Jean COCTEAU
"Il m'est encore impossible d'entrer dans les détails d'un long drame intime sans mettre en cause certaines personnes qui sont davantage des victimes du destin que véritablement responsables. Cette longue et triste histoire m'oblige à vivre loin de ce Santo Sospir dont les murs témoignent d'une amitié de quatorze ans..."
Autograph letter to a friend about a broken friendship and his plans to decorate the chapel of Our Lady of Jerusalem in Fréjus
Fréjus 17 Avril 1963|21.50 x 27.50 cm|une page
Autograph letter dated and signed by Jean Cocteau, 20 lines in black ink, on letterhead of the committee for the edification of the chapel of Notre-Dame de Jérusalem de Fréjus.
Fold marks inherent to postal dispatch, one tear in left margin of the letter at the level of the fold.
Jean Cocteau offers profuse apologies while acknowledging mitigating circumstances regarding the emotional burden overwhelming him: "J'accepte vos reproches avec beaucoup de honte. Mais si je pouvais vous raconter la période que je traverse votre coeur me comprendrait et m'absoudrait..." ("I accept your reproaches with great shame. But if I could tell you about the period I am going through your heart would understand and absolve me...") due to a recently deceased friendship about which he does not wish to reveal more: "N'en parlons plus et priez pour moi..." ("Let us speak no more of it and pray for me...")
Jean Cocteau prefers to discuss his projects: "Actuellement je me consacre à mon travail de la chapelle du Saint-Sépulcre. Quand je l'aurai construite, peinte et rendue digne des chevaliers de Jérusalem, je me remettrait (sic) peut-être à écrire..." ("Currently I am devoting myself to my work on the chapel of the Holy Sepulchre. When I have built it, painted it and made it worthy of the knights of Jerusalem, I will perhaps start writing again...") and the prospects that delight him: "Il est probable que je resterais, après Pâques, à Fréjus, où les organisateurs m'offrent une petite villa." ("It is likely that I will remain, after Easter, in Fréjus, where the organizers are offering me a small villa.")
Fold marks inherent to postal dispatch, one tear in left margin of the letter at the level of the fold.
Jean Cocteau offers profuse apologies while acknowledging mitigating circumstances regarding the emotional burden overwhelming him: "J'accepte vos reproches avec beaucoup de honte. Mais si je pouvais vous raconter la période que je traverse votre coeur me comprendrait et m'absoudrait..." ("I accept your reproaches with great shame. But if I could tell you about the period I am going through your heart would understand and absolve me...") due to a recently deceased friendship about which he does not wish to reveal more: "N'en parlons plus et priez pour moi..." ("Let us speak no more of it and pray for me...")
Jean Cocteau prefers to discuss his projects: "Actuellement je me consacre à mon travail de la chapelle du Saint-Sépulcre. Quand je l'aurai construite, peinte et rendue digne des chevaliers de Jérusalem, je me remettrait (sic) peut-être à écrire..." ("Currently I am devoting myself to my work on the chapel of the Holy Sepulchre. When I have built it, painted it and made it worthy of the knights of Jerusalem, I will perhaps start writing again...") and the prospects that delight him: "Il est probable que je resterais, après Pâques, à Fréjus, où les organisateurs m'offrent une petite villa." ("It is likely that I will remain, after Easter, in Fréjus, where the organizers are offering me a small villa.")
€600