25 March 2008

Get drunk without ceasing

Here's what the French poet Baudelaire had to say on the subject:

One should always be drunk.
That's all that matters; that's our one imperative need.
So as not to feel Time's horrible burden which breaks your shoulders and bows you down, you must get drunk without ceasing.
But with what? With wine, with poetry, or with virtue as you choose.
But get drunk.
And if, at some time, on the steps of a palace, in the green grass of a ditch, in the bleak solitude of your room, you are waking and the drunkenness has already abated,
ask the wind, the wave, the stars, the clock, all that which flees, all that which groans, all that which rolls, all that which sings, all that which speaks, ask them what time it is;
and the wind, the wave, the stars, the birds and the clock will reply:
"It is time to get drunk!"
So that you may not be the martyred slaves of Time, get drunk, get drunk and never pause for rest!
With wine, with poetry, or with virtue, as you choose!


Apparently Baudelaire was high on opium most of the time, so what would he know?

1 comment:

Taz said...

You know you've been living in [insert name of small country town] too long when...

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