And from that time on I bathed in the Poem Of the Sea, star-infused and churned into milk, Devouring the green azures; where, entranced in pallid flotsam, A dreaming drowned man sometimes goes down.
Arthur RimbaudRead
A man who wants to mutilate himself is certainly damned, isn't he?
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects on self-harm and the complex nature of human desire and suffering.
Arthur Rimbaud's quote provokes a deep contemplation about the human condition and the darker aspects of desire. It suggests that a person who harbors thoughts of self-mutilation is facing profound internal conflict and despair, leading to a sense of inevitable ruin or moral damnation. Rimbaud's framing of this desire as 'damned' underlines the severity and potential tragic consequences of such self-destructive behavior.
Themes
Self-HarmDespairHuman ConditionDesireInternal Conflict
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be shared in a mental health awareness seminar to discuss the nature of self-harm.
More from Arthur Rimbaud
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I turned silences and nights into words. What was unutterable, I wrote down. I made the whirling world stand still.
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Idle youth, enslaved to everything; by being too sensitive I have wasted my life.
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What a life! True life is elsewhere. We are not in the world.
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