Diary of Marie Bashkirtseff
CZENUKFR

Sunday, 10 June 1877

Alexandre is done! Which makes me want to make one for myself — but let me describe the painting first. It is an oblong where on an absolutely black ground one sees two heads looking at each other, bound together by a cord issuing from their respective cravats. At the centre of the cord hangs a heart with the word buono on it — which makes it plain as day: Buonocore,35 their usurer. And at the bottom one reads this stanza from Dante, Canto V of the Inferno: "... Maestro chi son quelle Genti, che l'aer nero si castiga?"36

# Dimanche 10 juin 1877

After a long and pleasant sea-bath we all dined together — Bihovetz and the Anitchkoffs. After that there was card-playing; as it bored me, I sketched them all and tomorrow I shall put them on canvas. It is only just — these household monsters must be immortalised.

Après un bain de mer long et agréable nous avons dîné tous ensemble, Bihovetz et les Anitchkoff. Après quoi il y eut jeu de cartes or, comme cela m'embêtait je les ai croqués tous et demain les mettrai sur toile. C'est justice, il faut bien que ces monstres domestiques soient immortalisés.

I have a crowd of things to paint, and this, combined with my imminent departure, makes me quite anxious.

J'ai une foule de choses à peindre et cela, combiné avec mon prochain départ, me rend tout à fait inquiète.

Grand-maman's portrait is finished — it took six days, since Alexandre took four of the ten. I fully expect to be given something for it; Grand-papa will give, for I assure you any shop would pay a hundred francs for it — anywhere at all.

Le portrait de grand-maman est fini, j'y ai mis six jours, puisqu'Alexandre en a pris quatre sur les dix. J'espère bien qu'on me donnera quelque chose, grand-papa donnera car je vous assure qu'on me le payerait cent francs dans une boutique, partout enfin.

The house is full of children — the Anitchkoff children irritate me considerably: dirty, tedious, ill-bred!

La maison est pleine d'enfants, ceux des Anitchkoff m'énervent passablement, sales, ennuyeux, mal élevés !

How short life is — one has time to do nothing.

Que la vie est courte, on n'a le temps de rien faire.

Nasimoff writes that San Cesario has killed himself in consequence of forged papers of which he is the author. Brrr...

Nasimoff écrit que San Cesario s'est suicidé à la suite de faux papiers dont il est l'auteur. Brrr...

Notes

Buono (Italian: good) is Marie's pun on Buonocore, the moneylender to whom both Alexandre and Melissano are indebted. ↩
Dante, Inferno, Canto V, ll. 35–36: "Master, who are those people whom the dark air so punishes?" — spoken by Dante to Virgil in the circle of the lustful. Marie applies it with ironic wit to two young men bound by debt to their creditor. ↩