 | Good Advice |
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Be Drunk
Charles Baudelaire
Translanted by Louis Simpson
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."
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*sigh* I think I will choose from this point on to be drunk on poetry.
Someday I am going to settle in to seriously study Beaudelaire. I really am. This translation surely is reason enough to get started, dontcha think? And then there’s the constant tease of Fleurs De Mal (brainchild of SuperVert — our in-house Deviant Savant). But first I need a power bath. One must be elegantly prepared for such endeavors.
xo, Angela
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PHONE SEX DIVA OF THE DAY:
Mistress Rayne of Rayne’s Realm. She’s such a cutie. And she will tough love you until your driven to your knees like the dirty dawg you are. I have it from the best sources (my callers) that Mistress Rayne is an expert Domina with a few tricks up her sleeve for lucky slave boys. So assume slave posture and dial her up. Do it now!
a Baudelaire favorite of mine:
To a Woman Passing By
The deafening road around me roared.
Tall, slim, in deep mourning, making majestic grief,
A woman passed, lifting and swinging
With a pompous gesture the ornamental hem of her garment,
Swift and noble, with statuesque limb.
As for me, I drank, twitching like an old roué,
From her eye, livid sky where the hurricane is born,
The softness that fascinates and the pleasure that kills,
A gleam. then night! O fleeting beauty,
Your glance has given me sudden rebirth,
Shall I see you again only in eternity?
Somewhere else, very far from here! Too late! Perhaps never!
For I do not know where you flee, nor you where I am going,
O you whom I would have loved, O you who knew it!
I’m impressed and inspired. Thanks to Angela, HDB and Supervert, I’m a believer in Baudelaire.
And your right, Angela, Mistress Rayne is a cutie. I’m impressed enough that I just might be inspired to assume a slave posture.
(although I have no idea what that “posture” might entail)
Just when I thought I had mastered the canon, Prof. St. Lawrence changes the course to European Literature! Looks like it’s going to be a great class.
And I, experiencing that giddy breathlessness whenever on the phone with Angela, am gloriously drunk on she who put the verse in perverse.
Mistress Rayne is gorgeous! A guy could do worse than being her boi.