The originality of the creative development of Arthur Rimbaud. Gilenson B.A.: History of foreign literature of the late XIX - early XX centuries. Workshop Arthur Rimbaud Station Place in Charleville
The “drunk ship” of poetry and the sober bottom of life
Did the young man from Charleville, France, know that he had created a unique work of world literature, which would later become the anthem of the Symbolists? Perhaps he knew. After all, the life of Arthur Rimbaud (1854 - 1891) was unusual and seemed to be devoid of common sense. At an age when many talents are just entering literature, he has already left it. Rimbaud managed to write all his brilliant poems before he was twenty. Then, after analyzing modern poetry, he decided that it was better to travel around the world and make a living by trading.
In 1871, when “The Drunken Ship” was written, the term “symbolism” did not yet exist in the literary community. It was introduced into circulation a little later by the French poet Jean Moreas. However, Rimbaud's style of writing, his artistic means and aesthetic principles were fully consistent with the spirit of symbolism. Particularly characteristic in this regard was “The Drunken Ship.”
Surprisingly, at the time of creating his masterpiece, young Arthur had not yet seen either the sea or ships, much less bravely plowed the sea. His brilliant imagination painted such an amazing picture. At the same time, “The Drunken Ship” is not a chaotic set of emotions of an impressionable young man. This is a well-thought-out and clearly thought-out poem, striking not only with the phantasmagoria of events, but also with its beautiful poetic form. The verse is written in strict Alexandrian hexameter.
The ship became intoxicated with freedom and in this whirlwind of feelings completely surrendered to the will of fate. In his swiftly fantastic movement across the expanses of the sea there is, in the opinion of young Rimbaud, the meaning of existence, where all feelings are mixed, as positive:
The bridge curved like a dazzling rainbow,
and negative ones:
Contaminated with droppings, stuck in the mud.
A ship without a rudder or sails is a magnificent symbol of a poet who boldly rushes into the whirlpool of life. He feels intoxicated by the infinity of space and the unquenchable thirst for wandering and adventure. The poet strives to discover unsolved mysteries, unknown lands. However, a lot of disappointments await him along this path, and as a result, weakness and fatigue. At the age of sixteen, Rimbaud already understood this perfectly well.
Let my keel break on the underwater rocks,
I would choke and lie down on the sandy bottom...
Unfortunately, this happened in the fate of Rimbaud himself. He was thrown out of life by its stormy current in the prime of his creative powers. The poet was 37 then.
Arthur Rimbaud(1854-1891) - the famous French poet, a young man, at the age of less than 17, wrote the poem “The Drunken Ship”, a poem that brought glory to France and the poet, enriched the world’s poetic thought.
Rambo considered himself a rebel, P. Verlaine called him “an angel and a demon.” The young poet understood his poetic path as “eternal wandering and aspirations in the wilds of the spirit.” Rambo tried to find his “I” among the many-sided world and, oddly enough, among himself. The poet was attentive to the inner world, felt a person in himself and did not tolerate any moral shackles, norms, laws that were imposed on him by the social environment.
Jean Nicolas Arthur Rimbaud was born in the small town of Charleville in 1854. The poet's father, Frederic, participated in the Crimean War and was noted for his frivolous attitude towards life. Mother, Vitali Rimbaud, was the daughter of large landowners and had a despotic character. When the guy was 6 years old, she divorced her husband and raised 4 children on her own. It was at the age of 6 that Arthur began writing his poetry.
At the age of 8, the boy was sent to study at the Ross private school. Arthur immediately showed his great abilities; he studied brilliantly. In 1865, the “Charleville prodigy,” as his acquaintances spoke enthusiastically about his extraordinary abilities, entered the 7th grade of college, and already in 1866 he “jumped” to the fourth grade.
As a 16-year-old boy, Rambo surprised his lyceum professor of rhetoric with his extraordinary poetic gift, acute impressionability, maturity and originality of judgment. The young poet’s talent developed so rapidly that in the fall of 1870 he asked his friend Demeny to burn everything he had written earlier.
In August 1870, Rambo left the lyceum, left his mother and went to Paris, and from there to Belgium, where he tried to engage in journalism. The strict and domineering mother, turning to the police, forcibly returned her son home, but soon the guy fled from his hometown to the capital.
