“It is unnecessary to tell you what horrible suffering I endured on the way.”

Original: Inutile de vous dire quelles horribles souffrances j’ai subies en route. — Rimbaud’s understated phrasing makes the severity of his final journey especially striking. · Letter from Harar to Zeilah, 1891 (French)

• Endurance
• Suffering
• Travel

“I cannot make a step outside my stretcher; my knee swelled before my eyes and the pain kept increasing.”

Original: Je n’ai jamais pu faire un pas hors de ma civière, mon genou gonflait à vue d’œil et la douleur augmentait continuellement. — The stark account records Rimbaud’s endurance during his final, agonising journey from the interior to the coast. · Letter describing the journey from Harar to Zeilah, 1891 (French)

• Endurance
• Suffering
• Travel

“I shall never get what I want in these countries.”

Original: Je n’arriverai jamais à ce que je voudrais, dans ces pays. — Rimbaud’s practical ambitions remain frustrated by the conditions of expatriate commercial life. · Letter from Aden, 15 January 1885 (French)

• Ambition
• Disappointment
• Work

“I do not arrive at what I would like in these countries.”

Original: Je n’arriverai jamais à ce que je voudrais, dans ces pays. — The remark conveys a persistent sense of thwarted ambition despite years of effort abroad. · Letter from Aden, 15 January 1885 (French)

• Ambition
• Disappointment
• Exile

“I cannot enjoy my earnings.”

Original: Je ne puis jouir de mon gain. — Rimbaud recognises that relentless work has deprived him of the very leisure his earnings should have provided. · Letter from Aden, 1884 (French)

• Contentment
• Money
• Work

“I cannot remain a day without work.”

Original: Je ne puis rester un jour sans travail. — The concise statement captures the restless work ethic that marked Rimbaud’s later life. · Letter from Aden, 1884 (French)

• Discipline
• Restlessness
• Work

“I always need books, as well as other books.”

Original: J’en ai toujours besoin, ainsi que d’autres livres. — His continuing appetite for books complicates the familiar story of his complete indifference to literature after 1875. · Letter to his family from Aden, 22 September 1880 (French)

• Books
• Knowledge
• Reading

“The books have not reached me because, I am sure, someone appropriated them in my place.”

Original: Les livres ne me sont pas parvenus, parce que, j’en suis sûr, quelqu’un se les sera appropriés à ma place. — Books remained important practical possessions even after Rimbaud had abandoned his literary career. · Letter to his family from Aden, 22 September 1880 (French)

• Books
• Exile
• Reading

“I would only like it to be sixty degrees, as when I was staying at Massawa.”

Original: Je voudrais seulement qu’il y ait 60 degrés, comme quand je restais à Massaoua! — The exaggeration conveys Rimbaud’s toughness and his sardonic attitude towards the extreme climate. · Letter to his family from Aden, 22 September 1880 (French)

• Endurance
• Humour
• Weather

“Here too, there is a great deal to do.”

Original: Ici aussi, d’ailleurs, il y a beaucoup à faire. — Rimbaud evaluates places primarily through the possibilities they offer for activity and work. · Letter to his family from Aden, 22 September 1880 (French)

• Action
• Opportunity
• Work

“I would go to Zanzibar, where there is work to be done.”

Original: J’irais probablement à Zanzibar, où il y a à faire. — Movement remains Rimbaud’s instinctive response to dissatisfaction and the search for opportunity. · Letter to his family from Aden, 22 September 1880 (French)

• Adventure
• Travel
• Work

“I have forty degrees of heat here; at home we sweat litres of water every day.”

Original: J’ai 40 degrés de chaleur ici, à la maison: on sue des litres d’eau par jour ici. — The blunt description conveys the physical extremes of the climate in which Rimbaud was living. · Letter to his family from Aden, 22 September 1880 (French)

• Environment
• Exile
• Weather

“Aden is, as everyone admits, the most boring place in the world, after the one where you live.”

