Syntactic Trees

Love letter from an unidentified author to José Moro, Spaniard, prisoner.

The author expresses her longing and sadness at not seeing the recipient, and promises him fidelity. She finishes her letter with two stanzas and a monogram with the letters E and J.

José Moro, a Spanish prisoner in the jail of Belém, Lisbon, was found with some papers and eleven counterfeit lead coins. Among the papers, hidden in the clothes of the prisoner, the warden found a book full of counts, drawings, letters and notes. Testifying about the reasons of his detention, the accused declared he had been arrested after the order of the Intendant to arrest every Spanish person, in the 7th of June 1828 (PS6024.

«Dear love of my soul,

I can, no longer, suppress in my chest such fiery passion, which remains in my heart. As soon as I saw your sweet letters, my heart was full of pleasure and joy, but, at the same time, sad as the sad night. Oh, how much better it would have been if I had never met you, instead of seeing you and such a sad scene, but yes, my dear, I wish I could give you the freedom my heart wishes for, but I wish this ends soon. Oh, heaven, blessed would be the one who could see you with the freedom my heart wishes for. Don’t pay attention to my insignificant letters and accept my longing heart. From the one who promises to be faithful and steady until death, because I have your letter reserved in my heart, since only in your presence can I declare my feelings.

When my heart starts to pulse

In secret, it’s telling me

That with you, sooner or later

Happy I will surely be!

I wanted to say goodbye, I couldn’t

I held tight your lovely hand

With all this tenderness and longing

How I’m still alive, I don’t understand.

I expect an answer as soon as you receive this.»