“The doctor says it will take me a month, and even afterwards I shall only be able to begin walking very slowly.”

Original: Le médecin dit que j’en aurai pour un mois, et même ensuite je ne pourrai commencer à marcher que très lentement. — Rimbaud describes his deteriorating condition with characteristic factual directness. · Letter to Isabelle Rimbaud, 17 June 1891 (French)

• Acceptance
• Patience
• Suffering

“What a wretched existence I lead in these absurd climates and insane conditions.”

Original: Quelle existence désolante, s’écrie-t-il, je mène sous ces climats absurdes et dans ces conditions insensées! — Rimbaud’s African correspondence often records the harshness and monotony of the life he had chosen. · Letter from Aden, 1884 (French)

• Environment
• Exile
• Suffering

“He would give more than the formula of his thought, than the notation of his march towards Progress.”

Original: Il donnerait plus que la formule de sa pensée, que la notation de sa marche au Progrès. — Poetry should reveal movement and discovery rather than merely package finished ideas. · Letter to Paul Demeny, 15 May 1871 (French)

• Ideas
• Poetry
• Progress