French · Spleen and Ideal

À une dame créole

To a Creole Lady

14 lines · 12 notes

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1
In the perfumed land the sun caresses,
Auin theà · preposition (contraction of à+le)preposition marking pays
payslandpays · noun, masculine, singularhead of the phrase
parfuméperfumedparfumer · adjective, masculine, singularmodifies pays
quethatque · pronoun, relativedirect object of caresse, introduces the relative clause on pays
lethele · determiner, masculine, singulardeterminer of soleil
soleilsunsoleil · noun, masculine, singularsubject of caresse
caressecaressescaresser · verb, present, indicative, third-person, singularrelative clause on pays
Word«le pays parfumé» — the fragrant land «parfumé» is the past participle of «parfumer», 'to perfume, to scent', used here as an adjective: 'the scented / fragrant land'. The unnamed «pays» is the tropics — the island of Mauritius (then the French Île de France; Île Bourbon was the neighbouring Réunion), which Baudelaire had visited; the whole opening line steeps the poem in heat and perfume before the lady even appears.
2
I knew, beneath a canopy of crimson-flushed trees
Word«empourpré» — flushed crimson «empourpré» is built on «pourpre» (purple, crimson) with the verb «empourprer», 'to flush / dye crimson'. The trees that form the «dais» (canopy, baldachin) are «tout empourprés», all flushed crimson — the deep purple-red of tropical blossom that turns the grove into a royal canopy over the lady.
3
And of palms from which a languor rains upon the eyes,
Grammar«pleuvoir» used transitively, with inversion «pleuvoir» (to rain) is normally impersonal, but here it rains a thing: «la paresse» (idleness, languor) is the subject, placed after the verb in poetic inversion — 'from which languor rains down upon the eyes'. The image makes drowsiness fall like light or dew from the palm-fronds onto the onlooker.
4
A Creole lady of charms still unknown.
Grammar«à» + article describing a person The construction «aux charmes ignorés» uses «à» (contracted to «aux» before a plural) to attach a defining feature: 'with / having charms that are unknown'. «ignorés» here means 'unrecognized, undiscovered' rather than 'ignored' — her beauty has not yet been noticed by the wider world, the very point the sonnet's second half develops.
5
Her complexion is pale and warm; the dark enchantress
Word«enchanteresse» — the feminine of «enchanteur» «enchanteresse» is the feminine form of «enchanteur» (enchanter, sorcerer): 'enchantress, sorceress'. Paired with «brune» ('dark-haired, dark') it fixes the lady's colouring — pale-and-warm skin under dark hair — and casts her, lightly, as a figure who casts a spell.
6
Carries in her neck a bearing nobly mannered;
Word«des airs» — manner, bearing «un air» (plural «des airs») here means a 'look, manner, bearing' rather than 'air' in the sense of breeze or tune. «des airs noblement maniérés» = 'a nobly mannered bearing': the carriage of her neck has a studied, aristocratic grace. The verb is «A» (from «avoir»), 'she has', placed at the head of the line.
7
Tall and slender as she walks, like a huntress,
Word«chasseresse» — huntress «chasseresse» is the poetic feminine of «chasseur» (hunter): 'huntress'. The word carries an echo of Diana, the chaste huntress-goddess, lending the lady's stride a tall, athletic, almost divine poise — «Grande et svelte en marchant», tall and slim as she walks.
8
Her smile is tranquil and her eyes assured.
9
If you were to go, Madame, to the true land of glory,
Grammar«si» + imperfect → conditional sentence «alliez» is the imperfect of «aller» (to go). With «si» it opens a hypothesis about the future-as-possibility: «Si vous alliez… vous feriez…» — 'If you were to go… you would make…'. The whole sestet hangs on this one conditional: were she to come to France, she would inspire countless sonnets.
10
On the banks of the Seine or of the green Loire,
11
Beauty worthy to adorn the ancient manors,
Grammar«digne de» + infinitive «digne de» means 'worthy of'; followed by an infinitive it gives 'worthy to do'. «Belle digne d'orner les antiques manoirs» = 'Beauty worthy to adorn the ancient manor-houses'. «Belle» is used as a noun of direct address — 'O beautiful one' — continuing the «Madame» of the stanza's first line.
12
You would make, sheltered in the shadowy retreats,
Word«à l'abri de» — sheltered by / in «à l'abri de» is a fixed phrase, 'sheltered from / under cover of'. Here it locates the action in cool, shaded seclusion — «les ombreuses retraites», the shadowy retreats of the manor parks. «Vous feriez» is the conditional of «faire» ('you would make'), the main clause answering «Si vous alliez» from the previous stanza; its object, «mille sonnets», arrives on the next line.
13
A thousand sonnets germinate in the hearts of poets,
Grammar«faire germer» — to make sprout This line completes «Vous feriez… germer» (lines spanning the stanza): «faire» + infinitive is the causative, 'to make / cause to happen'. «germer» means 'to germinate, sprout, bud'. So 'you would make a thousand sonnets sprout in the hearts of poets' — her beauty plants poems like seeds in the poets she meets.
14
Whom your great eyes would render more enslaved than your blacks.
Grammar«rendre» + adjective — to make (something) something «rendre» followed by an adjective means 'to make (someone) + adjective': «rendraient plus soumis» = 'would make (them) more submissive'. The conditional «rendraient» (from «rendre») keeps the hypothesis alive to the last word. «Que» refers back to «les poètes»: her great eyes would leave the poets even more in thrall — «plus soumis que vos noirs» — than the enslaved people of her island, a closing comparison whose colonial bluntness now reads as a mark of its 1840s origin.

The particulars

The text: Les Fleurs du mal, Charles Baudelaire. Spleen and Ideal.
Words: Every word of the text, by letter.
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