I am cold

Katherine Mansfield's words for survival

Welcome to the 54th issue of the Lists of Note newsletter. Each week, a new (old) list.

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Katherine Mansfield (Photo: Wikimedia)

For much of her adult life, Katherine Mansfield battled tuberculosis, and in October 1922, in a final attempt to regain her health, she moved to the Gurdjieff Institute at Fontainebleau, France. Run by the mystic George Gurdjieff, the institute was austere and demanding, and Mansfield—frail, desperately ill, and surrounded by Russian-speaking followers—struggled to adapt. In the back of her notebook, above a journal entry, she compiled a list of words and phrases she needed translated into Russian—a stark and moving record of her most basic needs. Less than three months later, on 9th January 1923, she died at the age of 34.

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I am cold
bring paper to light a fire
paper
cinders
wood
matches
mlame
smoke
strong
strength
light a fire
no more fire
because there is no more fire
white paper
black paper
what is the time?
It is late
It is still early
good!
I would like to speak Russian with you.

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Source: The Katherine Mansfield Notebooks: Volume 2, published by Lincoln University Press in 1997.

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