This is my translation of the first Rimbaud poem I ever read, Les Chercheuses de Poux, I was in high school, and we had been given a project to recite a poem, I though it would be fun to move outside of my usual recitations (Shelley and Yeats) into something else. Something more pretentious (French). From osmosis, I truly can’t pin where I first heard his name, I thought to look into Rimbawd (as I said back then). This was the first poem that showed up, and it left a mark on me.
It recently came back into my mind after pondering certain experiences of mine.
The Lice Seekers
When the forehead of the child, full of red storms
Implores the white swarm of dreams indistinct
Coming near him, two great charming sisters
With their fragile fingers and silver nails
They sit him at a crossroads
Wide open air bathing a mess of flowers
And, in his hair heavy with dew drops
Walk their slender fingers, terrible and charming
He listens to the song of their bated breath
Which smells of honeysuckle and rose
Sometimes interrupted by the sucking of spit
And again on their lips a desire for kisses
In the scented silences he hears the batting of their lashes
Their electric fingers softly
Crackling amidst his gray indolences
Under their royal nails die little lice
Now, comes the wine of his laziness
The delirious sighing of his harmonica
The child feels their slow caresses and
In him rises and dies without ceasing
a want to cry
Tom Thumb fr fr
Now for the poem that inspired the song, Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues that inspired my personal archetype of 2022, a poem of travel and mystical searching: Ma Bohème.
My Own Path
On my way, fists in my pierced pockets
My overcoat too, was becoming ideal
Going down under the sky, Muse, I was yours !
O ! What splendid loves I dreamt
My only pants had a big hole
Starry eyed Tom Thumb, sowing poems
on my path. My tavern was Ursa Major
My stars whispered softly
And I listened, resting on the side of the road
Those fine September nights
when I tasted the dew
on my brow, like strong wine
I rhymed amidst shadows fantastic
And played like a lyre my worn shoes elastic
A foot near my heart