In Indonesia, French poet Rimbaud’s voyage remains a mystery

A tourist steam train travels through Salatiga’s padi fields, where Rimbaud deserted the Dutch army in Java in 1876, a mystery unsolved for nearly 150 years. Photo: AFP

In the summer of 1876, rebel French poet Arthur Rimbaud arrived on the Indonesian island of Java, enlisting in the colonial Dutch army before deserting after just two weeks, an escape still shrouded in mystery nearly 150 years later.

Today in Java’s Salatiga city, where coffee trees and bougainvilleas bloom, only a plaque at the entrance of the mayor’s residence recognises the fleeting passage of a man who inspired writers from James Joyce to Jim Morrison.