Pièce 35 - Letter from Roy Randall to R. C. Trevelyan

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Brandon House, Rowfant, Sussex. - Should have written before to thank Trevelyan for sending his poem; read it with 'appreciation and delight'. Thinks Trevelyan will be even more pleased that the soldier with whom Randall now lives 'took to it' despite not usually reading poetry: he copied it out so 'his girl might enjoy it', and thought it was 'what poetry ought to be about'. Trevelyan knows that Randall is 'without ability with languages'; he first began to like Lucretius when translating Book III [of "De Rerum Natura"] as part of a course at University College London and finding his 'philosophy irresistible'. Twenty years later, it 'remains the basis of [his] views about life, love and death'. Had previously relied on Munro's translation, but Trevelyan's version has 'let in the sunlight' and enabled him to appreciate the beauty of the poem as well as the philosophy. Read some of Montaigne's essays last year, though they made him feel 'choked, or... like a small child, translated out of my own age, into a room too full of furniture... where everybody wore velvet'. Glad to have news of Julian and Ursula; looks forward to a time when he can meet them again and 'we can be happy together'.