Eternity: Arthur Rimbaud

Festival of Patience

Eternity

It has been found again.
What? – Eternity.
It is the sea fled away
With the sun.

Sentinel soul,
Let us whisper the confession
Of the night full of nothingness
And the day on fire.

From humain approbation,
From common urges
You diverge here
And fly off as you may.

Since from you alone,
Satiny embers,
Duty breathes
Without anyone saying: at last.

Here is no hope,
No orietur.
Knowledge and fortitude,
Torture is certain.

It has been found again.
What? – Eternity.
It is the sea fled away
With the sun.

May 1872

- As translated by Oliver Bernard: Arthur Rimbaud, Collected Poems (1962).
- Another version was published by Rimbaud in A Season in Hell (Alchemy of the word). "It is the sea mingled with the sun", in Oliver's Bernard translation, more faithful to the original French than Paul Schmidt's one.

French version

L'Eternité