Get Drunk
Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867)

You should always be drunk. That is all. It is the only quest. So as not to suffer the terrible burden of time, that shatters your shoulders and bends your back towards the ground, you should get drunk without delay. But drunk of what? Of wine, of poetry, or of virtue, as you like… but get drunk!

And if sometimes, on the steps of a palace, in the green grass of a ditch, in the dreary solitude of your bedroom, you wake up, the inebriation diminished or disappeared, ask the wind, the wave, the star, the bird, the clock – all that flees, all that groans, all that rolls, all that sings, all that speaks… ask it what time it is.

And the wind, the wave, the star, the bird, the clock will answer: it is time to get drunk. So as not to be slaves, martyrs of the time, get drunk, keep getting drunk! Of wine, of poetry, or of virtue, as you like.

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Diseases and pests attacking the vines…

Phylloxera bug and Black Rot (click for full size)

Don’t leave me
We have to forget, all can be forgotten as it is already escaping through our fingers
Forget the times of misunderstandings and the time that we lost
Let’s learn how to forget the time we killed our happiness with questions of why
Don’t leave me
Don’t leave me
Don’t leave me
Don’t leave me

I will offer you pearls of rain that came from a country where it never rains
I’ll burrow the ground until after my death, so I can cover your body with gold and light
I’ll create us a country where love will be king, where love will be law, where you will be queen
Don’t leave me
Don’t leave me
Don’t leave me
Don’t leave me

Don’t leave me
I’ll invent some words without meaning that you will understand
I’ll tell you about these lovers who twice saw their hearts burst into flame
I’ll tell you the story about the king who died from being unable to meet you
Don’t leave me
Don’t leave me
Don’t leave me
Don’t leave me

We’ve often seen the fire spout from a sleeping volcano that we thought was too old
It is said there are scorched lands giving more wheat than the best month of April
And when the evening sky is blazing red and black, even they get married, don’t they?
Don’t leave me
Don’t leave me
Don’t leave me
Don’t leave me

Don’t Leave me
I’m not going to cry anymore, not going to talk anymore, I’ll just hide here
Watching you dancing and smiling, and listening to you sing and then laugh
Let me be the shadow of your shadow, the shadow of your hand, the shadow of your dog But…
Don’t leave me
Don’t leave me
Don’t leave me
Don’t leave me