A little late summer Rimbaud

With the onset of milder fall weather, I get to use my screened in back porch again for reading. Anticipating this, I began looking at my poetry books and I thought I’d share my favorite poem by Rimbaud.

I first became familiar with Rimbaud after reading a reference to him in Heavy Metal Magazine, and I later became intrigued by the various English translations of his French work.

Albeit admittedly a little risqué, in this poem Rimbaud reminds me of the Cavalier poets who had a much more realistic approach to the wooing game than the Petrarch sonneteers. While the sonneteer wailed and moaned and in general elevated the woman of his passion, the Cavalier poet recognized that the woman he was after was composed of living tissue, and most importantly that living tissue needs living tissue. (“let’s obey the proclamation made for May, and sin no more, as we have done, by staying; But my Corinna, come, let’s go a-Maying.”)  The pretentious elevated “eternal passion” of the Petrarch, was replaced with the new motto of “seize the day!”  Poor Phillip Sidney and his group could have learned from Robert Herrick and Andrew Marvell. 

In this spirit, let me introduce “First Evening,” by Arthur Rimbaud.

First Evening

                 (Première Soirée)

She was barely dressed though,

And the great indiscreet trees

Touched the glass with their leaves,

In malice, quite close, quite close.

Sitting in my deep chair,

Half-naked, hands clasped together,

On the floor, little feet, so fine,

So fine, shivered with pleasure.

I watched, the beeswax colour

Of a truant ray of sun-glow

Flit about her smile, and over

Her breast – a fly on the rose.

– I kissed her delicate ankle.

She gave an abrupt sweet giggle

Chiming in clear trills,

A pretty laugh of crystal.

Her little feet under her slip

Sped away: ‘Will you desist!’

Allowing that first bold act,

Her laugh pretended to punish!

– Trembling under my lips,

Poor things, I gently kissed her lids.

– She threw her vapid head back.

‘Oh! That’s worse, that is!’…

‘Sir, I’ve two words to say to you...’

– I planted the rest on her breast

In a kiss that made her laugh

With a laugh of readiness….

– She was barely dressed though,

And the great indiscreet trees

Touched the glass with their leaves

In malice, quite close, quite close.

               Arthur Rimbaud, 1870

*The painting is Picasso's Le Reve, a portrait of Picasso's mistress Marie-Therese, sitting in a chair, in a pose more suited for a Balthus painting. It was recently purchased by hedge fund manager Steve Cohen for $155 million from casino magnate Steve Wynn.  Wynn had previously agreed to sell the painting to Cohen in 2006 for $139 million, but the sale was cancelled when Wynn accidentally put his elbow through the canvas.  However, Wynn had the painting repaired and the two came to a new arrangement in March of 2013.  Glad it worked out.   -JP