Rambo's poetic talent was formed under the influence of the romantic tradition of French poetry. His favorite poets since childhood were V. Hugo and C. Baudelaire. For only about five years, between the ages of 16 and 20, Arthur Rimbaud devoted himself to poetry. Everything he created over the years can be divided at least in half - before and after 1871, when in letters to his former teacher Georges Izambard and his peer, the young poet Paul Demeny, he outlined the essence of his theory of “clairvoyant poetry.”
To transform himself into a clairvoyant poet, Rimbaud intensively experimented on himself, in particular, cultivating prolonged insomnia, hunger, drugs, and a demonstrably asocial lifestyle. At the same time, he defended his right to be himself in poetry, to preserve his individuality and freedom, and generally demonstrated independence from all sorts of “rules”: while maintaining rhyme time, he used assonances, shortened lines, sometimes did not adhere to punctuation, the sound writing inherent in versification complemented color painting.
Rimbaud's creative path can be divided into 3 periods. In the poems of the first period of creativity (January 1870 - May 1871), a sharp satirical tone, angry pathos, and caricature images became noticeable: “Those who sit,” “On the music,” “Squats,” “Evil.”
In May 1871, the poet again went to the capital, carried away by the events of the Paris Commune. After the defeat of the Commune, Rimbaud announced his escape into art, and it was at that time that his concept of the “clairvoyant poet” was formed.
The second period of creativity (1871-1872) began with the declaration of the poetry of light vision. Rimbaud tried to find a “universal” language, thereby laying the foundations for the theory and practice of symbolism. He proclaimed the poet “the thief of fire”, “clairvoyant”, who possessed an “alchemy of words” inaccessible to mere mortals. This was the time of writing the poetic pearl “Golosivka”, whose lines fancifully reproduced the correspondence of sounds and colors and the textbook poetry “Drunk Ship”, in which Rambo predicted his further ordeals around the world, his tragic end.
In September 1871 Rambo met P. Verlaine. In the winter of 1871, a group of writers rallied around Rambaud and Verlaine - “Zutistiv” (I.I. Cros, A. Mera, J. Richpin, etc.). The "Zutists" wrote satirical poems in which they ridiculed the customs of Versailles.
In the summer of 1872, Rambaud and Verlaine arrived in Belgium, then went to London. They often quarreled, were jealous of each other, and visited dubious clubs. On July 10, 1873, during a quarrel, Verlaine shot at Rimbaud and wounded his friend. Rambo tried to embody his concept of the “clairvoyant poet” not only in poetry, but also in life.
The result and outcome of “clairvoyance” was the last, third, period of the poet’s work. 20-year-old Rimbaud produced only a few works: a book of poetic fragments in prose "Illumination" and the confessional book “A Season in Hell.” This is the cry of the poet’s soul, full of bitter disappointments and self-reproaches. Rambo said goodbye to rebellion, to “insights” and poetic hallucinations, to artistic creativity.
Since 1874, Rambo abandoned his previous way of life, and from 1875 to 1880 he began a period of crazy wanderings through Europe, Asia, and Africa. During this time, he changed more than 30 professions. Sometimes, to earn a few francs, he had to unload ships or work in quarries on the Mediterranean coast. In 1880, Rambo went to Africa, trading coffee and cheap fabrics, nutmeg and weapons. He never returned to poetry. In the 80s, the rest of Rimbaud’s works began to be published without his participation by symbolist poets who considered him their literary teacher.
In 1891, having become seriously ill in Ethiopia, Rimbaud returned to his homeland and died in a Marseilles hospital from bone cancer.
Aesthetic views of A. Rimbaud
1. The poet affirmed the will of the human spirit, proclaimed the need to create in the “free flight of words and associations.”
2. The role of a poet on earth is to be a prophet, a clairvoyant. The poet had to learn the great secret of the Universe and tell people about it.
3. The poet had no right to be ordinary, he was determined to see “eternal life, so his soul must stay away from the public.”
4. Poetry - magical power, intuition, rich phantasmagoria.
5. "Poetry has always had to move forward to unknown heights and undiscovered depths..."
Brilliant victory at Saarbrücken,
won to cries of “Long live the Emperor!” – Belgian luxuriously colored engraving, sold in Charleroi, price 35 centimes
The bluish-yellow ruler in the glory of war,
He saddled the horse and now he’s sitting on it;
Nowadays he has every right to see the world as pink.
He is meeker than daddy, more formidable than Jupiter.
The servants stand and rest behind,
Having found the drums and cannons
A moment of peace. Pita, in uniform, on parade,
He was stunned with happiness and looked at the leader.
To the right is Dumanet, holding the butt of his rifle,
Hair cut with a beaver, with all the equipment,
Yells: “Long live!” - this is daring!..
