Vocalisations
Arthur Rimbaud (1854-91)
Vocalisations
A noir, E blanc, I rouge, U vert, O bleu: voyelles,
Je dirai quelque jour vos naissances latentes:
A, noir corset velu des mouches éclatantes
Qui bombinent autour des puanteurs cruelles,
Golfes d’ombre; E, candeurs des vapeurs et des tentes,
Lances des glaciers fiers, rois blancs, frissons d’ombelles;
I, pourpres, sang craché, rire des lèvres belles
Dans la colère ou les ivresses pénitentes;
U, cycles, vibrements divins des mers virides,
Paix des pâtis semés d’animaux, paix des rides
Que l’alchimie imprime aux grands fronts studieux;
O, suprême clairon plein des strideurs étranges,
Silences traversés des Mondes et des Anges:
– O l’Oméga, rayon violet de Ses Yeux!
Vowels
A black, X blank, I blood, U grass, O sky:
I’ll bring to light your backgrounds. Wait a bit.
A, smooth black armour of a flashing fly
Buzzing around a vicious stinking pit,
Dark gulfs; X, fair camp-canvas, vapour-drips,
Alp-cusps, snow-kings and shaking fumitory;
I, crimsons, spat blood, luscious laughing lips,
Furious, or only drunk with saying sorry:
U, holy rhythms of a Gaian main,
Calm grazing-grounds of cows, calm brows and brain
That witchcraft furrows, mind-span that absorbs;
O, mighty trump, full-blown with wondrous chords,
Still voids for flights of worlds and spirit-birds.
O, big round O, viola-ray, O Orbs!
That was with E thrown out. This is with E, I, U all thrown out.
Do thank A.R., that vocal makar, a faraway castaway at Harar!
A black, X snow, Y blood, Z grass, O sky:
My task’s to show how all that lot locks on.
A, smooth black thorax of a flash-brat fly
that swoops atop a nasty hollow john,
dark blots; X, canvas camps and drops of fogs,
snow-lords, cold polar swords, and blooms that worry;
Y, maroon, spat blood, hoots, and tasty snogs,
Angry or blotto, two ways to say sorry;
Z, calm of pastor’s grass that’s food for cows,
Salt snot-floods’ holy rhythms; calm of cwms
Laboratory-drawn on scholars’ brows;
O, top-rank blasts, blown hard for odd brass brays,
Good ghosts on non-clang pathways, worlds on zooms:
- O Grand, O Final Orbs! O gamma-rays!My comments and *several more versions* are at https://www.rimbaudverlaine.org/en/news/translating-voyelles/
Translation: Copyright © Timothy Adès