French · Parisian Scenes

Brumes et pluies

Mists and Rains

14 lines · 14 notes

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1
O ends of autumn, winters, springs steeped in mud,
Ôohô · interjectionmarks the vocative
finsendsfin · noun, feminine, pluralhead of the vocative phrase
d'ofde · prepositionpreposition marking automne
automneautumnautomne · noun, feminine, singularoblique argument of fins
hiverswintershiver · noun, masculine, pluralcoordinated with fins
printempsspringsprintemps · noun, masculine, pluralcoordinated with fins
trempéssteepedtremper · adjective, masculine, pluralmodifies printemps
deinde · prepositionpreposition marking boue
bouemudboue · noun, feminine, singularmodifies printemps
Wordtremper de — soaked, steeped in «tremper» is 'to soak, drench, steep'; here the past participle «trempés» agrees with the masculine plural list of seasons it modifies («fins d'automne, hivers, printemps») and «de boue» names what they are soaked in: 'steeped in mud'. The opening apostrophe «Ô» hails not summer but every sodden, in-between season the poet loves.
2
Drowsy seasons! I love you and praise you
Wordendormeur / endormeuse — sleep-inducing «endormeur» (feminine «endormeuse») is an adjective coined from «endormir», 'to put to sleep, to lull'; «endormeuses saisons» = 'lulling, sleep-bringing seasons'. The word casts the grey months as a soporific the poet welcomes — sleep being a refuge from «spleen» — and sets up «D'endormir la douleur» in the final line.
3
For wrapping my heart and my brain like this
Grammar«louer de» + infinitive «louer quelqu'un de faire quelque chose» means 'to praise someone for doing something': the «de» (elided to «D'» before a vowel) introduces the infinitive «envelopper» ('to wrap, envelop'). So «je vous loue / D'envelopper» from line 2 reads 'I praise you for wrapping' — the reason for the praise runs on across the line break.
4
In a misty shroud and a dim tomb.
Wordlinceul (m.); tombeau (m.) «linceul» is a burial shroud and «tombeau» a tomb; «envelopper d'un linceul» = 'to wrap in a shroud'. The fog and rain are figured as funeral cloth and grave, so the comfort the poet praises is openly the comfort of death — gentle, vaporous, and welcome rather than feared.
5
On this great plain where the cold south wind plays,
Wordautan (m.); pronominal «se jouer» «l'autan» is the autan, a strong wind off the south; the pronominal «se jouer» here means 'to play, gambol, sport about'. «où l'autan froid se joue» = 'where the cold autan-wind plays' — the wind has the run of a vast, open plain, an emblem of the wide bleakness the poet's mood inhabits.
6
Where through the long nights the weathervane grows hoarse,
Wordgirouette (f.); pronominal «s'enrouer» «une girouette» is a weathervane; «s'enrouer» (pronominal) is 'to grow hoarse'. Literally 'the weathervane goes hoarse' — its iron creaking in the wind, turned all night long, is heard as a worn, rasping voice. The metaphor lends the dead metal a body that tires and complains.
7
My soul, better than in the season of mild renewal,
Wordrenouveau (m.) — springtime, renewal «le renouveau» is renewal, and specifically the renewal of spring; «le tiède renouveau» = 'the mild/lukewarm springtime'. The comparative «mieux qu'au temps du...» ('better than in the time of...') prefers the dead seasons to spring: the poet's soul opens more freely in fog than in the warmth others long for.
8
Will spread its raven's wings wide open.
GrammarFuture of «ouvrir»; «ailes de corbeau» «Ouvrira» is the future of «ouvrir» ('to open'), its subject «Mon âme» carried over from line 3 — 'My soul will spread'. «ses ailes de corbeau» means 'its raven's wings': the soul takes a black-winged, funereal form, at home in this grey weather as a bright soul would be in May.
9
Nothing is sweeter to the heart full of funereal things,
Grammar«ne ... rien» + «plus ... que» «Rien ne...» is the negative 'nothing'; combined with the comparative «plus doux ... que» it builds 'nothing is sweeter ... than'. The «que» that completes the comparison does not arrive until line 1 of the next stanza («Que l'aspect permanent...»), so the sentence is held open across the tercet break — read straight through to find what nothing is sweeter than.
10
And on which the frosts have long been settling,
Wordfrimas (m.) — wintry frost, rime «les frimas» is a literary word for freezing winter mist and hoarfrost. «sur qui ... descendent les frimas» = 'on which the frosts descend', the relative «qui» pointing back to «coeur» (heart). «dès longtemps» means 'for a long time now', so the cold has been settling on this heart for years — the season outside matches a chill long inside.
11
O wan seasons, queens of our climes,
Wordblafard / blafarde — pallid, wan «blafard» (feminine «blafarde») means 'pallid, wan, ghastly-pale' — the colourless light of an overcast sky. «reines de nos climats» = 'queens of our climes': the second apostrophe of the poem crowns these pale, northern seasons as sovereigns, echoing the opening «Ô fins d'automne».
12
Than the lasting look of your pale shadows,
GrammarThe «que» of the comparison resolves This «Que» completes «Rien n'est plus doux ... Que» begun two lines earlier: 'Nothing is sweeter ... than the lasting look of your pale shadows'. «l'aspect permanent» is 'the permanent / unchanging look', «vos pâles ténèbres» 'your pale darkness'. The long-delayed answer is the steady, dim gloom itself — that is the sweetest thing of all.
13
— Unless it be, some moonless evening, two by two,
Grammar«si ce n'est» — except, unless it be «si ce n'est» is a fixed phrase meaning 'except, unless it be, save'. It introduces the single thing sweeter even than the pale gloom: «deux à deux» ('two by two', i.e. with a lover) on «un soir sans lune» ('a moonless evening'). The em-dash and this turn save the last sweetness for the final line.
14
To lull our grief to sleep on a chance-met bed.
GrammarInfinitive «endormir»; «hasardeux» «endormir» is 'to put to sleep, to lull'; the «de» (elided «D'») marks the infinitive that names the one thing sweeter than the gloom — 'to lull grief to sleep'. «un lit hasardeux» is a 'chancy, hazardous bed', one come upon by accident — a passing, mercenary embrace that drugs the pain for a night.

The particulars

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