A Letter to Poline from Aron
March 1/14 1914
Kishinev to Paris
Rue Vieille du Temple 41

My dear friend, my good friend, Poline. I am in a hurry to you with this letter. I am not myself. It is the first of March. It is going to be the first of April soon and then… With every day the pain and suffering  because of the absence of my beloved person is less. At the same time, it is less of [?] so you don’t even want to think about it. You only think about that time to be with you. I wanted to be Edison the second and invent that kind of machine for short time so I could rest in my bed, see you and talk to you from Paris. This idea is very original and very decent. Why, Polinka, did you offend me? I just received 1 letter from you and 1 postcard. A person cannot live without heart and the heart cannot live without the body. That’s why we need to support each other with our letters. Can you do the same way Uncle Ooch does? Uncle Ooch is a very spoiled boy and he wants to see many letters from the aunt every day. And he wants to kiss you, but you are far away. Soon it’s going to be the first of May. This day is the holiday for the international proletariat. The whole worker’s class that day is celebrating the freedom from the slavery of the capitalists. And we are going to celebrate the freedom of the slavery of being apart. That day and you bright, happy, and full of joy. Life is going to start. Such a dream to see each other. We have to be stronger. Then we are going to be worthy people. And you, Polinka, are good, sweet, kind-hearted bitter, spoiled, slovenly pig lady, but my beloved girl, is it true or not? That’s enough fooling around. Now I want to go to the point. Every day I am sending newspapers to you and you, Polya, will be reading them because I am going to send them all the time. I doubt it if you received all of the letters I sent to you because there is one letter in which you are not saying about something I asked. I am asking you to give the answer to every letter and please write what date it was sent by me.  What if somebody can see my letter and find out about our “big secret between two people”? Does your father know that you are going to leave for Switzerland soon? Does he know that I am coming to you? Does he know that I am coming to you?  Does he know if you are going to leave with me? I already asked your question and you didn’t answer it.  I am expecting to receive a card soon, and then we will know what port we are going through and I wrote to you that we ask to go to Hamburg because it is the best port, but I will have to have to two pieces of luggage. One I am going to send to the port and the second one to Paris. Please tell me what to do. I feel like a shame to leave home and that I don’t say anything to my Mom and to everybody. So what should I do? Greetings to yours. They can see that I am receiving letters from you. So in your cards, you are using the familiar form of you and they suspect something. My mom told me the other day that I prepare myself to leave for Paris. Before I leave I have to tell the truth to her. What do you think? It is mother, and I am her beloved son. It is hard, difficult, and terrible. Please give me your advise, Polya. Now I’m working very hard from 7 am till 11:30 pm, and it is a very tiring job. I don’t think that I am going to work more than that in America. I have a strong belief that life is better over there than here. The sales are going up now before the holidays, and I want this time to pass as soon as possible so I can get some rest.  Please tell me my dear Polya how you are doing. How are you feeling? How are you spending your time? What are you doing? Do you walk? I would be very happy to learn if you went to the opera. I know you love music and singing and now you have enough time to enjoy the art. It is much better than sitting at home and doing nothing. Go listen, Polya, go anywhere. Don’t look at the spoiled people. Damn them. In the previous letter you wrote to me about Tsillie, and in this case, Polya, you were mistaken. You were suffering in vain. If I have an opinion about something, it is very true and correct. You should look at her differently. She doesn’t deserve your attention. I understand that it is painful, but it is true also. You can find out more about her hypocrisy. She wants to be with everybody and everywhere neutral. She wants to be not involved and look like she is good for everybody. [Like a goose going out from the water dry.] Mr. Serzhukhovskiy replaced Goldman and started to visit her frequently. And she is, poor girl, very happy about that. And she started flirting with him. And I want you to know that it is true.  What do you think about him? You know him. You grew up together with her and you probably understand more sense in that matter. Let it be secret.  Goldman didn’t return the money yet, but I think that he was using my weakness. I heard that Chialapin is coming. I don’t know if it is true or not. We received a letter from my sister yesterday from America, and she is writing that they accepted her well and that she is going to write a letter with details about the trip. Within the last time the immigration increased. Intelligent, well-educated people are leaving. By the way, soon Debrors youngest brother’s fiancé is going to him to America. She’s a very nice, beautiful young lady. You probably know her and him. That seems to be all of what I was going to write. Please write to me that everything is well with you. And tell me when you are going to send a picture. My god, it has been a long time. My dear girl, be healthy, beautiful, good. I wish you well, happiness, and all the best. Your beloved Arnoldushka, your soul and your heart. I kiss you a lot. You are my life. Izner is asking that you write to her a letter. She wants it. Yakovlevskaya 124.