Diary of Marie Bashkirtseff
CZENUKFR

Thursday, 26 August 1875

# Jeudi 26 aout 1875

We have received our photographs — some as the Graces,1 some as disgraces. One could die laughing!

Nous avons recu nos photographies en Graces et en *disgraces .* C'est a mourir de rire !

Walitsky improvises some verses of a kind only he could produce.

Walitsky improvise des vers dont seul il est capable.

*On the Promenade, Audiffret —
[two illegible lines]
Marie [?] having bought [something] on the ice... of goose — Emile winks at her and she shoves the goose into her mouth —
The other lads —
[one illegible line]
jump from the... [?] a landau and stare at her —
and the aunt comes forward and puts on airs —
she is delighted, puts on airs — those watching Marie call her pretty.*
No language but Little Russian1 can express things so clearly and so comically!

Aucune langue que la petite russienne ne peut exprimer les choses si nettement et si drolement !

The Tcherkassys have departed, first for Wiesbaden then for Petersburg. They have left us.

Les Tcherkassky sont partis, d'abord pour Wiesbaden puis pour Petersbourg. Ils sont partis de chez nous.

[Four lines cancelled]

[Quatre lignes cancellees]

I go to Schwalbach with Machenka; Maman and Dina follow in a calèche. There we see Obeziana and her brother — a very well-turned-out and agreeable young man; they watch me a great deal and remain the whole time in the shopping gallery very close to us.

Je vais a Schwalbach avec Machenka, maman et Dina suivent en caleche. La nous voyons *Obeziana* et son frere un garcon tres propre et gentil, ils me regardent beaucoup et restent tout le temps dans la galerie des boutiques tout pres de nous.

We also go to the concert. I love my dear little Schwalbach.

Nous allons aussi a la musique. J'aime beaucoup mon gentil Schwalbach.

I dined at the Nassauer Hof, the fashionable hotel. I spoke there with the Comtesse Benvenuti, an amiable woman but nearly always tipsy. What a sorry state of affairs. No — I see that one must renounce every kind of pursuit. Let us be bored, let us be bored, and remain quiet.

J'ai dine a Nassauer Hof, l'hotel a la mode. J'y ai parle a la comtesse Benvenuti, femme aimable mais presque toujours grise. Misere de monde. Non, je vois qu'il faut renoncer a toute espece de recherche. Ennuyons-nous, ennuyons-nous, et restons tranquilles.

Under our windows a human being did pass this morning — but in the course of the day I lost track of him.

Sous nos fenetres est bien passe un etre humain le matin mais dans la journee j'ai perdu sa trace.

At the door, Stiopa meets us — he has just received a telegram1 from my aunt; the lawyer Plevasko is awaiting him in Paris, and she is summoning Stiopa.

A la porte, Stiopa nous rencontre, il vient de recevoir une depeche de ma tante, l'avocat Plevasko l'attend a Paris et elle appelle Stiopa.

Once again we speak of horses — and they do not irritate me too much, fortunately.

De nouveau nous parlons de chevaux et on ne m'irrite pas beaucoup, heureusement.

Notes

A reference to the Three Graces of classical mythology — the personifications of beauty and charm. Marie's wordplay: en Graces (as the Graces, graceful) vs en disgraces (disgraced, unflattering). ↩
La petite russienne: Marie uses the diminutive to refer to what was then called "Little Russian" (малоросійська), i.e., Ukrainian, distinct from "Great Russian" (великоросійська). In Marie's milieu, the two Slavic languages were often heard together; she is likely referring to Ukrainian expressions in Walitsky's verse. ↩
Dépêche: a telegram. ↩