Shining, the shako soared like a black luminary... Nearby
Lubochny Le-Sorub stands with his back to the soldiers
And he’s curious: “By chance, is it the wrong one?..”
Translation by E. VitkovskyOak, gloomy and all entwined with carvings,
The voluminous buffet looks like an old man;
It is wide open, and the gloom is balmy
The wine of distant years flows from it.
He managed to fit it in, straining himself,
So many old scraps,
And yellow linen, and grandmother's lace,
And scarves decorated with griffins;
Here are medallions, here are strands of faded hair,
Portraits and flowers whose scents are so sweet
And merged with the smell of dried fruits, -
How much you, buffet, have on your heart!
As you want, rustling the heavy black door,
Tell the stories of the years gone by!
Translation by E. VitkovskyMy bohemian life
(Fantasy)
Hiding my fists in my torn pockets,
In a most luxurious coat - all the lint has peeled off -
I wandered with Muse under the dome of heaven,
And my thoughts flew to those loved and desired!
Like Little Thumb, I, worried and in a hurry,
Threw the grain of poetry - the seedlings of greater glory;
And, pulling up his pants - frayed and full of holes -
I rested in a handful of Heavenly Bucket.
I heard the rustling of stars in the thick dust of the roadsides;
Drops of dew were driven straight into my forehead
The thick, powerful hops of September wine;
Looking at your broken shoes,
I rattled the lyre - pulled the elastic of the stockings,
And the soul was drunk with rhyming fire!
Translation by A. KrotkovLord, when the plain froze,
When in burnt villages
The swords are tired of spreading fear,
To the dead from the rear
Send your kind
Brilliant crow.
Flying towards disasters -
Here is your amulet against storms!
Fly along dry rivers
And along the paths to the gray calvary,
Along ditches and pits where blood splashes;
Scatter and gather again!
Whirl, flocks of thousands,
Flocking in winter from all over,
Over the darkness of the French dead,
Calling the living to think!
Oh, the messenger is a tyrant of conscience,
O funeral black corvid!
The saints came down from heaven,
Sitting in the gloom of the hai,
Leave the May Nightingales
For those for whom the forests are dense
They bound the grass with fetters -
For those who are forever dead.
Translation by B. BulaevSeated in chairs
Dull zenks sit in the gaps of the greenery.
The motionless hand is pinned to the thigh.
Leprous mold, like on a mossy wall,
The head is stained - there is a bump on it.
The ugly bone is broken, as if in epilepsy.
And the chairs have a curved wire frame -
From morning to evening they cradle you creakingly
Bastard flesh, unborn fetus.
The seats of the weirdos are sat out until they shine -
They sparkle so much that you might even call an upholsterer.
And the gray-haired toads shake sharply
An angry snow chill in the unwarming blood.
So serene is the spirit of brown languor,
Speckled, gray; green circles
Their blunt muscles are outlined;
The whole head is covered in bumps, it comes with lichens,
Like the leper flowering of the wall;
Skeleton black straw chair
They instilled their monstrous backbone;
An epileptic passion for the Seat bent them down,
They marry with crooked rods.
They are forever inseparable from chairs.
Substituting my bald head under the pink sunset,
They look out the window where the winters fade,
And with small tremors the toads tremble painfully.
And the Seats are merciful to them: submissive
Brown straw for their sharp bones.
In the mustachioed ear, where the grains swelled,
The soul of ancient suns shines on old people.
And so they sit, with their knees pressed to their teeth,
They beat the bottom of the chairs like a booming drum,
And the roar of the barcarolles is filled with sweet laziness,
And my head is dizzy with swaying and fog.
Don't make them stand up! After all, this is a disaster!
They will rise up, growling like an angry cat,
Slowly straighten the shoulder blades... O Golgotha!
Each pant leg sticks up on them.
They walk, and the trampling of feet sounds stronger than reproaches,
And they poke at the walls, staggering from melancholy,
And their buttons in the darkness of the corridors
They attract you like wild pupils.
They have invisible destructive hands...
They sit down again, but their gaze is sharpened by poison,
Frozen in the pitiful eyes of a beaten bitch, -
And you sweat, plunging into this gaze.
Clenching my fists in greasy cuffs,
They cannot forget those who forced them to stand up,
And the angry Adam's apples of old people are hurt
From morning to evening we are ready to tremble.
