Little Poems in Prose

XXXIII INTOXICATE YOURSELF! ONE must always be drunk. Everything lies in that; it is the only question worth consider- ing. In order not to feel the horrible burden of time which breaks your shoulders and bows you down to earth, you must intoxicate your- self without truce, but with what? With wine, poetry, or art?—As you will; but intoxicate yourself. And if sometimes upon the steps of a pal- ace, or upon the green grass of a moat, or in the sad solitude of your own room, you awake, intoxication already diminished or disappeared, ask of the wind, of the wave, of the star, of the bird, of the clock, of all that flies, of all that groans, of all that rolls, of all that sings, of all that speaks,—ask what time is it? And the wind, the wave, the star, the bird, the clock, will answer you, “It is time to intoxicate your- self.” In order to escape from the slavish mar- tyrdom of time, intoxicate yourself, unceas- ingly intoxicate yourself;—with wine, or poetry, or art, which you will.