the mast-head.— From the Ruric: impossi- 
ble, because Chamisso himself was on board the Ruric. 

Terz. 5. I think wants re-moulding. Den Versuch zu wag en‘ applies 
merely to the risk of getting the boats safely through the breakers 
caused by coral reefs which encircle all islands in those latitudes. 

Terz. 7, 3. One syllable short, our cannot be used bisyllabic. 

Terz. 15. The translation: albeit ... that might obliterate, is open to 
misleading. The original says clearly that it is the men’s own steps 
that have obliterated the writing. 

Terz. 31, 1. This cold rock will never do while it burns his feet 
through his soles. ; 

Ist Tablet. Terz. 1. Ich sah bereits im Geiste*—-that cannot be sup- 
pressed in the beginning. The reader, from the translation, must be- 
lieve that the man was already in full possession of all these fancied 

* A reference to Laura Lafargue’s English translation of Adelbert von Chamisso’s nar- 
rative poem Salas _y Gomez (written in 1829).-° healthy roughness -* to venture an at- 
tempt-* I already saw in my mind’s eye 

treasures, and only at the end, Terz. 8, there is an indication, and 
that, after the previous omission, not strong enough, that all this was 
a mere fancy-dream. The character of the adventurous seafarer in 
quest of wealth forms the basis of the whole piece, and ought there- 
fore to come out strong from the beginning of the story. 

Terz. 4, 1: and for myself too were content and gain, is not to be 
understood without reference to the original. * 

Terz. 9, 3: the cabins gives a syllable too much in the verse, and is 
not literal. Der untre Raum is in ship’s language the hold, and moreover 
monosyllabic. 

2nd Tablet. Not a fault to find except one and that is one in copying. 
Terz. 16, 1: For they (have) sighted me, the have is omitted. 

3rd Tablet. Terz. 7. ‘Worser far’ I prefer, but will the philistine 
public? And will you turn philistine enough to say ‘worse by far’? 

Terz. 15-20: your own variations indicate that you are not quite 
satisfied with your work. I do believe that here a fresh attempt might 
be made with advantage. The conclusion again is very good. 

As usual the beginning, when one is not yet recht im Zug,” and the 
end when one gets tired a little, are the weak points, but I think after 
you have had it laid aside for a time, you will be able to go at it again 
with fresh vigour and make it what indeed you can make it. 

Mohr wants to read it too, but not yet. Latterly he has had very 
bad sleepless nights which have broken down his intellectual appe- 
tite, so that he began to read, instead of novels, publisher’s cata- 
logues. However the night before last was good and he was quite 
another man yesterday; another good symptom: his feet, previously 
ice-cold in the evening and only to be warmed by hot mustard-baths, 
for the last two nights were quite warm and no baths required. The 
chronic inflammation of the larynx and bronchiae is slowly becoming 
subdued, but swallowing still painful and the voice very hoarse. 
I shall continue to-night after I have seen him. His appetite was very 
good yesterday, Nim‘ surpasses herself in inventing new dishes for his 
case. 

17th February. It was 1 o’clock when I came back last night from 
Maitland Park,‘ so I could not finish this letter. Mohr was going on 

* Chamisso has: ‘und selber hat ich Ruhe nicht gewonnen’ -° quite in full swing - 
‘ Helene Demuth -* the Marx family’s address in London 

pretty much as usual, but he had given up the catalogues and re- 
turned to Frédéric Soulié, anyhow a good sign. What do you say to 
this, that he drinks a pint of milk a day, he who could not bear milk to be 
on the table! Anyhow it does him good. Besides rum now and then (in 
the milk especially) he takes a bottle of brandy about every four days. 

The worst is that his case is so complicated that while the most 
pressing things, the breathing organs, have to be attended to, and 
now and then a sleeping draft is to be given, other things have to be 
neglected, for instance the stomach which is as you know none of the 
most perfect organs of digestion. But still his appetite keeps up pretty 
well, and we do our best to supply him such food chiefly as contains 
much nourishment in a small compass. 

_I think our friends have been in too great a hurry with the new 
Egalité. What is to become of the paper if Paul* and Guesde get ‘time to 
serve’ at Moulins, and that is after all not quite impossible? **° 
Guesde’s opening article * is not at all what it should be. What he says of 
judges elected by universal suffrage, is quite as applicable to universal 
suffrage itself; to the Republic, to. any political institution. If Messieurs 
les frangais do not know how to use this universal suffrage tant pis pour 
eux.° Give our people in Germany the right to elect the judges and 
they will carry the election in all large towns and make Berlin too 
hot a shop for old William and Bismarck, unless they have recourse to 
a coup d’état. But to say: white because my adversary says: black, is 
simply subir la loi de son adversatre, et une politique de bébés.. 1 am afraid 
Guesde’s old anarchist rodomontades are cropping up again rather 
fast, and in that case he will lose himself. Paul’s deux embétés: 5°° are 
charming. That is just his line.‘