When the harsh sleep lowers their visor,
They will see again, fruiting their chair,
A line of chairs in a brilliant hall,
Worthy of becoming the children of the one who fell asleep here.
Ink flowers, spread roses
They enthusiastically vomit the pollen of commas,
Cradling love like blue dragonflies,
And again the straws tickle the old oud.
Closet
Here is an old carved cabinet, whose oak tree with dark streaks began to resemble good old men long ago; The closet is thrown open, and darkness pours out from all the secluded corners, like old wine. Full of everything: a pile of old things, Pleasant-smelling yellow linen, Grandmother’s scarf, where there is an image of a Griffin, lace, and ribbons, and rags; Here you will find medallions and portraits, A strand of white hair and a strand of a different color, Children's clothes, dried flowers... Oh, the closet of bygone times! There are all sorts of stories and many fairy tales you keep securely behind this door, blackened and creaky.
*** Evgeniy Golovin "THESE SPECTRA OF BARROCO..." *** N.I. Balashov. Rimbaud and the connection between two centuries of poetry L.G.Andreev. The Rimbaud phenomenon *** First evening She was half-dressed, And from the yard an immodest elm knocked on the window without answer, Close to us, close to us. Sitting casually on a tall chair, She intertwined her fingers, And suddenly I saw a slight trembling of the tender leg, I saw it suddenly. And I saw how a crazy and unsteady Ray circles, circles like a moth In her eyes, in her smile, Sits on her chest secretly. Here I planted a kiss on her slender ankle, and in response she laughed loudly, And the laughter was harsh and timid. Shy legs under the shirt took cover: “What do you call it?” And as if she wanted to punish me with laughter for her mistake. I have another trick in store! His lips barely touched his eyes; She threw her head back: “So, sir, it’s better... But now You need to tell me something...” I kissed her chest, And a quiet laugh was my reward, This laughter wished me well... She was half naked , And from the yard an immodest elm knocked on the window without answer, Close to us, close to us. 1870 *** Transparent water, like the salt of childhood tears; rushes towards the sun of women's bodies with their whiteness; silk banners of pure lilies under the wall, where a virgin found protection nearby. Angels fuss. - No... a golden flow, the movement of his hands, black, wet and fresh from the grass. She, gloomy, does not care whether the shadow of the hills above her or the blue sky. *** Oh, wet window and boiling bubbles! The water covered the entire bed with pale gold. The faded green clothes of the maidens look like willow trees, whose foliage hides the singing of birds. Like a yellow eyelid, and purer than a louis d'or, the lily opened - yours, Wife, fidelity! - on the dim mirror, feeling jealous of the dear Sun that will disappear so soon. *** Madame stood too straight in the neighboring clearing; umbrella in hand, and firmly trampling a crushed flower; she carried herself proudly; and the children on the grass opened the morocco volume and began to read. Alas, He departed... Like angels who parted on the road, invisible behind the hill. And now She is anxious, black and cold, running after the one who has disappeared. ***- How is the 150th anniversary of Arthur Rimbaud celebrated?
2004 in France is the Year of Arthur Rimbaud, and this date is especially important for our small town of Charleville, which today is home to about 60 thousand people. All year we will celebrate this date in different forms, but the general idea is the same: leave the cramped walls of museums and libraries and go out into the streets. In our city, we will organize a parade with festive illumination - lines from the poet’s poems will be projected onto the facades of 17th-century houses in the central square (reminiscent, by the way, of the Parisian Place des Vosges). In the same square, 800 busts of Rimbaud are exhibited. Meanwhile, of course, we hold many exhibitions dedicated to his life and work - for example, we have prepared an exhibition of one hundred and fifty illustrators of Rimbaud's poems. Conferences will also be held, including ones dedicated to Arthur Rimbaud’s Africa, that is, the latest and least studied period of the poet’s life. But we must not forget that it was in our city, in our Ardennes, that Rimbaud’s path began.
- Are Rimbaud’s relatives taking part in the celebrations?
Yes, his older brother Frederick had two daughters, they also had children, and today the great-grandniece of the poet himself participates in many events. For example, tomorrow she will help open a film festival dedicated to the memory of Arthur Rimbaud, and today she will cut the ribbon at the opening of a new space for the Rimbaud House Museum. In particular, some manuscripts that have not yet been exhibited will be presented there. By the way, these thirty square meters of house on the embankment of the Meuse River, still closed to the public, where Arthur spent his childhood, are the place where he conceived his first poems. Maybe he didn’t write them here, because for us he remains first and foremost a poet-traveler, but his first ideas were definitely born in this house.
