You must always be intoxicated.It is the key to all:the one question.In order not to feel the horrible burden of Time breaking your back and bending you toward the earth,you must become drunk,without truce.But on what?On wine,poetry or virtue,as you wish.But you must get drunk.And if at times,on the steps of palace,on the green grass of a ditch,in the mournful solitude of your room,you awaken,and your intoxication is already diminished or gone,ask the wind,the wave,the star,the bird,the clock,everything that flees,everything that groans,everything that rolls,that sings,that speaks,ask what time it is;and the wind,the wave,the star,the bird,the clock will answer you:"It is time to get intoxicated!In order not to be slaves martyred by Time,always become intoxicated!On wine,on poetry or on virtue,as you will."Charles Baudelaire