Arthur Rimbaud Quotes

Jean Nicolas Arthur Rimbaud was a French poet known for his influence on modern literature and arts, which prefigured surrealism. Born in Charleville, he started writing at a very young age and excelled as a student, but abandoned his formal education in his teenage years to run away from home to Paris amidst the Franco-Prussian War. During his late adolescence and early adulthood he began the bulk of his literary output, then completely stopped writing at the age of 20, after assembling one of his major works, Illuminations.

Rimbaud was known to have been a libertine and a restless soul, having engaged in an at-times-violent romantic relationship with fellow poet Paul Verlaine, which lasted nearly two years. After ending his literary career, he traveled extensively on three continents as a merchant before his death from cancer just after his thirty-seventh birthday. As a poet, Rimbaud is well known for his contributions to Symbolism and, among other works, for A Season in Hell, a precursor to modernist literature. Wikipedia  

✵ 20. October 1854 – 10. November 1891  •  Other names Артюр Рембо, 蘭波
Arthur Rimbaud photo

Works

Illuminations
Arthur Rimbaud
Le Bateau ivre
Arthur Rimbaud
Poésies
Arthur Rimbaud
Illuminations
Arthur Rimbaud
Le Bateau ivre
Arthur Rimbaud
Poésies
Arthur Rimbaud
Arthur Rimbaud: 66 quotes56 likes

Famous Arthur Rimbaud Quotes

“I shed more tears than God could ever have required.”

Arthur Rimbaud book Illuminations

Source: Illuminations

“By being too sensitive I have wasted my life.”

Arthur Rimbaud

Variant: Idle youth, enslaved to everything; by being too sensitive I have wasted my life.
Source: Selected Poems and Letters

Arthur Rimbaud Quotes about heart

“But, true, I’ve wept too much! Dawns break hearts./ Every moon is brutal, every sun bitter.”

Arthur Rimbaud

Variant: But, truly, I have wept too much! The Dawns are heartbreaking. Every moon is atrocious and every sun bitter.

“My sad heart foams at the stern.”

Arthur Rimbaud

Mon triste coeur bave à la poupe. <br class="br"> Le Coeur Volé http://www.mag4.net/Rimbaud/poesies/Stolen.html (The Stolen Heart, st. 1

“Once, I remember well, my life was a feast where all hearts opened and all wines flowed.”

Arthur Rimbaud

Jadis, si je me souviens bien, ma vie était un festin où s&#x27;ouvraient tous les coeurs, où tous les vins coulaient. <br class="br"> Une Saison en Enfer http://www.mag4.net/Rimbaud/poesies/Season.html (A Season in Hell) (1873)

Arthur Rimbaud Quotes about the sea

“I have bathed in the Poem
Of the Sea…
Devouring the green azures.”

Arthur Rimbaud

Je me suis baigné dans le Poème<br>De la Mer...<br>Dévorant les azurs verts. <br class="br">St. 6 <br class="br"> Le Bateau Ivre http://www.mag4.net/Rimbaud/poesies/Boat.html (The Drunken Boat) (1871)

“The northern lights rise like a kiss to the sea”

Arthur Rimbaud Le Bateau ivre

Source: Le Bateau ivre

“It is found again.
What? Eternity.
It is the sea
Gone with the sun.”

Arthur Rimbaud

Elle est retrouvée,
Quoi ?
L'Éternité.
C'est la mer allée
Avec le soleil.
L'Éternité (1872)
Variant translation:
It has been recovered.
What? — Eternity.
It is the sea escaping
With the sun.
Source: آرتور رامبو: الآثار الشعرية

Arthur Rimbaud: Trending quotes

“I believe I am in Hell, therefore I am.”

Arthur Rimbaud

Une Saison en Enfer http://www.mag4.net/Rimbaud/poesies/Season.html (A Season in Hell) (1873) <br class="br">Variant: I believe I am in Hell, and so I am there.

