Saturday, April 08, 2006

Drunkenness!

I was scouting around for a reason to justify my profligate wastes of time. I can sit around doing nothing but listening to music (sometimes 3 or 4 hrs at a stretch), play cricket with loads of stuff due the next day or watch absolutely immature TV (reruns of seinfeld included) with papers to write tomorrow. You might have heard of blackholes for matter - ever heard of such a thing for Time? You need to look no further than my laptop.

Why a reason?, you might ask. Because a sentiment well expressed cannot be denied its existence or something to that effect.. Well, whatever.

Get Drunk!

Always be drunk.
That's it!
The great imperative!
In order not to feel
Time's horrid fardel
bruise your shoulders,
grinding you into the earth,
Get drunk and stay that way.
On what?
On wine, poetry, virtue, whatever.
But get drunk.
And if you sometimes happen to wake up
on the porches of a palace,
in the green grass of a ditch,
in the dismal loneliness of your own room,
your drunkenness gone or disappearing,
ask the wind,
the wave,
the star,
the bird,
the clock,
ask everything that flees,
everything that groans
or rolls
or sings,
everything that speaks,
ask what time it is;
and the wind,
the wave,
the star,
the bird,
the clock
will answer you:
"Time to get drunk!
Don't be martyred slaves of Time,
Get drunk!
Stay drunk!
On wine, virtue, poetry, whatever!"

-- Charles Baudelaire


Okay, that was convincing enough for me. I need to take some time off to ask the clock what time it is.. :-D
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