Everything is prose

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from Drenthe, 27 September 1883

Can you assure me that the usual remittance will not be lacking? . . . I tell you, the condition on which the usual money loan will be sufficient is that one is well equipped to begin with, and starts with a supply of certain things. . . . Though I went as far as Drenthe, I shrink, not from taking the first step, but from taking the next one without being sure of my footing.

Experience forces me to demand a definite fixed arrangement. . . .

One must not undertake expeditions without the thorough conviction that one will be hampered everywhere and always by people who stand staring, but are unwilling to lend a helping hand. One must expect to be distrusted at every inn - like any poor peddler (for that is what they take one for). Often one has to pay the money for board and lodging in advance - as I have to do here - to get them to take one in for pity's sake. And so everything is prose, everything is calculation in regard to a plan for an excursion, which, after all, has poetry for its end.

Letter 329
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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