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Fwd: Rimbaud´s lost life through kindness and Lucette
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----- Forwarded message from jansy@aetern.us -----
Date: Tue, 22 Feb 2005 13:41:26 -0300
From: Jansy Berndt de Souza Mello <jansy@aetern.us>
Dear Don and List,
I think I can join Mary Bellino´s encouragement to the list members interested
in Ada to go back again and again to Brian Boyd´s articles ( although the
chapter she specifically mentioned is not among my favorites).
While pursuing the reading of "Nabokov´s Ada" ( the printed book is easier to
carry around) I began with Ch.9 on " Lucette and Others (I) ", where Boyd
writes : " Most of us can be kind when it suits (...) On the last night of her
life, when she seems to have finally subdued Van´s resistance to her advances,
she remains politely with the Robinsons, those well-meaning but boring family
friends, rather than follow Van out of the theatre as she yearns to do..." (
page 145). Immediately a line by Rimbaud came to my mind: " out of kindness
I´ve lost my life" . Rimbaud is one of the poets associated to Lucette ( by his
poem "Mémoire", but there might be others, including those where he deals with
his "audition colorée", a senesthetic experience he shared with VN ).
So, I now bring the poem to the List´s attention:
Chanson de la Plus Haute Tour - Arthur Rimbaud
Oisive jeunesse
À tout asservie;
Par délicatesse
J' ai perdu ma vie.
Ah! Que le temps vienne
Où les coeurs s' éprennent.
Je me suis dit: laisse,
Et qu' on ne te voi:
Et sans la promesse
De plus hautes joies.
Que rien ne t' arrête
Auguste retraite.
J' ai tant fait patience
Qu' a jamais j' oublie;
Craintes et souffrances
Aux cieux sont parties.
Et la soif malsaine
Obscurcit mes veines.
Ainsi la Prairie
À l' oubli livrée,
Grandie, et fleurie
D' encens et d' ivraies
Au bourdon farouche
De cent sales mouches.
Ah! Mille veuvages
De la si pauvre âme
Qui n' a que l' image
De la Notre-Dame!
Est-ce que l' on prie
La Vierge Marie?
Oisive jeunesse
À tout asservie
Par délicatesse
J'ai perdu ma vie.
Ah! Que le temps vienne
Où les coeurs s' éprennent!
----- End forwarded message -----