Letter from Amy Fay to her sister Zina
(Berlin, 06.08.1870)



 
Spanish translation & annotations
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Berlin, Aug. 6th, 1870

 

 

My Dearest Zie,

I have been greatly exercised over all your troubles & indeed I do not see how you can stand the heat of Cambridge & the wear & tear of such a life. Charlie & I both feel pretty uneasy about you, now that you are left entirely without a balance, & we feel us if there was no knowing what you might rush into. If you could only find some good and reliable assistant! It really seems shocking to me that you should have to be entirely devoted to the care of other people's dirty clothes. It must be a terrible undertaking, but I hope that before many weeks you will find a way of making

 

the thing easier. If it once does succeed, I think Cambridge ought to vote you a good round sum in hard money! I have been thinking so much what a good thing it would be for you if you could come out here & make me a little visit. If you could save up three or four hundred dollars, & could come here for a month or two even it would be such a rest for you. The long sea voyage, & then the quiet here with the agreeable round of fine music & little entertainments that we could get up, would be a great pleasure to you I am sure. At all events I feel very anxious that you should do something for your health, and when I think how entirely Charlie & I are dependant upon you, it makes me tremble. Charlie is as well as possible,



& I have never seen him so free from nervousness, & in a such good condition. I think he was right to take this relaxation, even if it does plunge him with debt, for, as he said last night, the grand moral of Ben's death is  "take care of your health." You know Charlie is always lucky, & lands on his feet somehow. I only wish that you would go the same principle. I was delighted to see him, and we have had charming time together. I suppose he has written you how fortunate he was to get a room just opposite mine in the other house. We are on the same floor, & only separated by a corridor. It is extremely convenient, for other wise we should have had a good deal of running back and forth. I get through my practising by day & then about

[five or six o'clock we go out to drive or something]


[Pages 4-11 are omitted: they may be read in Music-Study in Germany, 82-85]

& has had immense experience as a teacher. You ought to see Charlie with all his contrivances – his guide books, his pedometer, his new umbrella, his new trunk, his new opera-glass, his new bag, his new cane? He sits down & enumerates one after the other the places he is going to. Can't you hear him saying "from Berlin to Dresden, from Dresden to Vienna, from Vienna to Prague, from Prague to Pesth," etc.? We went yesterday and had my photograph taken but I don't know wheter it will be good for anything, as the weather is so heat that I can't keep my hair incrimp, or my complexion in decent condition. We are going next week to Dresden for a few days. Charlie seems to be more desperately in love with you than ever. He came in the other day & threw himself down on my sofa gloomily & said "I should

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

not be sorry if I got a telegram saying that is unnecessary for me to take this journey". "Why?", says I. "Because I want to see my wife" said he. I thought a change had come over the spirit of his dream (...)

 

Transcription by Sylvia Mitarachi (Schlesinger Library, Fay Family Papers)
Proyecto de investigación "La correspondencia europea de C. S. Peirce: creatividad y cooperación científica (Universidad de Navarra 2007-09)

Fecha del documento: 3 de marzo 2011
Última actualización: 14 de septiembre 2017
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