- Which public today is most interested in Rimbaud’s work? As a museum curator, you should know this.
Arthur Rimbaud remains a young poet and a poet for the young. This is an image, a symbol. He died young, the most famous photographs show us the young Rimbaud, and he was very young when he stopped writing. However, even more important is the relevance of his poems and prose, which makes him a poet not only of the 20th, but also of the 21st century. Collections of his poems have been translated into 37 languages, it’s almost the Bible! By the way, we know how many fans of Rimbaud’s genius live in Russia.
- “The Damned Poets” were iconic for the era of modernism - today even postmodernism is considered out of fashion. What makes Rimbaud a “poet of the 21st century”?
Not all of his poems are so famous and popular now - after all, many of his early works were inspired by the classics, the “Parnassian” school. However, Rimbaud's main task, in his own words, was the invention of new words, new language, new metaphors. The music of his poetry was absolutely innovative; he foresaw the twentieth century. He guessed about many things that were yet to happen. Arthur Rimbaud is also a poet and predictor.
- What does the fact that relatively recently his role in Agnieszka Holland’s film “Total Eclipse” was played by the incredibly popular Hollywood actor Leonardo DiCaprio give to the image of Arthur Rimbaud?
I would say that for us, genuine and even obsessive fans of the poet, there is no actor worthy of playing the role of Arthur Rimbaud. The point here is not the talent of the actors - be it DiCaprio or Terrence Stamp - or even their external resemblance. This number is not working! The character of Rimbaud himself refuses a possible incarnation in film. By choosing any actor to play his role, we are committing treason against the poet. Arthur was first and foremost a writer, and we can reveal his true face only through poetry, and not through the image of a youth who reads “The Drunken Ship” while standing on a table in a tavern, or wanders through the foggy streets of Brussels in the company of Verlaine. This, forgive me, is some kind of caricature in which the relationship of two poets is more important than creativity.
Drunk schoolboy
Jean Nicolas Arthur Rimbaud was born on October 20, 1854 in the French town of Charleville into a military family. At school, Arthur was one of the most brilliant and diligent students. Rimbaud rhymed his first lines at the age of eight, and at fourteen he already saw his poems published. At the same age, Rimbaud's character changes. He runs away from home, goes to prison, and begins to behave extravagantly and rudely. This is how the poet Paul Verlaine recognized Arthur, to whom in August 1871 Rimbaud sent a letter with the manuscript of The Drunken Ship. They begin a whirlwind romance, which causes Verlaine to leave his family. In 1873, during their usual scandal, Verlaine wounds Rimbaud with a pistol and goes to prison. After the break with Verlaine, Rimbaud wrote no more poetry. He traveled a lot, even reaching Africa, where he contracted sarcoma. In May 1891, Rimbaud's right leg was amputated, but this did not save him and he died on November 10. Arthur Rimbaud was buried in Charleville.
Arthur Rimbaud(Jean Arthur Nicolas Rimbaud, 1854-1891) - an outstanding French poet. Rimbaud's biography is extraordinary. He was born in Charleville into a poor petty-bourgeois family. As a child, Rimbaud rebelled against domestic oppression, religious upbringing, and the hypocrisy of the provincial petty bourgeoisie. During the Franco-Prussian War, the teenager Rimbaud mocked the patriots. In 1871, having arrived in Paris, he participated in the struggle of the Commune. Finding himself after the Parisian barricades in a provincial outback, Rimbaud sent his poems to Paris to Verlaine, then already a famous poet, and soon received an invitation to the capital. For Verlaine, an unbalanced man, acquaintance with Rimbaud turned into an ardent friendship, apparently sexually tinged. Together with Verlaine, Rimbaud traveled around France and Belgium and lived in London for quite a long time. In Brussels, after a major quarrel, Verlaine shot at Rimbaud, wounded him and went to prison for two years. Rimbaud again had to live for some time in the provinces, where in 1873 he published (the only one he personally published) a book of poetry and prose “Une saison en enfer” (A Quarter of a Year in Hell). Rimbaud's attempts to penetrate the press failed. Little by little, Rimbaud's life turned into a real adventure novel. Rimbaud went to wander around Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and even thought about Russia. He volunteered for the Carlist troops, then joined the Dutch army, but upon arrival in Java he deserted, risking his life. At one time, Rimbaud served in the Cypriot quarries, traveled with a circus, etc. Having abandoned many early dreams, including the dream of literary fame, Rimbaud, as a sales agent, settled first in Aden, then in Abyssinia, where he lived for over 10 years, making trade expeditions into the interior of the country. Gradually all of Rimbaud's beliefs and tastes changed. He began saving money in order to eventually start a “respectable” life. But it was precisely at this time that Rimbaud’s poetic fame began. Longtime friends published his poems, Verlaine wrote a brilliant article about him. News of this reached Rimbaud, but, having finished with the chimeras, he spoke disparagingly about his literary past. In February 1891, Rimbaud fell from a horse, fell ill and was forced to go to Europe for treatment. And in November of the same year, the poet died a painful death in a Marseille hospital.
