Dreaming Rimbaud

I dreamt Rimbaud last night. In my dream, I am walking along a solitary country road, surrounded by a Northern landscape dotted by dank pastures and gray clouds, when I see a man walking towards me. When he is close enough for me to recognize his features, I am greeted by the palest blue eyes and a smirk. The beauty of his face and the elegant legs clash with the worn, brown boots.

I smile now thinking about the Bohemian lad in his soles of wind. One of the most mobile and restless poets of his age. His life is a parable of prophecy and hallucination. His sweetly poisonous words have always bewitched me.

And, since I feel nomadic lately--as my dream possibly suggests--here is Arthur's "Ma Bohème"!

I went off with my hands in my torn coat pockets; 
My overcoat too was becoming ideal;
I travelled beneath the sky, Muse! and I was your vassal;
Oh dear me! what marvellous loves I dreamed of!


My only pair of breeches had a big hole in them.
– Stargazing Tom Thumb, I sowed rhymes along my way.
My tavern was at the Signof the Great Bear.
– My stars in the sky rustled softly.


And I listened to them, sitting on the road-sides
On those pleasant September evenings while I felt drops
Of dew on my forehead like vigorous wine;


And while, rhyming among the fantastical shadows,
I plucked like the strings of a lyre the elastics 
Of my tattered boots, one foot close to my heart!



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