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Dvr H.Adler
PAL/30765
650, G.T.Coy R.A.S.C
“B”Platoon
C.M.F

29 September

Now I am sitting behind my steering wheel, and an irresistible urge has taken me to call out my love. Then I began to murmur your name, darling: Yvette, my little one, my Yvette—- And I was so close to you. And I no longer saw anything but you, my darling. I covered you with a thousand tendernesses, a thousand kisses. I caressed and cuddled you and a divine sweetness penetrated my soul.

Now I am writing to you. This is my third letter since I am here. I want to believe that you have received them all. But whatever is the case, you mustn’t be concerned. I am safe, have been for a long time since my mascot is your immense pure love for me. Never had anyone so much richness in his heart as me, having you.

Tonight we had our first and powerful autumn storm. I was on guard. It was a marvel to see. The mountains and the sky merged, making only one. A violent wind hurled in on all sides. The night was torn by flashes of lightning, followed by rhythmical thunderclaps and the rain  fell- a real downpour! It was beautiful, Yvette. I am so sure that you would love it, as I do. I then dreamed constantly of you and I thought of how many spectacles would have been more beautiful had I gazed at them with you by my side. And you came, darling. And everything was so beautiful, my God, so beautiful! We held each other’s hands and before our eyes was the formidable light of the lightning flashes. And we heard nothing but the sounds of nature unleashed.  Those of the war were extinguished.  There was only the noise of our hearts beating in unison, harmoniously accompanying the celestial music.

Oh darling, it is so useless to want to tell you, to want to make you understand how much I love you. How much I have need of you. How much you are always present, living within me. It is useless, for it exceeds my power of expression. It surpasses everything that I have said to you up to now. It surpasses all that the most remarkable spirits have ever said on the subject of love. If I did not feel the risibility of this exclamation, I would have called out:” Darling, darling, I love you – with more than love!”

It is almost a year since you came to Guena(?)

I have been thinking of that for several days, and dreaming of it for several nights. I love to lose myself in times past and to follow you there minute by minute. From your appearance until your departure. From my stupefaction when I saw you come right until my dumbness when I saw you leave. I see with perfect exactness every minute of that day. All the details.

I see you, sitting in my tent, on my bed. You gaze caresses my heart sweetly. But it is violently that I feel it. I don’t speak – except to eat it- and you laugh. Oh, how wonderfully you laugh! If you knew how I love your laugh. Then you ask the time and I give you my watch. And you give me the Baudelaire. And we left. Dov. The room with the great tree looking through the window. The tree – dumb witness, which saw that we were inhabited by the Gods. There, our souls intermingled. There our bodies were moulded into one. There, I at last knew your body so much loved and desired. Your body- that I desire and love to much, so much – like your soul.

The meal. With Paul. The little Arab who read our eyes and picked you some flowers. The Nile. The barque. The woman. Then at the Club, where I told you some tales.

The evening. The taxi. The departure. My happiness and my peaceful sadness which together took possession of my heart. Oh darling, I see all that so distinctly. What good fortune (happiness? Bonheur) to have you for a wife, Yvette! What happiness  (good fortune?) to be loved by you!

Darling, my little adored one, I miss you, oh how I miss you. I pine for you. Everywhere. Always. I live for the day of our reunion. A final reunion. Without any more separation.

And I will love you; I will love you so very much- that you will understand the profound languor that inhabits my soul every minute that I am without you.

Goodbye, darling, kisses and tendernesses,

Your Henri

Don’t worry darling if my letters don’t arrive regularly. For my part, it is six weeks since I heard anything from you.  But soon, I will have a whole packet of your letters. H