ELEVATION
Farther than the sun, the distant breeze, The spheres that wilt to infinity
The moon somewhere in northern California.
Another favorite from Baudelaire.
Elevation
by Charles Baudelaire
Translated by William A. Sigler
Above the ponds, beyond the valleys,
The woods, the mountains, the clouds, the seas,
Farther than the sun, the distant breeze,
The spheres that wilt to infinity
My spirit, you move with agility
And, like a good swimmer who swoons in the wave
You groove the depths immensity gave,
The inexpressible and male ecstasy.
>From this miasma of waste,
You will be purified in superior air
And drink a pure and divine liqueur,
A clear fire to replace the limpid space
Behind this boredom and fatigue, this vast chagrin
Whose weight moves the mists of existence,
Happy is he who vigorously fans the senses
Toward serene and luminous fields—wincing!
The one whose thoughts are like skylarks taken wing
Across the heavens mornings in full flight
—Who hovers over life, understanding without effort
The language of flowers and mute things.
Float or Swim
“The answer—and, in a sense, the tragedy of life—is that we seek to understand the goal and not the man.”//Hunter S. Thompson
“The answer—and, in a sense, the tragedy of life—is that we seek to understand the goal and not the man.”//Hunter S. Thompson
De Profundis Clamavi
From The Depths I Cried. My favorite from his turbulence Baudelaire.
My favorite translation of my favorite poem by Charles Baudelaire.
**De Profundis Clamavi**
*(From the Depths I Cried)*
Have pity, you alone whom I adore
From down this black pit where my heart is sped,
A sombre universe ringed round with lead
Where fear and curses the long night explore.
Six months a cold sun hovers overhead;
The other six is night upon this land.
No beast; no stream; no wood; no leaves expand.
The desert pole is not a waste so dead.
Now in the whole world there's no horror quite
So cold and cruel as this glacial sun,
So like old Chaos as this boundless night;
I envy the least animals that run,
Which can find respite in brute slumber drowned,
So slowly is the skein of time unwound.
Devour Heaven
We fly. We dream in darkness. We devour heaven in bites too small to be measured. // Rebecca Solnit
“We fly, we dream in darkness, we devour heaven in bites too small to be measured”
// Rebecca Solnit, A Field Guide to Getting Lost
