The sky is still resplendent. And the air remains fresh. This makes a cold and brilliant light, a light for intelligence. I read, work and think, slowly, but well. And then your letter. I’m glad the performance went well at the Cité. The students are sometimes stupid and vulgar. But there is something in them that is intact, that can serve as a reference for a work. Yes, my dear heart, my love, I too was thinking and I am thinking about the little apartment in Rome. But there is nothing lost. And maybe it will be possible.
I also understand that you can’t turn to happiness if you feel that I’m not happy. But this is not true. It is true that I feel guilty sometimes. But my progress at the moment is to free myself from these sterile feelings, to escape from mutilation, to accept only “positive” feelings. I am trying to get back to what I was. And this sky, this climate helps me every day. I also know that you love me, that you will stay close to me, and that I will find in you all the joy I need. So don’t worry. I am working in spite of everything.
I won’t finish my essay. But I will continue to work on it and when it is finished, I will have already found that inner freedom that I lack, the freedom of noon, the strength, the silent joy, the one that goes beyond happiness and unhappiness. So let all this mature. On the other hand, what I really need is to find you whole and as far as possible, offered to life. That’s why you have to take care of yourself, relax, be beautiful, live generously, as you know how to do. If I have not worked as much as I hoped, I have worked deeper. And I have huge projects that are burning in my head, from works, a thought, the realization of a style of being. It is here that I need you, as one needs the sun and the earth, so as not to lose oneself. But it is necessary that you find yourself alive, valiant and beautiful.
In three weeks I will be in Paris. That’s what’s important. I can’t believe it, by imagination, I mean. But I know that I will be able to put my hand on you and this certainty makes me melt with happiness. And you, my beautiful, my brunette, my sweet, are you also trembling like I am? Come on, courage! The real spring is going to begin. Write, tell me about yourself. Love me, live for me, tell me too that you are mine. Ah! I want to possess everything of you, to demand everything… I love you.
Don’t be worried or sad. Forgive me if my letters have saddened you. You are my confidante, my friend too, and sometimes we let ourselves go. But the sun is coming back and all we want to do is close our friend’s mouth and ears under a shower of kisses. Let them rain on you, my dearest love, my beloved, and surrender yourself to me. I love you.
Albert Camus to Maria Casarès, Correspondance, March 6, 1950 [#233]