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PARTISAN REVIEW
artistic passion ultimately leads to in our time. The shape which it
ultimately acquires.
In the final analysis the artist's position on one problem or
another is not the most essential thing. Nor are his choices and
temporary allegiances. What is crucial is whether or not he will be
seized by the wave that also moves time.
If
so, it will carry him far away,
and ultimately all the questions and all the answers will intermingle
and drown, becoming but a fading memory.
It is my belief that such is the position of Camus in our era, that he
escaped stagnation in that allegedly incontestable novelty which is
really embedded in the past and has long ago become ossified. Camus is
always in the forefront with the best of his attributes, with his
language, his interests, his yearnings, and his tastes. He continues to
live, to depart, he is constantly reborn and incessantly renewed by the
seriousness of his work and the weightiness of his decisions.
How close all this is to me!
Translated from the Russian by
Maurice Friedberg
Albert Camus to Boris Pasternak
June 9, 1958
Dear Boris Pasternak,
Rene Char,
1
who is my best friend, gave me your address because
he knows the friendship and admiration that I have long felt for your
work and the man whom one feels living within. I just wanted to send
you a small text whose only importance is that of a far-off, but faithful,
sign with regards to you.
2
There are a few of us in France who know
you, who share your life, in a certain way. I, who would be nothing
without the Russian nineteenth century, I find in you once more the
Russia that nourished me and gave me strength. It is false to say that
frontiers do not exist. They do exist, temporarily. But at the same time
there exists a force of creativity and truth uniting us all, in humility
and pride at the same time. I never felt this more than while reading
you and that is why I would like to express my gratitude and my
solidarity. I send warm wishes to you and yours, for your work and
your great country. I shake your hand.
I.
French poet and friend of Camus.
2. Camus's Nobel Prize speech.
Albert Camus
