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I like this poem. A lot. It doesn't represent my dominant belief, but I really like it's aspect. I first read it a few years ago. It has a unique effect on me when I remember it, taking almost all my pesimism away, making me accept the acceptances of life. Althouh my ill self tends to avoid thinking of it in "fear" of actually "losing" contact with what is really happening. I don't know any other poems or texts from that author, it was a random incident that I found this one.
The original text is in French. I found this English translation here: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/16054
I have changed today my signature with an adaptation the poem's last sentence.
Be Drunk -- by Charles Baudelaire
You have to be always drunk. That's all there is to it--it's the only way. So as not to feel the horrible burden of time that breaks your back and bends you to the earth, you have to be continually drunk.
But on what? Wine, poetry or virtue, as you wish. But be drunk.
And if sometimes, on the steps of a palace or the green grass of a ditch, in the mournful solitude of your room, you wake again, drunkenness already diminishing or gone, ask the wind, the wave, the star, the bird, the clock, everything that is flying, everything that is groaning, everything that is rolling, everything that is singing, everything that is speaking...ask what time it is and wind, wave, star, bird, clock will answer you: "It is time to be drunk! So as not to be the martyred slaves of time, be drunk, be continually drunk! On wine, on poetry or on virtue as you wish."
The original text is in French. I found this English translation here: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/16054
I have changed today my signature with an adaptation the poem's last sentence.
Be Drunk -- by Charles Baudelaire
You have to be always drunk. That's all there is to it--it's the only way. So as not to feel the horrible burden of time that breaks your back and bends you to the earth, you have to be continually drunk.
But on what? Wine, poetry or virtue, as you wish. But be drunk.
And if sometimes, on the steps of a palace or the green grass of a ditch, in the mournful solitude of your room, you wake again, drunkenness already diminishing or gone, ask the wind, the wave, the star, the bird, the clock, everything that is flying, everything that is groaning, everything that is rolling, everything that is singing, everything that is speaking...ask what time it is and wind, wave, star, bird, clock will answer you: "It is time to be drunk! So as not to be the martyred slaves of time, be drunk, be continually drunk! On wine, on poetry or on virtue as you wish."
