You have
to be always drunk. That's all there is to it—it's the only way. So as not to
feel the horrible burden of time that breaks your back and bends you to the
earth, you have to be continually drunk
But on
what? Wine, poetry or virtue, as you wish. But be drunk.
And if
sometimes, on the steps of a palace or the green grass of a ditch, in the
mournful solitude of your room, you wake again, drunkenness already diminishing
or gone, ask the wind, the wave, the star, the bird, the clock, everything that
is flying, everything that is groaning, everything that is rolling, everything
that is singing, everything that is speaking. . .ask what time it is and wind,
wave, star, bird, clock will answer you: "It is time to be drunk! So as
not to be the martyred slaves of time, be drunk, be continually drunk! On wine,
on poetry or on virtue as you wish."
Charles
Baudelaire
(Picture: Fumatore, Adriaen Brouwer)
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