Dear Vladimír,
I’m in hospital! I don’t want to die and I’m not about to kick the bucket, but apparently I have angina pectoris, so I need to take it easy – and it’s driving me crazy. I am close to Šrámek here, and so I lie in bed, walk a bit, etc. and am trying to keep busy, working on those translations to kill time. As you know I’d like to get my hands on that book, but I don’t know where or how. You’ll certainly be here before I get it. Can you hold out? Maybe you could write Klika at Družstevní práce (Cooperative Works) and refer to me so that he’ll lend you it, he certainly wouldn’t mind. I’m now reading The Idiot and so everything is poor in comparison. I’d also like to read some more Hardy. I’m familiar with those obsessions. I would also like to see you again. Horrible news is pursuing us. I’m afraid to see it in writing: Orten is killed by a car! It has wound me up so tightly that I don’t see an end in sight. I can see you turning pale. Sending my best wishes and wishing you were already here.
Yours, Franc
My current address is on Na Cihlářce Street in Smíchov – that’s the new wing of the former Bakule Institute for Education Through Life and Work.