French · Parisian Scenes

À une mendiante rousse

To a Red-Haired Beggar Girl

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Pale girl with the red hair,
Blanchepaleblanc · adjective, feminine, singularmodifies fille
fillegirlfille · noun, feminine, singularhead of the phrase
auxwith theà · prepositionpreposition marking cheveux
cheveuxhaircheveu · noun, masculine, pluralmodifies fille
rouxredroux · adjective, masculine, pluralmodifies cheveux
Grammar«à» for describing a feature «aux» is «à» + «les». Placed after a noun, «à» attaches a defining physical trait: «la fille aux cheveux roux» = 'the girl with the red hair'. The same pattern gives «l'homme aux yeux bleus», 'the man with the blue eyes'.
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Whose dress, through its holes,
GrammarThe relative «dont» «dont» is a relative pronoun standing in for «de» + a noun — here 'whose'. «la fille dont la robe…» = 'the girl whose dress…'. It spares French the heavier «de laquelle».
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Lets one see the poverty
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And the beauty,
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For me, a sickly poet,
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Your young, sickly body,
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Covered in freckles,
Wordtaches de rousseur Literally 'spots of redness' — the standard French phrase for 'freckles'. «rousseur» comes from «roux» (russet, red-haired), the same color that opens the poem and names its subject.
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Has its sweetness.
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You wear, more gracefully
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Than a queen of romance
Wordroman (m.) «roman» means 'novel', not 'Roman'. «une reine de roman» is 'a queen out of a novel' — a storybook queen. The comparison «plus… qu'une reine de roman» = 'more… than a storybook queen'.
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Her velvet buskins,
Wordcothurne (m.) A «cothurne» is the high, laced buskin worn by actors in ancient tragedy — a theatrical, regal shoe. Set against the beggar's «sabots lourds» (heavy clogs), it sharpens the gap between the imagined queen and the real girl.
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Your heavy clogs.
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Instead of a too-short rag,
Grammar«au lieu de» — 'instead of' «au lieu de» means 'instead of, in place of', and is followed by a noun or an infinitive. It opens the long wish that runs through the next stanzas: 'instead of rags… let a court gown…'.
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Let a splendid courtly gown
Grammar«que» + subjunctive as a wish A clause opening with «que» and a subjunctive verb («Traîne») expresses a wish or command: 'let a splendid gown trail…'. Baudelaire chains several of these «que» clauses to imagine the finery the girl ought to have.
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Trail in long, rustling folds
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Over your heels;
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In place of stockings full of holes,
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Let, for the eyes of rakes,
Wordroué (m.) A «roué» is a debauched libertine, a rake — originally an aristocratic profligate of the Regency. The «yeux des roués», 'the eyes of rakes', are the leering gaze the dreamed-up finery is meant to catch.
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A golden dagger on your leg
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Still glitter on;
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Let loosely fastened ribbons
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Unveil, for our sins,
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Your two fair breasts, radiant
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As a pair of eyes;
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Let, to undress you,
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Let your arms make themselves be coaxed
Grammarse faire prier «se faire prier» is an idiom: literally 'to have oneself begged', it means 'to need coaxing, to play hard to get'. «se fassent» is the subjunctive of «se faire», continuing the chain of «que» wishes.
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And drive off with saucy blows
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The impish fingers,
Wordlutin (adj./n.) A «lutin» is a goblin or sprite; used as an adjective it means 'impish, mischievous'. «les doigts lutins» — 'the impish fingers' — are the grasping hands the girl's arms playfully fend off.
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Pearls of the finest water,
Wordde la plus belle eau In jewelry, the «eau» ('water') of a pearl or gem is its clarity and lustre; «de la plus belle eau» means 'of the finest quality, of the first order'. Here the pearls are the verses offered to her.
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Sonnets by master Belleau,
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By your suitors clapped in irons,
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Endlessly offered up,
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A rabble of versifiers,
Wordvaletaille (f.) «valetaille» is a scornful collective for the servants of a great house — 'the pack of lackeys'. «rimeur» is likewise dismissive: a mere rhymester, not a true poet. Together: a servile crowd of hacks attending the imagined queen.
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Dedicating to you their first fruits,
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And gazing at your slipper
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Beneath the stair,
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Many a page in love with chance,
Grammar«maint» — 'many a' «maint» is a literary, somewhat archaic adjective meaning 'many a'. It takes a singular noun: «maint page» = 'many a page', «maint seigneur» = 'many a lord'. Baudelaire repeats it to crowd the scene with admirers.
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Many a lord and many a Ronsard
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Would spy out, for their pleasure,
Worddéduit (m.) «déduit» is an archaic word for amorous pleasure or dalliance, common in medieval and Renaissance verse. Its old-fashioned flavor suits the courtly fantasy and discreetly names what the spying lords are after.
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Your cool little nook!
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You would count in your beds
GrammarThe conditional «tu compterais» «compterais» and «rangerais» are conditional ('you would count', 'you would set in order'). The conditional carries the whole fantasy: all of this is what would happen if the beggar girl were the queen the poet imagines.
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More kisses than lilies
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And would bring under your sway
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More than one Valois!
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— And yet you go begging
Grammar«aller» + present participle «aller» + a present participle («vas gueusant») stresses an action drawn out over time: 'you go on begging, you keep begging'. The em-dash and «Cependant» ('however') snap the poem from fantasy back to the street.
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Some old scrap lying there
Wordgésir / gisant «gisant» is the present participle of the defective verb «gésir», 'to lie (stretched out)'. It survives mainly in this form and on tombs («ci-gît», 'here lies'). Here the «vieux débris gisant» is a stale leftover lying in the gutter.
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On the threshold of some Véfour
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At a crossroads;
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You go eyeing on the sly
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Trinkets worth twenty-nine sous
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Which I cannot, oh! Forgive me!
Grammar«je ne puis» — literary 'I cannot' «je puis» is the older, literary form of «je peux», 'I can'. With «ne» it makes a more elevated, poignant 'I cannot'. The «dont» reaches forward to «Te faire don» on the next line: 'which I cannot make you a gift of'.
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Make you a gift of.
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Go then, with no other ornament,
GrammarImperative «Va» + «donc» «Va» is the imperative of «aller», 'go'; «donc» adds urging or resignation, 'go then, go on'. The poem closes by sending the girl off as she is, adorned only with her own bare beauty.
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No perfume, pearls, or diamond,
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But your thin nakedness,
Grammar«sans autre… que» — 'no other… than' «sans autre ornement… Que ta maigre nudité» reads as 'with no other ornament than your thin nakedness'. The «que» after «autre» means 'than / except', stripping away every jewel named to leave only the body itself.
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O my beauty!

The particulars

The text: Les Fleurs du mal, Charles Baudelaire. Parisian Scenes.
Words: Every word of the text, by letter.
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