BR TO CONSTANCE MALLESON, 7 DEC. 1920
BRACERS 19715. ALS. McMaster
Edited by S. Turcon. Reviewed by K. Blackwell

Peking,1
7 Dec. 1920

My Beloved

Your letter of Oct. 202 came last night — it says wonderful things about your wanting “men as civilized as their own civilization, not softly so, but with a hard dry passion, with knowledge of eternity, not for themselves, but for civilization”. You go on “You mayn’t understand what I mean, or know the passion that tears my whole being, nor the fear of spiritual birth or death” — but oh my Dear I do know and I do understand — and I too would creep into your arms. My Beloved, I feel you are lonely and unhappy but very much alive — and that is the great thing. Since I left Paris I have not been much alive — the heat of the tropics was terrible, and then here there was such a lot of speaking and journalism to do that one had no leisure for big thoughts. But it is getting better now and will soon be better still. I have made friends with some nice Russians, who have life and feeling. The Chinese are sleepy, their eyes look always as if they were drugged with opium. — You write about the Oct. moon when it was nearly full. The night it was full (when there was an eclipse)3 I dined at a banquet in Chang-sha, given by the Governor of Hu-Nan, in the very centre of China. When the eclipse began people beat gongs, in the old regulation style, as they did 4000 years ago; and they lit fires, to receive the moon by sympathetic magic. Meanwhile we feasted and drank Chinese wine. It was like the scene in the beginning of the Confucian history4 when the astronomers-royal get drunk during an eclipse.

Thank you, my heart’s Love, for the picture of yourself — it is a great joy to have it — bless you. I return the 2 letters5 — I am very glad of both. Also very very glad about your journal6 — I know so well the feeling “have I come to the end?” Goodbye my heart’s Comrade7 — I love you, love you, love you —

B

• 1

  [document] Document 200716.

• 2

  Your letter of Oct. 20 Her letter written from Norwich (BRACERS 116421). This edited version still contains these quoted passages except that “understand” is replaced by “know”.

• 3

  eclipse The lunar eclipse took place on 27 October 1920 (NASA Eclipse website).

• 4

  scene in the … Confucian history There is an ancient Chinese story about two royal astronomers who got drunk and thus did not predict an eclipse. They were punished. Confucius (551 BC–479 BC) was not opposed to drinking alcohol. Perhaps BR is dating this story to when Confucius was writing.

• 5

  I return the 2 letters It is not known which letters were returned.

• 6

  your journal Colette called this journal the “Mummers Journal”, a reference to actors; she told BR in her letter of 10 October 1920 (BRACERS 116420) that she had started one. The first entry in the “Mummers Journal” is dated 30 April [1920] describing their parting at the train station before he left for Russia. The last entry in the Mummers Journal is 30 December 1920. Part of the material consists of various versions of her four letters that together with BR’s four created their “Russia Letters”. The Journal is extant in her papers, RA box 6.74.

• 7

  heart’s Comrade For information on the use of the term, see BRACERS 19145, n.12.