Get Drunk!
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 that 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 up when drunkness has already abated, ask the wind, the wave, a star, 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 star, the bird, 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!'
-Charles Baudelaire
The Mirror
A man of horrifying aspect enters the room and looks at himself in the glass.
"why are you looking at yourself in the mirror, since you cannot see your reflection without displeasure?"
The man of horrifying aspect replies to my question:
'Sir accoring to the immortal principles of the '89 Revolution, all men have equal rights; therefore I possess the right to look at myself in the mirror; whether withpleasure or with displeasure, that concerns only my conscience.'
As a spokesman for good sense, I was undoubtedly right; but from the point of view of the law, he was not wrong.
-Charles Baudelaire
Tell Me Again
Am I your only love --in the whole world -- now? Am I really the only object of your love? If passions rage in your mind, If love springs eternal in your heart -- Is it all meant for me? Tell me again.
Tell me right now, a I the one who inspires All your dark thoughts, all your sadness? Share with me what you feel, what you think. Come, my love, pour into my heart Whatever gives you so much pain. Tell me again.
-Nigar Hanim