Illuminations – Arthur Rimbaud | Translated by Louise Varèse

Obviously, I was reading a translation, as you can see above. This is an odd but engaging book of poetry, prose poetry, but then most prose poetry might appear unusual to the average Joe. If you've read other poetry by this legend, who had given up writing before he was twenty-one years old, as the back cover states, the work in this volume will seem quite different, but should also captivate you as completely.

It's an exciting book to read, which is one of the powers behind the writing of Rimbaud. His youthful fire and energy is hard to duplicate and comes through clearly in the text. It's hard to believe someone so young could write such inspiring verse. A barrage of imagery and colors awaits, and colors seem particularly important as can be seen in this poem entitled Flowers:

     From a golden step,– among silk cords, green velvets, gray gauzes, and crystal discs that turn black as bronze in the sun, I see the digitalis opening on a carpet of silver filigree, of eyes and hair.
     Yellow gold-pieces strewn over agate, mahogany columns supporting emerald domes, bouquets of white satin and delicate sprays of rubies, surround the water-rose.
     Like a god with huge blue eyes and limbs of snow, the sea and sky lure to the marble terraces the throng of roses, young and strong.

On the surface, a beautiful homage to flowers and their wonderful, colorful images, but as a metaphor of people and their blind attention to their deceptively alluring champions, it takes a deceptively darker turn. I can barely even begin to speak about this poem in a critical way, much less the collection as a whole. It was a pleasure to read and read again, as must be done. Finally, the order of the poems in this collection is in dispute as the manuscript is not presented in its original form, if, in fact, it ever had one, which only makes it difficult to respond to as something that may or may not be intrinsically tied together by some overarching form.