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A review by lauren_elizabeth
Illuminations by Arthur Rimbaud
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
5.0
Annually (or thereabouts), I have to return to Rimbaud — this time, it was John Ashbery’s excellent English translation of Illuminations. Enigmatic, powerful, with an occasional wry irreverence, Rimbaud was the first poet whose work I truly fell in love with.
“I remember the hours of silver and sun toward the rivers, the hand of the countryside on my shoulder, and our caresses as we stood in the pepper-scented plain.” — Lives
“Arriving from always, you’ll go away everywhere.” — To a Reason
“I stretched ropes from steeple to steeple; garlands from window to window; gold chains from star to star, and I dance.” — [Fragments of Folio 12]
“On the slope of the embankment, angels swirl their woolen dresses through pastures of steel and emerald. [...] The flowery sweetness of stars and sky and the rest descends opposite the embankment, like a basket, against our face, and creates the flowering and blue abyss down there.” — Mystical
“I remember the hours of silver and sun toward the rivers, the hand of the countryside on my shoulder, and our caresses as we stood in the pepper-scented plain.” — Lives
“Arriving from always, you’ll go away everywhere.” — To a Reason
“I stretched ropes from steeple to steeple; garlands from window to window; gold chains from star to star, and I dance.” — [Fragments of Folio 12]
“On the slope of the embankment, angels swirl their woolen dresses through pastures of steel and emerald. [...] The flowery sweetness of stars and sky and the rest descends opposite the embankment, like a basket, against our face, and creates the flowering and blue abyss down there.” — Mystical