The
Voyage
by
Charles Baudelaire for
T. S. Eliot
For the boy playing with his globe and stamps,
the world is equal to his appetite--
how grand the world in the blaze of
the lamps,
how petty in tomorrow's small dry light!
One morning
we lift anchor, full of brave
prejudices, prospects, ingenuity--
we
swing with the velvet swell of the wave,
our infinite is rocked by the fixed
sea.
Some wish to fly a cheapness they detest,
others, their cradles'
terror -- others stand
with their binoculars on a woman's breast,
reptilian
Circe with her junk and wand.
Not to be turned to reptiles, such men
daze
themselves with spaces, light, the burning sky;
cold toughens them,
they bronze in the sun's blaze
and dry the sores of their debauchery.
But the true voyagers are those who move
simply to move -- like lost
balloons! Their heart
is some old motor thudding in one groove.
It says
its single phrase, "Let us depart!"
They are like conscripts lusting
for the guns;
our sciences have never learned to tag
their projects
and designs -- enormous, vague
hopes grease the wheels of these automatons!
II
We imitate, oh horror!
tops and bowls
in their eternal waltzing marathon;
even in sleep, our
fever whips and rolls--
like a black angel flogging the brute sun.
Strange sport! where destination has no place
or name, and may be anywhere
we choose--
where man, committed to his endless race,
runs like a madman
diving for repose!
Our soul is a three-master seeking port;
a voice
from starboard shouts, "We're at the dock!"
Another, more elated, cries from
port,
"Here's dancing, gin and girls!" Balls! it's a rock!
The
islands sighted by the lookout seem
the El Dorados promised us last night;
imagination wakes from its drugged dream,
sees only ledges in the morning
light.
Poor lovers of exotic Indias,
shall we throw you in chains
or in the sea?
Sailors discovering new Americas
who drown in a mirage
of agony!
The worn-out sponge, who scuffles through our slums
sees
whiskey, paradise and liberty
wherever oil-lamps shine in furnished rooms--
we see Blue Grottoes, Caesar and Capri.
III
Stunningly simple tourists,
your pursuit
is written in the tear-drops in your eyes!
Spread out the
packing cases of your loot,
your azure sapphires made of seas and skies!
We want to break the boredom of our jails
and cross the oceans
without oars or steam--
give its visions to stretch our minds like sails,
the blue, exotic shoreline of your dream!
Tell us, what have you
seen?
IV
"We've
seen the stars,
a wave or two -- we've also seen some sand;
although
we peer through telescopes and spars,
we're often deadly bored as you on
land.
The shine of sunlight on the violet sea,
the roar of cities
when the sun goes down:
these stir our hearts with restless energy;
we worship the Indian Ocean where we drown!
No old chateau or shrine
besieged by crowds
of crippled pilgrims sets our soul on fire,
as these
chance countries gathered from the clouds.
Our hearts are always anxious
with desire.
(Desire, that great elm fertilized by lust,
gives
its old body, when the heaven warms
its bark that winters and old age encrust;
green branches draw the sun into its arms.
Why are you always growing
taller, Tree--
Oh longer-lived than cypress!) Yet we took
one or two
sketches for your picture-book,
Brothers who sell your souls for novelty!
We have salaamed to pagan gods with horns,
entered shrines peopled
by a galaxy
of Buddhas, Slavic saints, and unicorns,
so rich Rothschild
must dream of bankruptcy!
Priests' robes that scattered solid golden
flakes,
dancers with tattooed bellies and behinds,
charmers supported
by braziers of snakes . . ."
V
Yes, and what else?
VI
Oh
trivial, childish minds!
You've missed the more important things that we
were forced to learn against our will. We've been
from top to bottom
of the ladder, and see
only the pageant of immortal sin :
there
women, servile, peacock-tailed, and coarse,
marry for money, and love without
disgust
horny, pot-bellied tyrants stuffed on lust,
slaves' slaves --
the sewer in which their gutter pours!
old maids who weep, playboys
who live each hour,
state banquets loaded with hot sauces, blood and trash,
ministers sterilized by dreams of power,
workers who love their brutalizing
lash;
and everywhere religions like our own
all storming heaven,
propped by saints who reign
like sybarites on beds of nails and frown--
all searching for some orgiastic pain!
Many, self-drunk, are lying in
the mud--
mad now, as they have always been, they roll
in torment screaming
to the throne of God:
"My image and my Lord, I hate your soul!"
And others, dedicated without hope,
flee the dull herd -- each locked in
his own world
hides in his ivory-tower of art and dope--
this is the
daily news from the whole world!
VII
How sour the knowledge
travellers bring away!
The world's monotonous and small; we see
ourselves
today, tomorrow, yesterday,
an oasis of horror in sands of ennui!
Shall we move or rest? Rest, if you can rest;
move if you must. One runs,
but others drop
and trick their vigilant antagonist.
Time is a runner
who can never stop,
the Wandering Jew or Christ's Apostles. Yet
nothing's enough; no knife goes through the ribs
of this retarius throwing
out its net;
others can kill and never leave their cribs.
And even
when Time's heel is on our throat
we still can hope, still cry, "On, on,
let's go!"
Just as we once took passage on the boat
for China, shivering
as we felt the blow,
so we now set our sails for the Dead Sea,
light-hearted as the youngest voyager.
If you look seaward, Traveller, you
will see
a spectre rise and hear it sing, "Stop, here,
and eat
my lotus-flowers, here's where they're sold.
Here are the fabulous fruits;
look, my boughs bend;
eat yourself sick on knowledge. Here we hold
time
in our hands, it never has to end."
We know the accents of this ghost
by heart;
our comrade spreads his arms across the seas;
"On, on, Orestes.
Sail and feast your heart--
Here's Clytemnestra." Once we kissed her knees.
VIII
It's time. Old Captain,
lift anchor, sink!
The land rots; we shall sail into the night;
if now
the sky and sea are black as ink
our hearts, as you must know, are filled
with light.
Only when we drink poison are we well--
we want, this
fire so burns our brain tissue,
to drown in the abyss -- heaven or hell,
who cares? Through the unknown, we'll find the new.
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