While reading Les Illuminations, Arthur Rimbaud’s collection of seemingly unrelated symbolist poems, I was struck by how many references there were to light in its varied forms. Rimbaud’s intended order of the poems has never been known – I therefore undertook my own creative selection, following two rules:

Firstly, I would pick out every mention of light within the poems, removing all else.

Secondly, by deducing what time of day each poem took place in, I would attempt to order them chronologically, starting with evening and concluding with the following noon.

The text is taken from Louise Varèse’s 1946 translation.

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