# À une passante · To a Woman Passing By

Les Fleurs du mal · Charles Baudelaire · Parisian Scenes

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

**1** La rue assourdissante autour de moi hurlait.  
The deafening street was howling all around me.
> assourdissant(e): «assourdissant» means 'deafening', from «assourdir», 'to deafen, to muffle'. It is the present participle of the verb used as an adjective, agreeing with «la rue» (feminine): «la rue assourdissante» — the deafening street, so loud it «hurlait» (howled) around the poet.

**2** Longue, mince, en grand deuil, douleur majestueuse,  
Tall, slender, in deep mourning, a majestic grief,
> le deuil; en grand deuil: «le deuil» is mourning, both the grief and the black clothes worn for it. «en grand deuil» = 'in full / deep mourning' — the heaviest black, marking a recent and close death. The whole woman is then renamed by her sorrow: «douleur majestueuse», a majestic grief.

**3** Une femme passa, d'une main fastueuse  
A woman passed, with a lavish hand
> Passé simple «passa»: «passa» is the «passé simple» (literary past) of «passer», 'to pass': 'she passed'. This tense, used only in writing, gives the single, finished gesture of her crossing — over in an instant, like the «éclair» (flash) of the first tercet.

**4** Soulevant, balançant le feston et l'ourlet;  
Lifting, swaying the scallop and the hem;
> le feston; l'ourlet: «le feston» is a scalloped or festooned border of a skirt; «l'ourlet» is the hem. The two present participles «soulevant, balançant» (lifting, swaying) describe her hand gathering and rocking the edge of her dress as she walks — a single, vivid flourish of movement.


**5** Agile et noble, avec sa jambe de statue.  
Nimble and noble, with her leg of a statue.

**6** Moi, je buvais, crispé comme un extravagant,  
I — I was drinking, tensed like a madman,
> Stressed pronoun «moi» + «je»: «moi» is the stressed (disjunctive) pronoun, set before the ordinary subject «je» to throw the weight onto the speaker: 'I, for my part…'. The pivot from the passing woman to the watching poet, «Moi, je buvais» ('I was drinking [her in]'), turns the sonnet inward at its center.

**7** Dans son oeil, ciel livide où germe l'ouragan,  
From her eye, livid sky where the storm takes root,
> germer; l'ouragan: «germer» is 'to sprout, to germinate', as a seed does; «l'ouragan» is a hurricane or violent storm. Her eye is a «ciel livide» (livid, leaden sky) «où germe l'ouragan» — where the storm is already taking root. Note the inversion: the verb «germe» comes before its subject «l'ouragan».

**8** La douceur qui fascine et le plaisir qui tue.  
The sweetness that enthralls and the pleasure that kills.


**9** Un éclair... puis la nuit! — Fugitive beauté  
A flash of lightning... then the night! — Fleeting beauty
> l'éclair; fugitif / fugitive: «un éclair» is a flash of lightning; «fugitif/fugitive» means 'fleeting, fugitive'. The encounter is compressed into a single flash followed by darkness, and she becomes «Fugitive beauté» — a beauty already vanishing. The em-dash marks the abrupt turn from scene to direct address.

**10** Dont le regard m'a fait soudainement renaître,  
Whose glance suddenly made me be reborn,
> Relative pronoun «dont»: «dont» is the relative pronoun standing for «de qui / de quoi» — 'whose, of whom'. «Fugitive beauté dont le regard…» = 'fleeting beauty whose gaze…': «dont» links the address to her «regard» (look), the glance that «m'a fait… renaître», made the poet be reborn.
> Causative «faire» + infinitive: «faire» plus an infinitive is the causative, 'to make (someone) do': «le regard m'a fait renaître» = 'the glance made me be reborn'. The object pronoun «m'» (me) is the one caused to act. «renaître» is 'to be reborn' — a single look brings the poet back to life.

**11** Ne te verrai-je plus que dans l'éternité?  
Shall I see you no more except in eternity?
> Inversion in a question; «ne... plus que»: The subject «je» is inverted after the verb to form the question: «verrai-je» = 'shall I see'. «ne... plus que» means 'no longer... except / only now... in', so «Ne te verrai-je plus que dans l'éternité?» = 'Shall I see you no more except in eternity?' — only after death, if ever.


**12** Ailleurs, bien loin d'ici! trop tard! jamais peut-être!  
Elsewhere, far from here! too late! never perhaps!
> ailleurs; jamais peut-être: «ailleurs» means 'elsewhere'; «bien loin d'ici» = 'far from here'. The line breaks into broken exclamations — «trop tard!» ('too late!'), «jamais peut-être!» ('never perhaps!') — that act out the lost chance, each phrase a separate gasp at the missed meeting.

**13** Car j'ignore où tu fuis, tu ne sais où je vais,  
For I know not where you flee, you know not where I go,
> ignorer (faux ami): «ignorer» is a false friend: it means 'not to know, to be unaware of', not 'to ignore'. «j'ignore où tu fuis» = 'I do not know where you are fleeing'. Paired with «tu ne sais où je vais», it seals the symmetry of two strangers parting forever, each blind to the other's path.

**14** Ô toi que j'eusse aimée, ô toi qui le savais!  
O you whom I would have loved, O you who knew it!
> Past subjunctive as conditional «j'eusse aimée»: «j'eusse aimée» is the pluperfect subjunctive of «aimer», here used in its literary value as a past conditional: 'whom I would have loved'. The «-e» on «aimée» agrees with the preceding feminine object «que» (= «toi», the woman). It is the great might-have-been on which the sonnet closes.

---

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