Original: Aden qui est, tout le monde le reconnaît, le lieu le plus ennuyeux du monde, après toutefois celui que vous habitez. — Rimbaud turns his frustration with Aden into a characteristically dry joke at his family’s expense. · Letter to his family from Aden, 22 September 1880 (French)

• Boredom
• Humour
• Place

“I have about two hundred francs in my pocket.”

Original: J’ai d’ailleurs déjà environ 200 francs en poche. — The mundane detail offers a glimpse of the practical, money-conscious voice of the adult Rimbaud. · Letter to his family from Aden, 22 September 1880 (French)

• Money
• Travel
• Work

“The thing is very easy.”

Original: La chose est très facile. — Rimbaud’s confidence in the feasibility of his plans contrasts with the uncertainty surrounding his later life. · Letter to his family from Aden, 18 January 1882 (French)

• Confidence
• Opportunity
• Work

“It is a very good business.”

Original: C’est une très bonne affaire. — The brisk commercial phrase reveals the practical, entrepreneurial voice of Rimbaud’s later correspondence. · Letter to his family from Aden, 18 January 1882 (French)

• Commerce
• Opportunity
• Work

“I could then finish this work and afterwards work at the expense of the Geographical Society.”

Original: Je pourrai achever cet ouvrage et travailler ensuite aux frais de la Société de Géographie. — Rimbaud hopes that geographical research will provide the means for further exploration. · Letter to Ernest Delahaye, 18 January 1882 (French)

• Discovery
• Travel
• Work

“I need instruments for making maps, and I intend to buy them.”

Original: Il me manque des instruments pour la confection des cartes, et je me propose de les acheter. — The remark illustrates Rimbaud’s practical, methodical interest in exploration and cartography. · Letter to Ernest Delahaye, 18 January 1882 (French)

• Discovery
• Knowledge
• Work

“I have just ordered a photographic apparatus from Lyon so that I can include views of these strange regions in the work.”

Original: Je viens de commander à Lyon un appareil photographique qui me permettra d’intercaler dans cet ouvrage des vues de ces étranges contrées. — Photography becomes part of Rimbaud’s attempt to document the unfamiliar world he had encountered. · Letter to Ernest Delahaye, 18 January 1882 (French)

• Discovery
• Photography
• Travel

“I have explored these regions and spent a year there, employed by a French commercial house.”

Original: Je suis resté un an dans ces contrées, en emploi dans une maison de commerce française. — Rimbaud describes his African experience in the practical language of work and exploration rather than literary adventure. · Letter to Ernest Delahaye, 18 January 1882 (French)

• Discovery
• Travel
• Work

“I am going to make a work for the Geographical Society, with maps and engravings, on Harar and the Galla countries.”

Original: Je vais faire un ouvrage pour la Société de géographie, avec des cartes et des gravures, sur le Harar et les pays Gallas. — The project shows Rimbaud redirecting his energy from poetry towards exploration, geography and practical knowledge. · Letter to his family from Aden, 18 January 1882 (French)

• Discovery
• Knowledge
• Travel

“I have decided not to stay in Aden.”

Original: Je suis décidé à ne pas séjourner à Aden. — Rimbaud repeatedly sought movement and change even after abandoning literary life. · Letter from Aden, 1880s (French)

• Change
• Freedom
• Travel

“I am always in the same house, under the same conditions; only, I work much more and spend almost everything.”

Original: Je suis toujours dans la même maison, aux mêmes conditions; seulement, je travaille bien plus et je dépense presque tout. — The practical complaint reveals the exhausting economic reality behind Rimbaud’s life as a merchant. · Letter from Aden, 1880s (French)

• Exile
• Money
• Work

“The years pass; I lead a stupid existence, I accumulate no income, and I shall never achieve what I want in these countries.”

Original: Les années se passent, je mène une existence stupide, je n’amasse pas de rentes, je n’arriverai jamais à ce que je voudrais, dans ces pays. — The remark conveys Rimbaud’s frustration with the gap between his ambitions and the life he was actually leading. · Letter from Aden, 15 January 1885 (French)

• Achievement
• Discontentment
• Exile