Wolfgang to his mother and sister · 14 April 1770
Letters from Mozart · Chapter I Italy · Rom
Listen to the first sentence (German)
The letter and its translation
Ich bin, Gott Lob und Dank! nebst meiner miserablen Feder gesund und küsse die Mama und die Nannerl tausend oder 1000 Mal.
I am thankful to say that my stupid pen and I are all right, so we send a thousand kisses to you both.
Ich wünschte nur, daß meine Schwester zu Rom wäre, denn ihr würde diese Stadt gewiß wohl gefallen, indem die Peterskirche regulär, und viele andere Sachen zu Rom regulär sind.
I wish that my sister were in Rome, for this city would assuredly delight her, because St. Peter's is symmetrical, and many other things in Rome are also symmetrical.
O ich habe eine Noth. In unserm Quartier ist nur ein Bett. Das kann die Mama sich leicht einbilden, daß ich bei dem Papa keine Ruhe habe.
Oh! I have one annoyance--there is only a single bed in our lodgings, so mamma may easily imagine that I get no rest beside papa.
Jetzt habe ich just den heil. Petrus mit dem Schlüsselamt, den heiligen Paulus mit dem Schwert, und den heiligen Lukas mit meiner Schwester etc. etc. abgezeichnet.
I have just finished sketching St. Peter with his keys, St. Paul with his sword, and St. Luke with--my sister, &c., &c.
Ich habe die Ehre gehabt, des heil. Petrus Fuß zu S. Pietro zu küssen, und weil ich das Unglück habe, so klein zu sein, so hat man mich als den nämlichen alten Wolfgang Mozart hinaufgehoben.
I had the honor of kissing St. Peter's foot at San Pietro, and as I have the misfortune to be so short, your good old Wolfgang Mozart was lifted up!
Selected sentences from the letter. The translation is our own.
Father and son spent April 1770 in Rome. It was during these days that Wolfgang famously heard Allegri's Miserere in the Sistine Chapel and wrote it down from memory. This short text is a postscript added to his father's letter.
In the app the letter arrives line by line like a message, with the meaning under each word, and you can talk with the writer. Chapter I is free.
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Credits
- Picture: Giovanni Battista Piranesi · Rijksmuseum · Ansicht der Basilika und des Petersplatzes im Vatikan · c. 1748 (Vedute di Roma) · Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (RP-P-OB-39.301) · CC0 · source
- Letter text: Mozarts Briefe (L. Nohl, 1865), Nr. 9 · public domain · archive.org
- Narration: made with Supertonic 3 (Supertone Inc.), model licence OpenRAIL-M.
- All sources: Lingua Museum sources and licences
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