I have the honour of sending you, for your magazine, an article
which I hope you will be able to comprehend rather more
distinctly than I do myself. It is a translation, by my friend
Martin Van Buren Mavis (sometimes called the 'Poughkeepsie
Seer'), of an odd-looking MS, which I found, about a year ago,
tightly corked up in a jug floating in the --a
sea well described by the Nubian geographer, but seldom visited
now-a-days, except by the transcendentalists and divers for
crotchets.-Very truly,
EDGAR A. POE
ON BOARD BALLOON 'SKYLARK'
1, 2848
Now, my dear friend--now, for your sins, you are to suffer the
infliction of a long gossiping letter. I tell you distinctly
that I am going to punish you for all your impertinences by being
as tedious, as discursive, as incoherent and as unsatisfactory as
possible. Besides, here I am, cooped up in a dirty balloon, with
some one or two hundred of the, all bound on a excursion (what a funny idea some people have of
pleasure!), and I have no prospect of touching
for a month at least. Nobody to talk to. Nothing to do. When
one has nothing to do, then is the time to correspond with friends. You perceive, then, why it is that I write you this
letter--it is on account of my and your sins.
Get ready your spectacles and make up your mind to
If you know your languages and more especially if you love good literature,
LOGOS LIBRARY gives you the chance to translate whatever you think you do best.
ENGLISH -other works by Author -
