Letter from Sigmund Freud to Arnold Zweig, May 2, 1935

Vienna XIX, Strassergasse 47
2. 5. 1935

Dear Meister Arnold,

I am sitting in my room in Grinzing, in front of me the glorious garden with its fresh green and reddish brown leaves (copper beech) and I note that the snowstorm with which May came in has stopped (or paused) and that a cold sun dominates the climate. My idea of enjoying spring on Mt. Carmel with you was, of course, only a fantasy. Even supported by my faithful Anna-Antigone I could not undertake any journey; on the contrary, I have recently had to undergo a cauterisation in the oral cavity.

I cannot say that much is happening in my world. Since I have not been able to smoke freely, I no longer wish to write, or perhaps I only use this as a pretext to veil the unproductiveness of old age.Moses will not let go of my imagination. I picture myself reading it aloud to you when you come to Vienna, despite my defective speech. In an account of Tel el Amarna, which has not yet been fully excavated, I noticed a comment on a certain Prince Thothmes, of whom nothing further is known. If I were a millionaire, I would finance the continuation of these excavations. This Thothmes could be my Moses and I would be able to boast that I had guessed right.

At the instigation of the Fischer Verlag I have written a short address1 for Thomas Mann's sixtieth birthday (6 June) and I have slipped in an admonition which I hope will not pass unnoticed. The times are dark, fortunately it is not my task to put them right.

With warmest greetings

Yours
Freud