French · Flowers of Evil

Allégorie

Allegory

20 lines · 16 notes

Tap a line to open its words.

1
She is a woman beautiful and of ample neck,
C'itce · pronoun, singularsubject of est
estisêtre · auxiliary verb, present, indicative, third-person, singularcopula linking to femme
uneaun · determiner, feminine, singulardeterminer of femme
femmewomanfemme · noun, feminine, singularpredicate nominal, head of the phrase
bellebeautifulbeau · adjective, feminine, singularmodifies femme
etandet · conjunctionlinks the coordination
deofde · prepositionintroduces the phrase de riche encolure
richeampleriche · adjective, singularmodifies encolure
encolureneckencolure · noun, feminine, singularobject of de, coordinated with belle (modifies femme)
Wordencolure (f.) «encolure» is the neck-and-shoulders — the word is used of horses and of the cut of a garment as much as of people. «de riche encolure» frames her from the first line as a powerful, full-bodied animal presence, not a delicate beauty.
2
who lets her hair trail loose into her wine.
Grammarlaisser + infinitive «laisser» + infinitive = 'to let / allow (something) to do'. «laisse traîner sa chevelure» = 'lets her hair trail'. The construction makes her negligence active: she permits it, indifferent to the squalor of hair dragging in her drink.
3
The claws of love, the poisons of the gambling den,
Wordtripot (m.) «tripot» is a low gambling house or dive — a disreputable den. Paired with «les griffes de l'amour» (the claws of love), it sets the two great ruinous forces, lust and vice, against the figure who shrugs them off.
4
all slides off and is blunted on the granite of her skin.
Grammars'émousser (pronominal) «émousser» = 'to blunt, to dull (an edge)'; the pronominal «s'émousser» = 'to go blunt'. The claws and poisons «s'émoussent au granit de sa peau» — go dull against the granite of her skin. She is invulnerable; the world's edges break on her.
5
She laughs at Death and flouts Debauchery,
Wordnarguer «narguer» = 'to taunt, to defy, to thumb one's nose at'. Stronger than mere mockery: she openly provokes «la Débauche», personified and capitalized, just as she laughs in the face of «la Mort».
6
those monsters whose hand, which always scratches and scythes,
GrammarRelative «dont» = 'whose' «dont» here works as a possessive relative: «ces monstres dont la main» = 'those monsters whose hand'. «faucher» = 'to mow / to scythe down', the gesture of Death's reaper — the hand that mows ordinary mortals has, exceptionally, spared her.
7
in its destroying games has nonetheless respected
8
the rugged majesty of this firm and upright body.
GrammarInverted object order Read straight, the clause is «a respecté la rude majesté de ce corps ferme et droit» — 'has respected the rugged majesty of this firm and upright body'. Baudelaire fronts the complement «De ce corps ferme et droit» for the rhyme and to land the body, not the verb, at the line's weight.
9
She walks like a goddess and reclines like a sultana;
Grammar«en» + noun = 'as / like a' «en» before a bare noun means 'in the manner of, as': «marche en déesse» = 'walks as a goddess', «repose en sultane» = 'rests as a sultana'. The parallel pairs divine bearing with oriental, sensual idleness.
10
She has in pleasure the faith of a Mohammedan,
11
and in her open arms, which her breasts fill,
GrammarSubject–verb inversion after «que» In «ses bras ouverts, que remplissent ses seins», «que» is the object (the arms) and «ses seins» (her breasts) is the postponed subject: 'her open arms, which her breasts fill'. Inverting the subject after a relative «que» is a common verse move that keeps the rhyme word at the line's end.
12
she summons with her eyes the race of humankind.
Word«des yeux» = 'with the eyes' «appeler des yeux» = 'to call / beckon with one's eyes'. The bare «des yeux» functions adverbially ('by eye, with a look'). She does not speak; a glance is enough to call all mankind into her open arms.
13
She believes, she knows, this barren virgin
Wordinféconde «inféconde» = 'infertile, barren'. The paradox is pointed: she is a «vierge» (virgin) in the sense of producing nothing, sterile — yet, the next line insists, indispensable to the world's turning. She is pleasure detached from generation.
14
and yet necessary to the running of the world,
15
that the body's beauty is a sublime gift
Grammar«que» completing «croit / sait» This «Que» opens the content clause governed back in line 13 by «Elle croit, elle sait» — 'She believes, she knows... that the body's beauty is a sublime gift'. The two intervening lines are parenthetical; her creed only completes here.
16
that wrests pardon from every infamy.
GrammarFronted «de» complement Order restored: «arrache le pardon de toute infamie» — 'wrings pardon out of every infamy'. «arracher» = 'to tear / wrench out'; beauty does not earn forgiveness, it forcibly extracts it from any disgrace.
17
She is ignorant of Hell as of Purgatory,
Wordignorer (false friend) «ignorer» does not mean 'to ignore'; it means 'to not know, to be unaware of'. «Elle ignore l'Enfer» = 'She knows nothing of Hell' — she has no fear of damnation because the very ideas of Hell and Purgatory mean nothing to her.
18
and when the hour comes to enter the black Night,
GrammarFuture after «quand» After «quand» pointing to the future, French uses the future tense where English uses the present: «quand l'heure viendra» = literally 'when the hour will come', i.e. 'when the hour comes'. «la Nuit noire» is death itself.
19
she will look upon the face of Death,
20
as a newborn would, — without hatred and without remorse.
Grammar«ainsi que» = 'just as / like' «ainsi que» introduces a comparison: 'just as, like'. She will meet Death «ainsi qu'un nouveau-né» — like a newborn — with the same blank innocence, «sans haine et sans remords». The closing simile makes her amorality complete: no guilt, because no knowledge of sin.

The particulars

The text: Les Fleurs du mal, Charles Baudelaire. Flowers of Evil.
Words: Every word of the text, by letter.
Data: JSON · Markdown · A guide for agents