Ginebra, 7 junio (1930) / José Antonio Ramos Sucre

Geneva, 7 June (1930)

Miss Dolores Emilia Madriz.
Cumaná.

Very illustrious Dolores Emilia:

Yesterday I received your letter and your portrait in the company of sweet Leonor. I kissed your portrait infinite times.

Don’t be impatient with me. I still haven’t been able to visit Paris. The work for the League of Nations and the presence of Venezuelan diplomats in Geneva have made it impossible for me to leave. I promise I will satisfy you.

I warn you that my sorrows continue as cruel as when you consoled me in Caracas. I won’t resign myself to spending the rest of my life, who knows how many years!, in mental decadence. The entire machine has been disorganized. I’m very scared of losing my will to work. I still shave daily. I barely read. I discover a radical change of personality in me. The day after tomorrow I turn forty and it’s been two years since I’ve written a single line. I can barely console myself seeking out the lives of illustrious sick figures that fatality extinguished in the middle of their youth. I beg you don’t allow the legends to flourish that say I’m a cannibal and a savage and an enemy of humanity and women. That legend is the work of my enemies. You know that, on the contrary, I’m very accessible, very indulgent and I’ve never harmed a woman.

The doctors here in Europe haven’t discovered what ails me. I suppose it is accumulated suffering. You know my chain was always very short and heavy. I was born in the house where everything is prohibited.

I beg you excuse these confidences. I kiss the hands of my distinguished cousins and say goodbye to you the same way.

Write me.




{ José Antonio Ramos Sucre, Obra poética, Edición crítica de Alba Rosa Hernández Bossio, Madrid: Colección Archivos, 2001 }