Rimbaud studied literature for about 4 years, at the age of 16-20. But the significance of these youthful experiences is such that in Rimbaud one can see one of the greatest French poets of the 19th century. Rimbaud's work is instructive in that it is inextricably linked with the first period of the poet's biography, the most important moment being his participation in the struggle of the Paris Commune. The main pathos of Rimbaud’s work is the pathos of protest of the radical petty bourgeoisie and the declassed, partly lumpen-proletarian lower classes against the orders of the Second Empire. Some of Rimbaud's youthful works were written in the Parnassian spirit, but along with this imitation, Rimbaud also began to develop another creative line - the line of civil lyricism in the spirit of Hugo - "Le forgeron" (The Blacksmith), as well as very spontaneous personal lyrics, everyday sketches, and cartoons. As if saying goodbye to the frozen traditions of Parnassus, Rimbaud wrote in 1870 an evil parody of the image of Venus, beloved by the Parnassians, born from sea foam (Rimbaud’s goddess crawls out of a green bath as a fat, tattooed woman, with a disgusting ulcer on her bottom). He quickly moved on to the most original poems, saturated primarily with political and anti-religious content - to poems full of mockery of government publicists, the empire, the military, priests, bourgeois inhabitants, and the executioners of Versailles. A significant part of these poems was written by Rimbaud after the defeat of the Commune. However, Rimbaud’s lack of a definite, class-revolutionary worldview, lack of connections with the progressive public (admittedly scattered at that time), and the poet’s complete loneliness in the conditions of provincial life could not help strengthen Rimbaud’s revolutionary position during the years of reaction. In some of his last poems one can feel the unbridled rage of a rebel, but at the same time Rimbaud, being in the outback, tried to exotically transform the disgusting world, wrote the poem “Bateau ivre” (Drunk Ship), a sonnet about colored vowels (“Voyelles”), etc. However, in the newest edition of “Poems” (Poesies) it is not without reason that “Les corbeaux” (The Crows), this requiem for the Commune, this groan about defeat, is featured as the final poem. Therefore, taking into account all the contradictions of Rimbaud’s work and life, the genetic connection between the petty-bourgeois and lumpenproletarian sentiments of early Rimbaud and the later transformation of the poet into a colonizer, in no case should we ignore the basic, essentially revolutionary content of Rimbaud’s literary heritage.
As an artist of words, Rimbaud is an innovator. From the verified verse of the Parnassian style, Rimbaud quickly moved on to a deliberate disregard for caesuras, to a conscious violation of classical stanzas, to free dissonances. His poems amaze with the abundance of the most daring metaphors and comparisons. Notable in Rimbaud's poetry is his fearless use of slang and prosaic colloquialism. In his passionate satires, there are also frequent vulgar curses thrown directly into the face of the enemy. Rimbaud has many very extravagant themes - “Les chercheuses de poux” (Seekers in the Hair), “Oraison du soir” (Evening Prayer) and many others. others, written clearly as a challenge, but invariably lyrical.
Perhaps less significant is Rimbaud's prose - his “Les illuminations” (Illuminations) and “Une saison en enfer” (A Quarter of a Year in Hell). However, her verbal expressiveness is extremely high. Rimbaud transferred the usual techniques of poetry into prose. Pointing to a decadent decline in Rimbaud's work, these works, like some later poems, testify to the departure of this petty-bourgeois artist into the realm of fiction, a departure forced by the oppressive impressions of French reality after 1871.
Rimbaud's influence affected a number of French writers and poets. But Rimbaud's successors borrowed and are borrowing least of all the ideological orientation of the poet's best works. In Russia, Rimbaud’s work was adopted by our Symbolists, and later influenced the Futurists.
