Be drunk !
You have to be always drunk. That's
all there is to it - it's the only way. So as not to feel the horrible burden
of time that breaks your back and bends you to the earth, you have to be
continually drunk.
But on what ? Wine, poetry or virtue, as you wish. But be drunk.
And if sometimes, on the steps of a
palace or the green grass of a ditch, in the mournful solitude of your room,
you wake again, drunkenness already diminishing or gone, ask the wind, the
wave, the star, the bird, the clock, everything that is flying, everything that
is groaning, everything that is rolling, everything that is singing, everything
that is speaking... Ask what time it is and wind, wave, star, bird, clock will
answer you: "It is time to be drunk ! So as not
to be the martyred slaves of time, be drunk, be continually drunk
! On wine, on poetry or on virtue as you wish."
Baudelaire