Sahara Blue
(Brussels)

Julliet - Boulevard du Regent

Flower beds of amaranths up to
The pleasant palace of Jupiter
You I know spread here your Blue,
Your desert Blue, almost-Sahara Blue!

Roses here and sunlit pines
Play convoluted games with vines,
Cages in a little widow's window...
What bands of birds!

Quiet houses, love calmed long ago!
Kiosk for a Woman Mad with Regret!
Behind the butts of rose trees, low
And shadowy, a balcony for Juliet...

A lovely stop along the railway,
Where in a mountain, at an orchard's end,
A thousand blue devils dance a ballet!

On a green bench in a hurricane cloud
The white girl of Ireland sings to her guitar
In the Guianan dining room, loud
Sounds of children, where the birdcages are.

Ducal Window makes me think of subtile
Poison slugs and snails, and here below
Asleep in sunshine, boxwood hedge... but oh,
It is all too beautiful! Let us be still.

Calm boulevard, empty of life and fire!
Tragedy, Comedy, all in stillness stands;
Infinite imagination here expands,
And I who know you quietly admire.

Words: Arthur Rimbaud
Music: Gogan-Condon-Zazou

Rimbaud's complete poetry