The bourgeoisie has long created its own version of Rimbaud. From his creative heritage, the most subjective and fantastic things are usually extracted, like “The Drunken Ship,” the sonnet “Vowels,” etc. The political nature of Rimbaud’s work is usually ignored or reinterpreted in a variety of ways. The first biographers, researchers and publishers of Rimbaud did not even stop at correcting his works and letters, and also arranged the texts accordingly. Only in relatively recent times, in the works of M. Coulomb and others, has an approach to a more accurate understanding of Rimbaud’s creativity and personality been noticed. In Russia, a misconception about Rimbaud was adopted by the majority of those who wrote about him. In Soviet times, other judgments about Rimbaud appeared, but a true assessment of the poet is still to come.
ARTHUR RIMBAUD
General characteristics of creativity
Arthur Rimbaud (Arhtur Rimbaud, 1854-1891) - a brilliant poet, symbolist, a man of a completely unusual and in his own way tragic fate. Of the 37 years given to him by fate (a somewhat fatal period for poets, if we recall R. Burns, J. G. Byron, A. S. Pushkin, V. V. Mayakovsky), he worked only for a few youthful years. It is no coincidence that V. Hugo called him “Child Shakespeare.” Rimbaud’s small poetic legacy, so unexpected and bright, had a powerful impact on the development of French poetry in the 20th century. His life, full of sudden changes and adventures, appears in a number of moments as blank spots, and therefore is overgrown with legends and myths.
Arthur Rimbaud was born in the town of Charleville, in the family of an officer, a captain, a handsome man, a man prone to extravagant acts, from whom he inherited a nervous instability of character and a passion for travel. His mother, who came from a family of large landowners, was distinguished by her arrogance, which awakened a spirit of rebellion in Rimbaud. Already at school, Rimbaud began to write poetry, mature beyond his years, including in Latin, showed outstanding abilities, and revealed a memory that stunned everyone. He created his early poems under the influence of romanticism, in the spirit of his idol Hugo. In 1870, 16-year-old Rimbaud made his first “escape” to Paris, where he witnessed the Paris Commune, which was already in its death throes. The heroics of the revolutionary struggle did not leave the romantically minded young man indifferent (the poems “The Military Hymn of Paris”, “The Hands of Jeanne-Marie”, etc.). Rimbaud was never a politically engaged poet, but the sight of the bourgeois and philistines who so hated him had recovered from the shock disgusted him (“The Parisian Orgy, or Paris is Repopulated”), as well as the hypocrisy of “respectable” society (“The Poor in the Temple”) . He shocked the bourgeoisie in poems that were deliberately naturalistic (“Lice Seeker”).
After 1871, when the poet reached the age of 17, a new stage began in his work. His previous poems, strong, bright, but still traditional in form, were replaced by completely new, unexpected ones. He formulated in a letter to Paul Valéry (1871) a completely original theory of “clairvoyance”:
“The first thing a person who wants to become a poet must become familiar with is himself. He explores his inner world, carefully studying it in every detail. Having mastered this knowledge, he must expand its limits in every possible way... I say that one must be a clairvoyant, become a clairvoyant. The poet becomes a clairvoyant as a result of a long and deliberate disorder of all his senses. He tries to experience all the poisons on himself and compiles the quintessence of them for himself. This is an indescribable torment, which can be endured only with the highest tension of all faith and with superhuman effort, a torment that makes him a sufferer among sufferers, a criminal among criminals, an outcast among outcasts, but at the same time a sage among sages.”
The theory of “clairvoyance” was further developed in Rimbaud’s book of essays and reflections “Illumination” (1872-1873). This is one of the most important documents of French symbolism.
Rimbaud considered himself an artist committed to the political methodology that animates the poems of A. Lamartine, V. Hugo and C. Baudelaire. But at the same time he took a new step. He believed that the poet achieves clairvoyance through insomnia, resorting, if necessary, to alcohol and drugs. He sought to express the inexpressible, to penetrate into what he called “the alchemy of words.”
The theory of “clairvoyance” was realized in two famous works by Rimbaud: “The Drunken Ship” and “Vowels”.
His creative rise lasted very short-lived, about two years. He managed to write an amazing cycle of “Last Poems” (“Good thoughts in the morning”, “Eternity”, “April is the reason”, etc.), as well as a short fragment written in prose, called “Time in Hell”. These are memories and reflections about childhood, poetry, life.
Then came a severe crisis. The fate of Rimbaud has no analogues in world poetry. Before reaching his 20th birthday, the brilliant poet stopped creating. The meeting with Verdun and their difficult relationship played a tragic role in his fate. Subsequently, Rimbaud changed professions: he returned to Charleville for a short time, then he showed up in Cyprus, North Africa, worked in commercial firms, and sold weapons.
