“My native town is supremely idiotic among provincial towns.”

Original: Ma ville natale est supérieurement idiote entre les petites villes de province. — The young Rimbaud’s contempt for provincial narrowness accompanies his growing desire to escape. · Letter to Georges Izambard, 25 August 1870 (French)

• Discontentment
• Freedom
• Place

“I am sick at heart of this place and almost everything connected with it.”

A candid expression of youthful dissatisfaction with his surroundings · Letter to Phineas Barnes

• Discontentment
• Place
• Youth

“The more I travel the world, the less I like it.”

Original: Il mondo, più che io lo giro, e meno mi piace. — Weariness of courts and cities behind the love of Vaucluse and books. · Familiar letters, commonly cited in Italian versions of the Latin correspondence

• Discontentment
• Travel
• World

“What boredom. What a stupid life. What am I doing here? And what would I go looking for elsewhere?”

Original: Quel ennui!… Quelle vie bête! Que fais-je ici, moi?… Et qu’irais-je chercher ailleurs?… — The questions expose the profound dissatisfaction beneath Rimbaud’s practical life abroad. · Letter from Aden, 1884 (French)

• Boredom
• Discontentment
• Existence

“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