Letter from Bogdan Suchodolski written in 15.07.1944

15/7/44

x       Dear Roman,

I was very happy to get your card, because they wrote to me from Lviv about your departure, but couldn’t give me your address. I even looked for you by way of acquaintances in Cracow, obviously in vain. It seems that the treatment facility you chose for yourself is excellent, and it’d be a good thing if you were to stay there longer. Is that possible? If no difficulties arise there, it’ll probably be possible to extend this ‘vacation’, even if it means giving up salary. I’ll gladly read excerpts from your ‘Poetics’. As I guess, the transaction I proposed to you before last year – the sales transaction – would also be important to you. Most likely it’ll still be possible, even though I haven’t seen the bidders for a long time. Given the opportunity, however, I wanted to ask you whether you wouldn’t be inclined – you yourself or your wife – to translate a book of some kind, e.g. E. Borne, P. Simon, Le travail et l’homme [French: Work and Man; actually attributed to Borne and François Henry (no information found – possibly a nom de plume for Simon)]. It would be payable up to 500 zlotys per arkusz [40,000 characters] – it wouldn’t require great effort and the result may yield no less than teaching school. Of course, this isn’t a pleasant occupation, but it can be treated as profitable. I don’t know whether you’d need this given the present conditions. If you were in Warsaw, you could probably sell other items from your library as well – if it’s difficult to choose, at least write as to what you could offer. I’ll try to arrange this while it’s still possible to make a transaction of this type.
As for me, the last few months have been calmer and actually free of compulsory classes. I’ve continued my earlier study of the spiritual life of man and time. Unfortunately, the inevitable gaps in the reading needed for this paper diverted me into the area of pedagogical problems with which I’m better acquainted and concerning which I can – ultimately – write without fresh reading. This has resulted in the analysis of contemporary pedagogical currents from the standpoint of the concept of life in time and eternity – interesting, I think. The manuscript already runs to over 600 typed pages.
 x  Cordial kisses and a handshake for your wife

BS