Biographers can hardly and incompletely trace Rimbaud's life. While his fame grew in France, he hardly remembered that he had ever written poetry. In the spring of 1891, he became seriously ill and returned to his homeland, where his sister Isabel, the only person close to him, looked after him. Rimbaud's leg was amputated. In November 1891, the poet died in Marseille. The obituary announced the death of “the merchant Rimbaud.”
Poems by A. Rimbaud: materials for analysis
1. The poem “The Drunken Ship” (translation by P. G. Antokolsky) is rightfully considered not only Rimbaud’s masterpiece, but also the pearl of world poetry.
It was written by Rimbaud in Charleville. The unknown young poet understood that he had written something completely unusual: “Yes, I know very well that nothing like that was written,” he told one of his friends. The poet had never seen the sea and relied only on the power of his imagination, fed in part by literary images. This is the poet's largest poetic work.
In modern literary criticism, a poem includes a small or medium-sized epic poetic work, represented by several varieties. (Examples of a lyrical, plotless poem include: “Silence”, “A Knight for an Hour” by N. A. Nekrasov, “Song of the High Road”, “Song of the Ax” by W. Whitman, “The Raven” by E. Poe). Can “The Drunken Ship” by Rimbaud be considered a poem?
2. What artistic effect does Rimbaud achieve by telling the story from the 1st person? How tangible is the “effect of presence” in the poem? How the state and feelings of the lyrical hero are conveyed: “I was left alone without a gang of sailors”; “I breathed the acid and sweetness of cider”; “I remember the glow of deep currents,” etc. Give similar examples.
How do reality, real pictures develop into fantasies, visions of the lyrical hero? Highlight examples of Rimbaud’s visual means in the text: personifications, metaphors, similes, symbols. Is it possible to talk about the internal plot of the work?
3 Explain the meaning of the concepts interspersed in the text: Leviathan, Hansa, Maelstrom. In connection with the latter (the so-called warm current off the coast of Norway), remember the famous short story by E. Poe “Descent into the Maelstrom” (1841), the hero of which, a sailor hidden in a sealed barrel, escaped during a sea storm. What similarities can you think of between the two works?
4. Analyze the presence of two levels in the poem: one - direct, picturesque, the invention of a ship without a rudder or sails in the middle of a stormy sea; the second is allegorical, symbolic. How to understand this allegory, this colorful allegory? Can we assume that this is a prophetic prediction of the sad fate of Rimbaud himself - his loneliness, epiphanies, wanderings around the world, which end with a plea for peace, a safe haven?
At the same time, the drunken ship is a metaphor, a symbol with a broader meaning. Let us remember in this regard that the image of a ship was widely used in world poetry. Thus, the ancient Greek lyricist Theognis (VI century BC) painted a ship caught in a storm on the open sea; the ship is a metaphor for a state torn apart by political strife. In one of Horace’s odes, the state in which there is a struggle for power is likened to a ship caught in a storm. In G. Longfellow’s poem “Building a Ship,” which is associated with the fate of America, a ship in the shipyards is a metaphor for a young state gaining strength before setting out on a long historical voyage. The image of a ship whose captain dies is a metaphor for America, which lost President Lincoln, who was assassinated at the moment when the war between the North and South victoriously ended.
6. Rimbaud’s masterpiece was translated into Russian many times by generations of Russian poets. Try to compare the translations of V.V. Nabokov, B.K. Livshits, L.N. Martynov 1.
7. Sonnet “Vowels” (translation by V. B. Mikushevich) is one of the most famous and at the same time mysterious poems by Rimbaud. How is this sonnet constructed? Determine the rhyme structure.
9. Trace the chain of associations that the colors of the letters evoke in the poet. What associations do you have between letters and colors? Are there any coincidences between your vision and Rimbaud's vision?
10. Some researchers believe that Rimbaud’s sonnet could have been provoked by Charles Baudelaire’s poem “Correspondences,” which is based on the idea of the interconnectedness of all life phenomena. Prove or disprove this statement using texts.
11. Compare the newest translation by V. Mikushevich with the previous one made by A. Kublitskaya-Piotukh 2.
Notes
1 See: Verlaine P., Rimbaud A., Mallarmé S. Decree. op. — P. 313 — 374
2. See: Verlaine P., Rimbaud A., Mallarmé S. Decree. op. — P. 688