French · Spleen and Ideal

Bohémiens en voyage

Gypsies on the Road

14 lines · 9 notes

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1
The prophesying tribe with the burning eyes
Lathele · determiner, feminine, singulardeterminer of tribu
tributribetribu · noun, feminine, singularhead of the phrase
prophétiqueprophesyingprophétique · adjective, singularmodifies tribu
auxwith theà · prepositionpreposition marking prunelles
prunelleseyesprunelle · noun, feminine, pluralobject of aux, modifies tribu
ardentesburningardent · adjective, feminine, pluralmodifies prunelles
Word«la prunelle» — the pupil of the eye «une prunelle» is literally the pupil (and, by extension, the eye), borrowing the word for a sloe — the small dark fruit — for its blackness. «aux prunelles ardentes» is the prepositional «à» used to describe a defining feature: 'with burning eyes'. The fortune-telling tribe is fixed at once by its gaze, the fire of second sight.
2
Set out yesterday, carrying off its young
Grammar«se mettre en route» — to set off «se mettre en route» is a pronominal (reflexive) idiom — literally 'to put oneself on the road' — meaning 'to set out, get going'. In the passé composé it takes «être», so the past participle agrees with the feminine subject «la tribu»: «s'est mise». The reflexive turns departure into something the tribe does to itself, a whole people lifting and moving as one body.
3
On its back, or yielding to their fierce appetites
4
The ever-ready treasure of the hanging breasts.
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The men go on foot beneath their gleaming weapons
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Alongside the wagons where their own lie huddled,
Grammar«les leurs» — their own people «les leurs» is the possessive pronoun «le leur» in the plural, used absolutely to mean 'their own (folk), their family'. With no noun attached it names the kin sheltered in the wagons — wives, children, the dependents the armed men walk beside. «blottis» is the past participle of «se blottir» (to nestle, to huddle), here describing them curled up for the journey.
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Walking across the sky eyes grown heavy
Grammar«promener» the eyes — present participle «promener» normally means 'to walk, to take for a stroll'; «promener ses yeux (sur)» is the idiom 'to let one's eyes wander over, to gaze across'. The present participle «promenant» leaves the men of line 1 still as its subject across the run-on lines — they trudge while casting heavy eyes over the sky. «appesantis», from «appesantir» (to weigh down), makes the gaze itself feel laden.
8
By the dull regret for the absent chimeras.
Word«une chimère» — illusion, vain dream «une chimère» is both the fire-breathing monster of Greek myth and, figuratively, a wild fancy or impossible dream — the sense at work here. The wanderers' eyes are weighed down by «le morne regret» (dull, bleak regret) for dreams that are «absentes», gone or never arriving. The line gives the roving tribe an inner emptiness beneath its prophetic fire.
9
From deep in its sandy burrow, the cricket,
Word«un réduit» — a tiny den «un réduit» is a cramped little nook or hideaway — a hole, a den. «sablonneux» ('sandy', from «le sable») makes it the cricket's burrow in dry ground. The inversion «Du fond de son réduit… le grillon» front-loads the place before naming the creature, so the tiny singer rises out of its hiding-place to greet the passing tribe.
10
Watching them pass, redoubles its song;
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Cybele, who loves them, makes her greenery swell,
12
Makes the rock flow and the desert bloom
GrammarCausative «faire» + infinitive «faire» followed by an infinitive is the causative construction — 'to make / have something happen'. «fait couler le rocher» = 'makes the rock flow (with water)' and «fait… fleurir le désert» = 'makes the desert bloom'. The subject is still «Cybèle» from the line before; her power is shown through two infinitives, the goddess commanding stone and sand to yield like the biblical miracle of water from the rock.
13
Before these travellers, for whom there lies open
Grammar«lesquels» — for whom «lesquels» is the masculine-plural relative pronoun used after a preposition — here «pour lesquels», 'for whom'. It refers back to «ces voyageurs». The clause is also inverted: «pour lesquels est ouvert / L'empire…» places the verb before its subject «l'empire», a formal poetic order that suspends the great revelation until the final line.
14
The familiar empire of the darkness to come.
Word«les ténèbres» — the dark to come «les ténèbres» is a plural-only, elevated word for deep darkness or gloom, often with a sense of death or the unknown. «familier» ('familiar, intimate') makes that future dark a home rather than a terror: as fortune-tellers, the gypsies already know «les ténèbres futures», the things to come. The poem ends by handing them an «empire» — a domain that is theirs precisely because it is the future no one else can read.

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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