# À une mendiante rousse · To a Red-Haired Beggar Girl

Les Fleurs du mal · Charles Baudelaire · Parisian Scenes

Source: https://1732studios.com/books/baudelaire/a-une-mendiante-rousse. Data: https://1732studios.com/books/baudelaire/a-une-mendiante-rousse.json.

**1** Blanche fille aux cheveux roux,  
Pale girl with the red hair,
> «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'.

**2** Dont la robe par ses trous  
Whose dress, through its holes,
> The 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».

**3** Laisse voir la pauvreté  
Lets one see the poverty

**4** Et la beauté,  
And the beauty,


**5** Pour moi, poète chétif,  
For me, a sickly poet,

**6** Ton jeune corps maladif,  
Your young, sickly body,

**7** Plein de taches de rousseur,  
Covered in freckles,
> taches 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.

**8** A sa douceur.  
Has its sweetness.


**9** Tu portes plus galamment  
You wear, more gracefully

**10** Qu'une reine de roman  
Than a queen of romance
> roman (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'.

**11** Ses cothurnes de velours  
Her velvet buskins,
> cothurne (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.

**12** Tes sabots lourds.  
Your heavy clogs.


**13** Au lieu d'un haillon trop court,  
Instead of a too-short rag,
> «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…'.

**14** Qu'un superbe habit de cour  
Let a splendid courtly gown
> «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.

**15** Traîne à plis bruyants et longs  
Trail in long, rustling folds

**16** Sur tes talons;  
Over your heels;


**17** En place de bas troués  
In place of stockings full of holes,

**18** Que pour les yeux des roués  
Let, for the eyes of rakes,
> roué (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.

**19** Sur ta jambe un poignard d'or  
A golden dagger on your leg

**20** Reluise encor;  
Still glitter on;


**21** Que des noeuds mal attachés  
Let loosely fastened ribbons

**22** Dévoilent pour nos péchés  
Unveil, for our sins,

**23** Tes deux beaux seins, radieux  
Your two fair breasts, radiant

**24** Comme des yeux;  
As a pair of eyes;


**25** Que pour te déshabiller  
Let, to undress you,

**26** Tes bras se fassent prier  
Let your arms make themselves be coaxed
> se 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.

**27** Et chassent à coups mutins  
And drive off with saucy blows

**28** Les doigts lutins,  
The impish fingers,
> lutin (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.


**29** Perles de la plus belle eau,  
Pearls of the finest water,
> de 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.

**30** Sonnets de maître Belleau  
Sonnets by master Belleau,

**31** Par tes galants mis aux fers  
By your suitors clapped in irons,

**32** Sans cesse offerts,  
Endlessly offered up,


**33** Valetaille de rimeurs  
A rabble of versifiers,
> valetaille (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.

**34** Te dédiant leurs primeurs  
Dedicating to you their first fruits,

**35** Et contemplant ton soulier  
And gazing at your slipper

**36** Sous l'escalier,  
Beneath the stair,


**37** Maint page épris du hasard,  
Many a page in love with chance,
> «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.

**38** Maint seigneur et maint Ronsard  
Many a lord and many a Ronsard

**39** Epieraient pour le déduit  
Would spy out, for their pleasure,
> déduit (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.

**40** Ton frais réduit!  
Your cool little nook!


**41** Tu compterais dans tes lits  
You would count in your beds
> The 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.

**42** Plus de baisers que de lis  
More kisses than lilies

**43** Et rangerais sous tes lois  
And would bring under your sway

**44** Plus d'un Valois!  
More than one Valois!


**45** — Cependant tu vas gueusant  
— And yet you go begging
> «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.

**46** Quelque vieux débris gisant  
Some old scrap lying there
> gésir / 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.

**47** Au seuil de quelque Véfour  
On the threshold of some Véfour

**48** De carrefour;  
At a crossroads;


**49** Tu vas lorgnant en dessous  
You go eyeing on the sly

**50** Des bijoux de vingt-neuf sous  
Trinkets worth twenty-nine sous

**51** Dont je ne puis, oh! Pardon!  
Which I cannot, oh! Forgive me!
> «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'.

**52** Te faire don.  
Make you a gift of.


**53** Va donc, sans autre ornement,  
Go then, with no other ornament,
> Imperative «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.

**54** Parfum, perles, diamant,  
No perfume, pearls, or diamond,

**55** Que ta maigre nudité,  
But your thin nakedness,
> «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.

**56** Ô ma beauté!  
O my beauty!

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Source text: public domain (Charles Baudelaire, d. 1867). English translation: © 2026 1732 Studios, LLC — original draft, pending editorial review.