Sensation
Through blue summer nights I will pass along paths,
Pricked by wheat, trampling short grass:
Dreaming, I will feel coolness underfoot,
Will let breezes bathe my bare head.
Not a word, not a thought:
Boundless love will surge through my soul,
And I will wander far away, a vagabond
In Nature - as happily as with a woman.
Commentary
March 1870
trans. Wyatt Mason
The poetry of Arthur Rimbaud seems to be conspicuous by its absence in your anthology. I am submitting ‘Sensation’ in the original language [see below - ed.], along with my favourite translation by Wyatt Mason. I love the simplicity of the poem and its unusual but wonderfully effective adjectives.
More of his poetry can be found at www.mag4.net/poetry/Rimbaud.html and more on Rimbaud can be found at :
http://www.newyorker.com/critics/books/?031117crbo_books
— Aditi
[original poem in French]
Par les soirs bleus d'été, j'irai dans les sentiers,
Picoté par les blés, fouler l'herbe menue,
Rêveur, j'en sentirai la fraîcheur à mes pieds.
Je laisserai le vent baigner ma tête nue.
Je ne parlerai pas, je ne penserai rien :
Mais l'amour infini me montera dans l'âme,
Et j'irai loin, bien loin, comme un bohémien,
Par la nature, heureux comme avec une femme.
– Arthur Rimbaud