Two Poems by Arthur Rimbaud & Two Poems by Jean-Michel Basquiat
Translated by Rose Réjouis
Arthur Rimbaud
The Orphan’s Vow
I will, no doubt, tell your story one day:
After all, it is always with us.
A, black, shadows
in the hairy jacket of dazzling flies
teeming over the cruelest stench
E, white, blinding smoke, war tents, snowcaps
European kings under the gaze of quivering parasols
I, crimson, bloody spit on the ground,
The lips of damsels in distress
or under the influence let out a cackle.
U, waves of divine vibrations
The viridian seas come full cycle,
Peace of the death harvest on the field,
peace of the wrinkles Alchemy has imprinted
on the leaders’ foreheads
O, the strange streaks of the Trumpet
Time and Spirit are crossing the road of Silence,
O, the Omega—the violet ray of [God’s] Eyes…
Apocalypse love poem
When, right before our eyes, yours and mine, the world is reduced to one last bit of charred
wood, to an island for two, to a music house for our triumphant affinities, I will come find you.
When one man is left standing, an old, quiet, beautiful old man, living “the good life,” I will
throw myself at your feet.
When I have made all your memories come true, let me be the girl who knows just how to torture
you, then I will smother you.
When we are on our own. Who backs away? Just deliriously happy. Who falls flat on their
face?
When we are selfish enough to be ourselves, what could they possibly do to us?
Dress up, dance, laugh, I will never be able to throw love out the door.
Girl of mine, beggar girl, monster child! You don’t care about mean girls and their maneuvers or
my self-consciousness.
Bind yourself to me with your impossible voice, poet of our abject despair.
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Leverage
Satellite Struck
No. 87893 This product Could be hazardous To your health
Este producto Puede ser nocivo Para su salud
Timbre
Dieciocho eighteen
Bedbugs Worms
Bats
Bedbugs Worms
Black Mulatto Magic
False
Green
Mule Donkey
Mule Donkey Donkey Horse’s Head
Bless
Toussaint Louverture
Donkey
Freedom of Speech
1754
1755
Zenger
Horse
Head
Pendant L’hiver
Malgré L’hiver
Black
Donkey
Bless
Bless
Donkey
A spell of winter
In spite of winter
About the authors and translator:
Arthur Rimbaud (1854-1891). Rimbaud’s poetry no longer belongs merely to his native France. Read by such different artists as Aimé Césaire and Patti Smith, his work has changed the course of poetry.
Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988). Born and raised in Brooklyn, of an Afro-Puerto Rican mother and a Haitian father, Basquiat was a polymath. His art synthesizes art history, from images to writing and back.
Rose Réjouis is a Professor of Literature at Lang College, the undergraduate college of the New School. She has translated the fiction of Patrick Chamoiseau and Marie Vieux Chauvet. Her work frequently appears in the French journal Esprit and n+1.
