Rimbaud (note from 2001)

Arthur Rimbaud (1854-1891)

I read Rimbaud’s Bateau ivre (drunken boat), in English of course, I think for the first time. Tremendous ---- verve? ----- momentum? Something, however, says: but what’s the point? Rimbaud’s poems are reviewable in the terms of a hot new album, or even the A-List in the Daily Mirror (the Friday review of movies). “his language resembling a high-voltage electrical circuit” .... a phrase from the Introduction, where it's improbably credited to Iris Murdoch.  I suppose that Bateau ivre is really about driving a car.

(2001)

Le Bateau ivre

[Image source: 1951 Packard 400 for sale: http://oldtimeworld.com/cars-for-sale-2/1951-packard-400/]

Le Bateau ivre

http://www.mag4.net/Rimbaud/poesies/Bateau.html

English translation by Oliver Bernard, 1962: 

http://www.mag4.net/Rimbaud/poesies/Boat.html

English translation by John Hartley Williams, 2004:

http://www.the-tls.co.uk/tls/public/article1526162.ece

English performance adaptation for practical alchemy by Holly Tannen, 2002:

http://www.practicalalchemy.com/BateauIvre.htm

Le Bateau ivre

[Image source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/news/8014968/Young-drivers-should-be-banned-from-night-time-driving.html]