Arthur Rimbaud Quotes

“But I've just noticed that my mind is asleep.”

Arthur Rimbaud

Source: Une Saison en Enfer / Vers Nouveaux

“I is another.”

Arthur Rimbaud

Je est un autre. <br class="br"> Letter to Georges Izambard; Charleville, 13 May 1871 http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Lettre_de_Rimbaud_%C3%A0_Georges_Izambard_-_13_mai_1871

“One evening, I sat Beauty in my lap. — And I found her bitter. — And I cursed her.”

Arthur Rimbaud

Un soir, j&#x27;ai assis la Beauté sur mes genoux. - Et je l&#x27;ai trouvée amère. <br class="br">Et je l&#x27;ai injuriée. <br class="br"> Une Saison en Enfer http://www.mag4.net/Rimbaud/poesies/Season.html (A Season in Hell) (1873)

“Now I am an outcast. I loathe my country. The best thing for me is a drunken sleep on the beach.”

Arthur Rimbaud

Source: Une saison en enfer; Illuminations; et autres textes

“Life is the farce we are all forced to endure.”

Arthur Rimbaud

La vie est la farce à mener par tous. <br class="br"> Une Saison en Enfer http://www.mag4.net/Rimbaud/poesies/Season.html (A Season in Hell) (1873) <br class="br">Source: Une saison en enfer; Illuminations; et autres textes

“I found I could extinguish all human hope from my soul.”

Arthur Rimbaud

Je parvins à faire s&#x27;évanouir dans mon esprit toute l&#x27;espérance humaine. <br class="br"> Une Saison en Enfer http://www.mag4.net/Rimbaud/poesies/Season.html (A Season in Hell) (1873) <br class="br">Source: Une saison en enfer; Illuminations; et autres textes

“Is it in these bottomless nights that you sleep in exile?”

Arthur Rimbaud

Source: A Season in Hell/The Drunken Boat

“I have embraced the summer dawn.”

Arthur Rimbaud

J&#x27;ai embrassé l&#x27;aube d&#x27;été. <br class="br"> Illuminations. Aube http://www.mag4.net/Rimbaud/poesies/Dawn.html (Dawn) (1874) <br class="br">Variant translation: I have kissed the summer dawn.

“I have seen the sunset, stained with mystic horrors,
Illumine the rolling waves with long purple forms,
Like actors in ancient plays.”

Arthur Rimbaud

J&#x27;ai vu le soleil bas, taché d&#x27;horreurs mystiques,<br>Illuminant de longs figements violets,<br>Pareils à des acteurs de drames très-antiques. <br class="br">St. 9 <br class="br"> Le Bateau Ivre http://www.mag4.net/Rimbaud/poesies/Boat.html (The Drunken Boat) (1871)

“Black A, white E, red I, green U, blue O: vowels,
Someday I shall recount your latent births.”

Arthur Rimbaud book Vowels

A noir, E blanc, I rouge, U vert, O bleu: voyelles,<br>Je dirai quelque jour vos naissances latentes ! <br class="br"> Voyelles http://www.mag4.net/Rimbaud/poesies/Vowels.html (Vowels (1871)

“One must be absolutely modern.”

Arthur Rimbaud

Il faut être absolument moderne. <br class="br"> Une Saison en Enfer http://www.mag4.net/Rimbaud/poesies/Season.html (A Season in Hell) (1873)

“I went out under the sky, Muse! and I was your vassal.”

Arthur Rimbaud

J&#x27;allais sous le ciel, Muse! et j&#x27;étais ton féal. <br class="br"> Ma Bohéme. Fantaisie http://www.mag4.net/Rimbaud/poesies/Bohemian.html (My Bohemian Life (Fantasy)), st. 1

“Oh my little mistresses,
How I hate you!”

Arthur Rimbaud book Poésies

Ô mes petites amoureuses,
Que je vous hais !
Poésies (1871), "Mes petites amoureuses"

“Old poetics played a large part in my alchemy of the word.”

