Dear Mr Director

 

Item:   A single tusk

Item:   two tusks

Item:   three tusks

Item:   four tusks

Item:   two tusks

 

Dear Mr Director,

I’m writing to ask if I owe you anything.

I want to change services today.

I’m not sure of the name, but whatever service it is, I want the one to Aphinar.

There are services to here there and everywhere, but I cannot find the one I want, because I am bedridden and depressed, as the first dog in the street could tell you.

Can you please send me the timetable and prices of all services from Aphinar to Suez?

As I am totally paralysed I’ll need plenty of time to embark.

Please let me know at what time I can be lifted aboard.

 

Arthur Rimbaud

(Dictated by Rimbaud to his sister on his deathbed, Marseilles, 1891).

Translation: Niall McDevitt

Image: Hervé Constant

 

 

UN LOT : UNE DENT SEULE.
UN LOT : DEUX DENTS.
UN LOT : TROIS DENTS.
UN LOT : QUATRE DENTS.
UN LOT : DEUX DENTS.
 
Monsieur le Directeur,
 
Je viens vous demander si je n’ai rien laissé à votre compte. Je désire changer aujourd’hui de ce service-ci, dont je ne connais même pas le nom, mais en tout cas que ce soit le service d’Aphinar. Tous ces services sont là partout, et moi, impotent, malheureux, je ne peux rien trouver, le premier chien dans la rue vous dira cela.
 
Envoyez-moi donc le prix des services d’Aphinar à Suez. Je suis complètement paralysé: donc je désire me trouver de bonne heure à bord. Dites-moi à quelle heure je dois être transporté à bord. 

 

 

 

 


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2 Responses to Dear Mr Director

    1. yes, … but, well…one can’t exactly “like” this…..

      Comment by bill sherman on 24 March, 2012 at 3:05 am
    2. You could like the translation or like the painting… I love the letter. He’s probably out of it once again – on opiates – and his final utterance is a mystical poem to the godlike M le Directeur. His last breath returns him to poetry.

      Comment by theed on 24 March, 2012 at 12:16 pm

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