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Quote Tues. 5/31/11

Posted by kathyjane z6VA (My Page) on
Tue, May 31, 11 at 9:01

Be Drunk
by Charles Baudelaire
translated 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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(Having two musical DGD's sending waves of classical music onward and outward, leaves me often in a drunken state if I am so lucky as to come through their kitchen door at the right time---wow!)


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RE: Quote Tues. 5/31/11

  • Posted by lilod NoCal/8 (My Page) on
    Tue, May 31, 11 at 9:16

I love that! Sch passion, makes one want to go all out, even though it's cold and raining, can't be drunk on the weather, but there are books and music, all is not desolate


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