“I do not arrive at what I would like in these countries.”

Original: Je n’arriverai jamais à ce que je voudrais, dans ces pays. — The remark conveys a persistent sense of thwarted ambition despite years of effort abroad. · Letter from Aden, 15 January 1885 (French)

• Ambition
• Disappointment
• Exile

“I am going to Paris, the great city.”

Original: Je vais à Paris, la grande ville. — Paris represents intellectual freedom and the wider world beyond the confines of provincial life. · Letter to Georges Izambard, August 1870 (French)

• Freedom
• Place
• Travel

“If brass wakes up as a bugle, it is not its fault.”

Original: Si le cuivre s’éveille clairon, il n’y a rien de sa faute. — The metaphor presents the poet as an instrument through which something beyond conscious intention finds expression. · Letter to Paul Demeny, 15 May 1871 (French)

• Consciousness
• Creation
• Poetry