Stéphane Mallarmé Quotes

Die Massen mögen die Moral lesen, aber bitte laßt sie nicht unsere Dichtkunst besudeln. O Dichter, ihr wart immer Hochmütige; seid mehr, werdet Verächter.

I can see my reflection like that of an angel!
And I feel that I am dying, and, through the medium
Of art or of mystical experience, I want to be reborn,
Wearing my dream like a diadem, in some better land
Where beauty flourishes.

O Spirit of litigation, know, When we keep silent in this season, The stem of multiple lilies grew Too large to be contained by reason

Degas was discussing poetry with Mallarmé; "It isn't ideas I'm short of... I've got too many" [Ce ne sont pas les idées qui me manquent... J'en ai trop], said Degas. "But Degas," replied Mallarmé, "you can't make a poem with ideas. … You make it with words." [Mais, Degas, ce n'est point avec des idées que l'on fait des vers. . . . C'est avec des mots.]

L'acte poétique consiste à voir soudain qu'une idée se fractionne en un nombre de motifs égaux par valeur et à les grouper; ils riment.

Everything that is sacred and that wishes to remain so must envelop itself in mystery.

We have, in other words, a “daily paper.” But who, then, can make the gradual discovery of the meaning of this format, or even of a sort of popular fairyland charm about it? Then again, the leader, which is the most important part, makes its great free way through a thousand obstacles and finally reaches a state of disinterestedness. But what is the result of this victory? It overthrows the advertisement (which is Original Slavery) and, as if it were itself the powered printing press, drives it far back beyond intervening articles onto the fourth page and leaves it there in a mass of incoherent and inarticulate cries.

Un livre ne commence ni ne finit: tout au plus fait-il semblant.

All alone I gave Myself for triumph the ideal sin of roses.

Did I love a dream?

J'invente une langue qui doit nécessairement jaillir d'une poétique très nouvelle, que je pourrais définir en ces deux mots: Peindre, non la chose, mais l'effet qu'elle produit.

Everything in the world exists in order to end up as a book.

La carne es triste, ¡ay!, y todo lo he leído.
¡Huir! ¡Huir! Presiento que en lo desconocido
de espuma y cielo, ebrios los pájaros se alejan.
Nada, ni los jardines que los ojos reflejan
sujetará este pecho, náufrago en mar abierta
¡oh, noches!, ni en mi lámpara la claridad desierta
sobre la virgen página que esconde su blancura,
y ni la fresca esposa con el hijo en el seno.
¡He de partir al fin! Zarpe el barco, y sereno
meza en busca de exóticos climas su arboladura.
Un hastío reseco ya de crueles anhelos
aún sueña en el último adiós de los pañuelos.
¡Quién sabe si los mástiles, tempestades buscando,
se doblarán al viento sobre el naufragio, cuando
perdidos floten sin islotes ni derroteros!...
¡Mas oye, oh corazón, cantar los marineros!

…Do I see the ghost of a princess?
Cease walking in some unknown era…

Ah well, towards happiness others will lead me With their tresses knotted to the horns of my brow: You know, my passion, that purple and just ripe, The pomegranates burst and murmur with bees; And our blood, aflame for her who will take it, Flows for all the eternal swarm of desire.