Rimbaud: Complete Works, Selected Letters

Five Poems by Rimbaud

from Rimbaud: Complete Works, Selected Letters, a Bilingual Edition

Translated by Wallace Fowlie and revised by Seth Whidden


Mouvement

Le mouvement de lacet sur la berge des chutes du fleuve,
Le gouffre à l’étambot,
La célérité de la rampe,
L’énorme passade du courant
Mènent par les lumières inouïes
Et la nouveauté chimique
Le voyageurs entourés des trombes du val
Et du strom.

Ce sont les conquérants du monde
Cherchant la fortune chimique personnelle;
Le sport et le confort voyagent avec eux;
Ils emmènent l’éducation
Des races, des classes et des bêtes, sur ce Vaisseau.
Repos et vertige
A la lumière diluvienne,
Aux terribles soirs d’étude.

Car de la causerie parmi les appareils,—le sang, les fleurs, le feu, les bijoux—
Des comptes agités à ce bord fuyard,
—On voit, roulant comme une digue au delà de la route hydraulique motrice,
Monstrueux, s’éclairant sans fin,—leur stock d’études;
Eux chassés dans l’extase harmonique
Et l’héroïsme de la découverte.

Aux accidents atmosphériques les plus surprenants
Un couple de jeunesse s’isole sur l’arche,
—Est-ce ancienne sauvagerie qu’on pardonne?—
Et chante et se poste.

Motion

The swaying motion on the bank of the river falls,
The chasm at the sternpost,
The swiftness of the hand-rail,
The huge passing of the current
Conduct by unimaginable lights
And chemical newness
Voyagers surrounded by the waterspouts of the valley
And the current.

They are the conquerors of the world
Seeking a personal chemical fortune;
Sports and comfort travel with them;
They take the education
Of races, classes, and animals, on this Boat.
Repose and dizziness
To the torrential light,
To the terrible nights of study.

For from the talk among the apparatus,—blood, flowers, fire, jewels—
From the agitated accounts on this fleeing deck,
—You can see, rolling like a dyke beyond the hydraulic motor road,
Monstrous, illuminated endlessly,—their stock of studies;
Themselves driven into harmonic ecstasy
And the heroism of discovery.

In the most startling atmospheric happenings
A youthful couple withdraws into the archway,
—Is it an ancient coyness that can be forgiven?—
And sings and stands guard.

[from Illuminations (1872-1874?)]

Book details:

Jean Nicholas Arthur Rimbaud
Rimbaud: Complete Works, Selected Letters, a Bilingual Edition
Translated and with an Introduction and Notes by Wallace Fowlie. Revised and with a Foreword by Seth Whidden.
©1967, 2005, 496 pages, 6 halftones, 7 line drawings
Cloth $50.00 ISBN: 0-226-71976-6
Paper $19.00 ISBN: 0-226-71977-4

For information on purchasing the book—from bookstores or here online—please go to the webpage for Rimbaud: Complete Works, Selected Letters.

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