Young Couple, Poem by Arthur Rimbaud

Poem by Arthur Rimbaud Collection Derniers versPeriod 19th century

The room is open to the turquoise sky;
No room left: strongboxes and chests!
Outside, the wall is covered with birthworts
Where the goblins’ gums are quivering.

What a tangle of genies’ tricks indeed
This waste and these vain disorders are!
It’s the African fairy who supplies
The blackberry, and the hairnets in the corners.

Several enter, displeased godmothers,
In beams of light, into the cabinets,
Then stay there! the household wanders off
Not very seriously, and nothing gets done.

The bridegroom has the wind that mocks him
While he’s away, here, all the time.
Even water spirits, malignant,
Come drifting through the spheres of the alcove.

At night, the friend oh! the honeymoon
Will gather up their smile and fill
The sky with a thousand headbands of copper.
Then they’ll have to deal with the wicked rat.

– Unless a pale will-o’-the-wisp arrives,
Like a gunshot, after vespers.
– O holy white spectres of Bethlehem,
Rather charm the blue of their window!

Arthur Rimbaud

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