Comment lire Rimbaud aujourd'hui ?

Collégien trop précoce; adolescent trop pervers; poète trop différent; mystique trop incroyant ou incroyant trop mystique; aventurier trop cupide. Tout est démesure chez Rimbaud; rien n'y est indifférent. Le lecteur ne peut que s'y plonger tout entier. Son oeuvre est courte: elle peut, elle doit être lue d'un trait.
On trouvera donc ici, comme il se doit, les Poésies, Une saison en Enfer, les Illuminations. Mais il a semblé intéressant de faire le point, en citant de larges - et parfois peu connus - extraits de la correspondance de Rimbaud, sur les mythes que le poète a engendrés, sur le couple infernal qu'il forma - un temps - avec Verlaine; sur les dernières années enfin. Perdu - aux confins de l'Ethiopie - dans un rêve où l'attrait de l'or l'emportait sur celui de l'aventure, "l'homme aux semelles de vent", comme l'avait nommé Verlaine, avait déjà brûlé l'étape poétique d'une vie aussi brève que marginale.

(4e de couverture de l'édition Pocket 1981)

Si l'on devait citer le poète qui a exercé l'influence la plus profonde sur la poésie du début du XXe siècle, il faudrait nommer Rimbaud. Avec plus de hardiesse encore que Baudelaire, il a étendu le champ d'exploration de la poésie. Avant lui, l'expérience poétique était principalement l'expérience de la création littéraire. Après lui, la poésie devient un moyen de connaissance. [...] C'est qu'il n'a pas hésité à se mettre en communication avec la part inconnaissable de lui-même. Il y a découvert un grand jeu d'images, fleurs éclatées, filles à lèvres d'orange, déluges et miracles, un jeu dont chaque figure ressemble à un message marqué d'un sceau incompréhensible et sacré. Dès lors, Rimbaud va libérer tous les phénomènes de l'inconscient, préparer les voies du surréalisme et créer, si l'on veut, un nouveau mystère dont les symboles resteront étrangers au merveilleux et au fantastique.

« Je veux être poète et je travaille à me rendre voyant. Il s'agit d'arriver à l'inconnu par le dérè-glement de tous les sens. C'est faux de dire « je pense. » On devrait dire « On me pense. » je est un autre. »
A dix-sept ans, Rimbaud s'est déjà défini. Il veut vaincre les apparences, briser les carcans de sa ville natale, Charleville. D'emblée, ce fut un chasseur foudroyant d'images et de mots, une nature colérique qui chante la fureur et la vengeance sur le monde ignoble ou sur soi-même. Qu'il soit voyou génial, mystique à l'état sauvage ou négociant à la fin de sa vie, Rimbaud a toujours rêvé de « voir ce que l'homme a cru voir », l'enfer de la réalité ou la beauté de l'éden. Avide d'inconnu, le mot n'est plus pour lui expression mais signe. Et par la force de ses signes, « l'homme aux semelles de vent » nous fait palper le monde dans. toute sa laideur et toute sa beauté.

Het eerste deel van het boek bevat gedichten die tamelijk goed te begrijpen zijn. Naarmate je verder komt, wordt het allemaal onbegrijpelijker. Ik ben dan ook niet helemaal tot het einde gekomen.

One of the most satisfying aspects of learning French has been the chance it has given me to experience authors who had a profound influence on Latin American literature. There are French names that I have come across many times as I read and try and understand the progression of styles and themes that are found in the literature of Latin America, and now, as I read their works, I can reflect on how I feel they relate to the authors that they inspired across the Atlantic (or in Europe, since so many Latin American artists spent time in Europe). I had read Arthur Rimbaud´s name many times in various introductions and essays, and I found a copy of his collected poetry at the used bookstore the other day. I was immediately surprised: this French poet, whose works carry such fame and influence, was a wild teenager who gave up poetry not long after his 20th birthday, and the pages that were so widely read were written when he hadn´t even turned eighteen years old. I think that precocity in pretty much any field (literature, sports, mathematics, and so on) is fascinating, and I immediately chose one of the books of poetry included in this collection in order to get to know a little more about Rimbaud.

I read Une saison en enfer, which is one of Rimbaud´s later creations. He published it himself, with his own funds, and it chronicles his own coming-of-age struggles and questions about what one is to do in this world. It was an interesting introduction to him, and I´m actually glad that I read it first, because I think it will be interesting to step back and read some of his earliest poems after experiencing his work here, which seems to represent a sort of dawning of adulthood, where he is both looking inward at who he is and where he comes from, and looking outward to try and find direction in life. It begins with an introduction and a description of the author´s Gallic ancestry. He then drinks some poison, and the next bloc of poems (although they´re more prose than poetry) chronicles his journey through hell and the visions that he has. In the final poems, he finishes his account of hell and looks forward toward the rest of his life. The language and vocabulary are fairly simple and forceful. It is, however, not straightforward in the narrative or descriptive sense. It´s sometimes hard to figure out what he is saying, and I think that he was doing a lot of drugs while writing this, and in some way trying to create hallucinations of the personal hell that he may be imagining here. It’s an interesting chronicle of a strange process of maturation.

I thought about an old high school friend of mine as I was reading this who did a lot of drugs and was kind of crazy (I remember that he introduced me to the music of Donny Hathaway when I was 16 or so, for which I´m grateful). Rimbaud reminds me of him, and I wonder if he read any of his poetry when I knew him. If not, I think he would have enjoyed it greatly. I think it´s the kind of book that a lot of parents might not want their teenage children to read (because it might inspire them to do “wild stuff” like use drugs) but I think for certain teenagers it would be fascinating and inspiring. I myself, with the “maturity” of my 25 years, enjoyed reading Rimbaud´s chronicle of his youth. His search for meaning reminds me of what I went through, and what everyone goes through, as we change from adolescents to adults. As for the influence that his work had on Latin American poets, I´m going to have to think about that as I read and re-read more poetry. I feel like he reminds me of César Vallejo a lot, and that there´s a sort of psychological connection between the two and their views on life. Beyond that, I´m not sure, but I´m glad that the next time I read the words “heavily influenced by Rimbaud,” I´ll have a better idea of what that means. I think in a bit I´m going to read his earlier Poésies, to see the contrast between his beginnings as a writer and Une saison en enfer. ( )