"...Te escribo en plena posesión de mi presencia de espíritu y no como un loco: como el hermano que tu conoces.
Esta es la verdad: un cierto número de personas de aquí ha dirigido al alcalde una nota señalándome como un hombre indigno de vivir en libertad o algo por el estilo. Han dado la orden de que me volvieran a internar...
Solamente digo que para liberarme lo encontrarás difícil. Si yo no retuviera mi indignación me juzgarías inmediatamente como un loco furioso. Esperemos pacientemente; por otra parte, las emociones fuertes no harían mas que agravar mi estado. Por eso te induzco por la presente a que les dejes hacer sin mezclarte....
...No te oculto que hubiese preferido morir, que causar y sufrir tantas molestias.
Qué quieres? Sufrir sin quejarse es la única lección que hay que apreder en esta vida.
Mi querido hermano: lo mejor es quizás ridiculizar nuestras pequeñas miserias y también un poco las grandes de la vida humana. Toma tu resolución como hombre y no pierdas de vista tu objetivo. Nosotros, artistas en la sociedad actual, no somos más que cántaros quebrados. Cuánto desearía poder enviarte mis telas; pero todo está bajo llave, cerrojos y guardias.
No trates de liberarme; esto se arreglará solo; advierte sin embargo a Signac que no se mezcle, porque meterá la mano en un avispero, no hasta que vuelva a escribir..."
Vincent a Theo
Arles, marzo 1889
“…I write to you in the full posesión of my faculties and not as a madman, but as the brother you know. This is the truth: a certain number of people here addressed a petition to the Mayor, describing me as a man not fit to be at liberty, or something like that…then gave the order to shut me up again…But I do say that as for getting me freed, you would find it difficult. If I did not restrain my indignation, I should at once be thought a dangerous lunatic. Let as hope and have patience. Besides, strong emotion can only aggravate my case. That is why I beg you for the present to let things be whithout meddling.
…I will no deny that I would rather have died than have caused and sufferd such trouble. Well, well, to suffer without complaining is the lesson that has to be learned in this life.
My dear boy, the best we can do perhaps is to make fun of our petty griefs and, in a way, of the great griefs of human life too. Take it like a man, go straight to your goal. In present-day society we artists are Orly the broken pitchers. I so wish I Could send you my canvases, but all of them are under lock and key, guarded by the police and keepers. Don´t try to release me, thet will settle itself, but warn Signac not to meddle in it, for he would be putting his hand into a hornets´nest- not until I write again…”
Vincent to Theo
Arles, march 1889
…I will no deny that I would rather have died than have caused and sufferd such trouble. Well, well, to suffer without complaining is the lesson that has to be learned in this life.
My dear boy, the best we can do perhaps is to make fun of our petty griefs and, in a way, of the great griefs of human life too. Take it like a man, go straight to your goal. In present-day society we artists are Orly the broken pitchers. I so wish I Could send you my canvases, but all of them are under lock and key, guarded by the police and keepers. Don´t try to release me, thet will settle itself, but warn Signac not to meddle in it, for he would be putting his hand into a hornets´nest- not until I write again…”
Vincent to Theo
Arles, march 1889
