A Throw of the Dice [excerpt]
NOTHING of the memorable crisis or might the event have been accomplished in view of all results null human WILL HAVE TAKEN PLACE an ordinary elevation pours out absence BUT THE PLACE some splashing below of water as if to disperse the empty act abruptly which otherwise by its falsehood would have founded perdition in these latitudes of indeterminate waves in which all reality dissolves EXCEPT on high PERHAPS as far as place can fuse with the beyond aside from the interest marked out to it in general by a certain obliquity through a certain declivity of fires toward what must be the Septentrion as well as North A CONSTELLATION cold from forgetfulness and desuetude not so much that it doesn't number on some vacant and superior surface the successive shock in the way of stars of a total account in the making keeping vigil doubting rolling shining and meditating before coming to a halt at some terminus that sanctifies it All Thought emits a Throw of the Dice
Credit
From Collected Poems (University of California Press, 1994) by Stéphane Mallarmé. Reprinted by permission of the publisher.
Date Published
01/01/1994