Mantis 18 (Spring 2020)
Translations
Arthur Rimbaud
translated from French by Mark Irwin
Voyelles
A noir, E blanc, I rouge, U vert, O bleu : voyelles,
Je dirai quelque jour vos naissances latentes :
A, noir corset velu des mouches éclatantes
Qui bombinent autour des puanteurs cruelles,
Golfes d’ombre ; E, candeurs des vapeurs et des tentes,
Lances des glaciers fiers, rois blancs, frissons d’ombelles ;
I, pourpres, sang craché, rire des lèvres belles
Dans la colère ou les ivresses pénitentes ;
U, cycles, vibrements divins des mers virides,
Paix des pâtis semés d’animaux, paix des rides
Que l’alchimie imprime aux grands fronts studieux ;
O, suprême Clairon plein des strideurs étranges,
Silences traversés des Mondes et des Anges ;
- O l’Oméga, rayon violet de Ses Yeux !
Ville
Je suis un éphémère et point trop mécontent citoyen d’une métropole crue moderne, parce que tout goût connu a été éludé dans les ameublements et l’extérieur des maisons aussi bien que dans le plan de la ville. Ici vous ne signaleriez les traces d’aucun monument de superstition. La morale et la langue sont réduites à leur plus simple expression, enfin ! Ces millions de gens qui n’ont pas besoin de se connaître amènent si pareillement l’éducation, le métier et la vieillesse, que ce cours de vie doit être plusieurs fois moins long que ce qu’une statistique folle trouve pour les peuples du continent. Aussi comme, de ma fenêtre, je vois des spectres nouveaux roulant à travers l’épaisse et éternelle fumée de charbon, — notre ombre des bois, notre nuit d’été ! — des Érinnyes nouvelles, devant mon cottage qui est ma patrie et tout mon cœur puisque tout ici ressemble à ceci, — la Mort sans pleurs, notre active fille et servante, un Amour désespéré et un joli Crime piaulant dans la boue de la rue.
Vowels
The black A, white E, red I, green U, and blue O: Vowels,
some day I’ll tell of your dormant birth: The black
A’s hairy corset of shining flies which buzz
and buzz around such brutal stench
in shadow-gulfs; The E’s white of vapors and tents,
tall, lancing glaciers, white kings and supple flowers;
the I’s purples spit blood, laughter of alluring
lips angry or sorrowfully drunk.
The U’s cycles and divine humming of green seas,
calm of pastures dotted with animals, or the forehead’s
wrinkles printed from the long alchemy of books.
The O’s shrill advancing trumpet sound,
silences traversed by Worlds and Angels.
—O all Omega and violet ray from His Eyes!
City
I’m a passer-through and not dissatisfied citizen of a metropolis believed modern because every known taste has been shunned in the furnishings and exteriors of its houses as well as in the city’s general plan. Here you would never point to the remains of any monument as superstition. Morality and language are finally reduced to their most basic expression. These millions of people, feeling no need to know one another, lead such similar lives in education, work, and old age that their life-spans must be several times shorter than what a crazy statistic sets for such people of the continent. Likely, from my window, I see new, ghostly figures rolling through thick and eternal smoke of coal fires, —our shadow of the woods, our summer’s night! —hellmongers, hip-Furies, in front of my cottage, which is my country and entire heart since everything here resembles this, —Tearless Death, our active spouse and servant, and hopeless Love, and pretty Crime whimpering in the muddy street.
ARTHUR RIMBAUD (1854-1891) was born in Charleville- Mézières, a small town in France, and produced most of his work between the ages of sixteen and twenty-one. He traveled to London, lived as a merchant in Ethiopia and Yemen, and died young at the age of thirty-seven in Marseille. His work is a combination of formal and prose poetry, with most famous works being A Season in Hell and The Illuminations. He is one of the most important pioneers of European modernism and the avant-garde.
MARK IRWIN is the author of ten collections of poetry, including Shimmer (2020), A Passion According to Green (2017), American Urn: Selected Poems (1987-2014), and Bright Hunger (2004). Recognition for his work includes The Nation/Discovery Award, two Colorado Book Awards, four Pushcart Prizes, the James Wright Poetry Award, the Philip Levine Prize for Poetry, and fellowships from the Fulbright, Lilly, and NEA.