Translator's Note:      "Puanteurs cruelles" translates literally as "cruel stenches." What to do? I knew I was never going to be able to say "cruel stenches" in front of an audience.      Claude Jeancolas' Le Dictionnaire Rimbaud (Balland, 1991) and Rimbaud, l'oeuvre (Textuel, 2000) helped me come up with a solution. Jeancolas says the "puanteurs cruelles" are "Champignons vénéneux. A rapprocher des 'bleuisons aurorales' autour desquels 'bombinent' les diptères dans Les Mains de Jeanne-Marie." ("Poisonous mushrooms. Compare with the 'bleuisons aurorales' around which 'bombinent' [buzz or drone; a word created by Rimbaud from the Latin bombus, drone] the flies in The Hands of Jeanne-Marie.") The "petit aurore bleu" is a species of Agaric, a common poisonous mushroom.      I asked Kat Emerson for the names of some poisonous mushrooms. She came up with "death angels," which, while a stretch, is très rimbaldien. Rimbaud describes himself as "an angel in the hands of a barber" in "Oraison du Soir" (Evening Prayer) and, probably, as the "damned angel" in "L'Angélot Maudit" (Damned Angel).      In "The Good Disciple" Verlaine called him "mortal, angel and demon", and wrote "What hard Angel batters me / Between the shoulderblades / As I fly up to Paradise?"

Death Angel Mushrooms Amanita virosa

Voyelles A noir, E blanc, I rouge, U vert, 0 bleu: voyelles, Je dirai quelque jour vos naissances latentes. A, noir corset velu des mouches éclatantes Qui bombinent autour des puanteurs cruelles, Golfes d'ombre ; E, candeurs des vapeurs et des tentes, Lances des glaciers fiers, rois blancs, frissons d'ombelles; I, pourpres, sang craché, rire des lèvres belles Dans la colère ou les ivresses pénitentes ; U, cycles, vibrements divins des mers virides, Paix des pâtis semés d'animaux, paix des rides Que l'alchimie imprime aux grands fronts studieux; O, suprême Clairon plein de strideurs étranges, Silences traversés des Mondes et des Anges: - O, l'Oméga, rayon violet de Ses Yeux !

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Holly Tannen teaches folklore and anthropology, and has lectured on contemporary magic at U.C. Berkeley and at Yale University. Her recordings include "Invocation", "Between the Worlds", and "Rime of the Ancient Matriarch" Holly's home page :  CDs :  concerts :  workshops :  vita :  quotes

updated 29 April 2002 : 14:35 Caspar (Pacific) time

All text, translations, and songs copyright © 2002 by Holly Tannen