Arthur Rimbaud

La vieillerie poétique avait une bonne part dans mon alchimie du verbe. <br class="br"> Une Saison en Enfer http://www.mag4.net/Rimbaud/poesies/Season.html (A Season in Hell) (1873)

“O seasons, O castles,
What soul is without flaws?”

Arthur Rimbaud

O saisons, ô châteaux,<br>Quelle âme est sans défauts ? <br class="br"> Bonheur http://www.mag4.net/Rimbaud/poesies/Happiness.html (Happiness)

“Sweeter than apples to children
The green water spurted through my pine-wood hull.”

Arthur Rimbaud

Plus douce qu&#x27;aux enfants la chair des pommes sures,<br>L&#x27;eau verte pénétra ma coque de sapin. <br class="br">St. 5 <br class="br"> Le Bateau Ivre http://www.mag4.net/Rimbaud/poesies/Boat.html (The Drunken Boat) (1871)

“I say one must be a seer, make oneself a seer. The poet makes himself a seer by an immense, long, deliberate derangement of all the senses.”

Arthur Rimbaud

Je dis qu'il faut être voyant, se faire voyant. Le poète se fait voyant par un long, immense et raisonné dérèglement de tous les sens.
Letter to Paul Demeny (May 15, 1871)

“I! I who fashioned myself a sorcerer or an angel, who dispensed with all morality, I have come back to earth.”

Arthur Rimbaud

Moi ! moi qui me suis dit mage ou ange, dispensé de toute morale, je suis rendu au sol. <br class="br"> Une Saison en Enfer http://www.mag4.net/Rimbaud/poesies/Season.html (A Season in Hell) (1873)

“Love is to be reinvented, that is clear.”

Arthur Rimbaud

L&#x27;amour est à réinventer, on le sait. <br class="br"> Une Saison en Enfer http://www.mag4.net/Rimbaud/poesies/Season.html (A Season in Hell) (1873)

“I have seen starry archipelagoes! and islands
Whose raving skies are opened to the voyager:
Is it in these bottomless nights that you sleep, in exile,
A million golden birds, O future Vigor?”

Arthur Rimbaud

J&#x27;ai vu des archipels sidéraux! et des îles<br>Dont les cieux délirants sont ouverts au vogueur:<br>Est-ce en ces nuits sans fond que tu dors et t&#x27;exiles,<br>Million d&#x27;oiseaux d&#x27;or, ô future Vigueur ? <br class="br">St. 25 <br class="br"> Le Bateau Ivre http://www.mag4.net/Rimbaud/poesies/Boat.html (The Drunken Boat) (1871)

“My tavern was the Big Bear.
My stars in the sky rustled softly.”

Arthur Rimbaud

Mon auberge était à la Grande-Ourse.
Mes étoiles au ciel avaient un doux frou-frou.
Ma Bohéme. Fantaisie (My Bohemian Life (Fantasy)), st. 2

“It rains softly on the town.”

Arthur Rimbaud

Il pleut doucement sur la ville.
From a lost poem

“Lighter than a cork I danced on the waves.”

Arthur Rimbaud

Plus léger qu&#x27;un bouchon j&#x27;ai dansé sur les flots. <br class="br">St. 4 <br class="br"> Le Bateau Ivre http://www.mag4.net/Rimbaud/poesies/Boat.html (The Drunken Boat) (1871)

“Baptism enslaved me.”

Arthur Rimbaud

Je suis esclave de mon baptême. <br class="br"> Une Saison en Enfer http://www.mag4.net/Rimbaud/poesies/Season.html (A Season in Hell) (1873)

“I is an other.”

Arthur Rimbaud

Letter to Georges Izambard; Charleville, 13 May 1871 http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Lettre_de_Rimbaud_%C3%A0_Georges_Izambard_-_13_mai_1871 <br class="br">Letters <br class="br">Original: (fr) Je est un autre.

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