Letter 3
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French text (original)
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English translation
Copyright © 2010 by Luis Sundkvist
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Chère Mademoiselle Fanny!
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Dear Mademoiselle Fanny" [1]
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| Nous sommes à Moscou deja plus de trois semaines
et chaque jour toute les personnes de notre famille se rapellent
de vous, il est si triste chez nous 3 personnes nous manquent beaucoup.
Vous, ma tante et ma cousine Anastasie; je Vous assure que chaque jour
je me rappelle de l'education que Vous nous avez donné; mercredi
rappellez vous comme j'aprenai bien, vendredi aussi, et samedi
rapellez
vous! quand vous nous écriviez combien nous avions de 1-mière dans-nos
semaines. On ne peut se rapeller de cette vie de Votkinsk je voudrais bien pleurez
quand je pense à cela. A present nous apprenons
chez Zina et je suis
bien content que nous ayons quelqu'un pour apprendre. |
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We have been in Moscow
for more than three weeks now, and every day all the members of our family
think about you, it is so sad here, we miss 3 people very much. You, Auntie [3], and my
cousin Anastasiia [4].
I assure you that every day I think of the education which you have given
us. Do you remember how well I learnt my lessons on Wednesdays, and on
Fridays too, and how on Saturdays you would write out for us how many
top marks each of us had obtained during the week! I cannot bear to think
back to our life in Votkinsk
I very much feel like crying when I think about it. At present we are
having lessons with Zina,
and I am very glad that we have someone who can teach us. |
| Ici j'ai vu bien des choses que jamais je n'ai
vu. |
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Here I have seen a lot of things which I had never seen
before. |
| Papa
est allé d'ici à Pétérsbourg
pour nous apreter un cartié [2]. Nous sommes
grace à Dieu bien portant et vous ma chère Mademoiselle Fanny? Ecrivez le moi je Vous en prie. |
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Papa
has left for Petersburg
in order to get an apartment ready for us [5]. We are well, thanks be to
God, and are you my dear
Mademoiselle Fanny? Please do let me know. |
| Votre reconnaissant élève |
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Your grateful pupil |
| Pierre Tschaikowsky |
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Petr Tchaikovsky |
Notes
- In the autumn of 1848, Il'ia Tchaikovsky, after
resigning his post in Votkinsk,
had brought his family to Moscow,
where he was hoping to obtain a more lucrative job. Since the plan was that
the older children (Nikolai,
Petr and their cousin Lidiia,
who had been living with them after her own mother's death) would soon be
enrolled in boarding-schools, whereas the younger children (Aleksandra and Ippolit) needed a nanny
rather than a governess, Fanny
Dürbach decided not to accompany the Tchaikovskys to Moscow but to stay in Votkinsk, where she found employment
with another family. This separation was very difficult for both Fanny and Petr. She would
not see any member of the Tchaikovsky family again until New Year's Day
1893, when her beloved pupil, now a world-famous composer, visited her in Montbéliard [back]
- Young Petr has tried to render the Russian word
квартир (kvartira; "lodging, apartment") directly into French, which
is not so unreasonable, given that etymologically it is related to the French
word quartier [back]
- Nadezhda Timofeevna Val'tseva (d. 1851), the
composer's godmother; she was an elderly relative of his mother Aleksandra. The
icon of the Mother of God of Kazan which she bequeathed to him hangs to
this day in the composer's bedroom at the Tchaikovsky House-Museum in Klin [back]
- Anastasiia Popova (1807–1894)—also known affectionately
as "Sestritsa" or "Little Sister"—was the daughter of the composer's aunt Evdokiia Popova. As a spinster
she lived with the Tchaikovsky family in Votkinsk and, though known for
her parsimony in housekeeping matters, she adored her little cousin and
would spoil him with treats every so often [back]
- Il'ia
Tchaikovsky was cheated of the lucrative job he had been promised in Moscow, and he immediately set off
for Saint Petersburg to
try to secure a new official appointment [back]
This page was last updated
on 26 February 2012
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