# Chanson d'après-midi · Afternoon Song

Les Fleurs du mal · Charles Baudelaire · Spleen and Ideal

Source: https://1732studios.com/books/baudelaire/chanson-d-apres-midi. Data: https://1732studios.com/books/baudelaire/chanson-d-apres-midi.json.

**1** Quoique tes sourcils méchants  
Although your wicked eyebrows
> «quoique» + subjunctive: «quoique» = 'although, even though' and governs the subjunctive: «quoique… donnent» ('although they give'). It opens a long concession that runs across the first stanza — your face looks unangelic, witch-eyed, and yet («Je t'adore») I worship you all the same.

**2** Te donnent un air étrange  
give you a strange look

**3** Qui n'est pas celui d'un ange,  
that is not the look of an angel,
> Demonstrative «celui»: «celui» = 'that (one), the one', the masculine demonstrative pronoun standing in for «air» ('look, air'). «celui d'un ange» = 'that of an angel' — it avoids repeating «air», so the line literally reads 'a look that is not the one of an angel'.

**4** Sorcière aux yeux alléchants,  
sorceress with alluring eyes,
> alléchant: «alléchant» = 'enticing, tempting, mouth-watering', from «allécher» ('to lure, to whet the appetite'). Set against «sorcière» ('sorceress, witch'), it makes the eyes a baited trap: the appeal is appetite, not innocence.


**5** Je t'adore, ô ma frivole,  
I adore you, O my frivolous one,

**6** Ma terrible passion!  
my terrible passion!

**7** Avec la dévotion  
with the devotion

**8** Du prêtre pour son idole.  
of the priest for his idol.


**9** Le désert et la forêt  
The desert and the forest

**10** Embaument tes tresses rudes,  
perfume your rough tresses,
> embaumer: «embaumer» = 'to perfume, to make fragrant' (and also 'to embalm'). Here desert and forest are the subjects and «tes tresses rudes» ('your rough tresses') the object: the wild places scent her hair, lending it an exotic, faraway air that the next lines deepen into «énigme» and «secret».

**11** Ta tête a les attitudes  
your head has the bearing

**12** De l'énigme et du secret.  
of enigma and of secret.


**13** Sur ta chair le parfum rôde  
Over your flesh the perfume prowls
> rôder: «rôder» = 'to prowl, to roam, to lurk' — the verb of an animal or a thief circling. Giving it to «le parfum» ('the perfume') makes the scent something that stalks her skin, an active, faintly predatory presence rather than a passive fragrance.

**14** Comme autour d'un encensoir;  
as around a censer;
> encensoir: «un encensoir» is a censer — the swinging vessel of burning incense used in church liturgy. It picks up the priest-and-idol image of stanza two: her body smokes like an altar, and worship of her is staged as a rite.

**15** Tu charmes comme le soir  
you enchant like the evening,

**16** Nymphe ténébreuse et chaude.  
dark and ardent nymph.


**17** Ah! les philtres les plus forts  
Ah! the strongest philtres
> philtre: «un philtre» is a love-potion or magic draught (the homophone «un filtre» is the ordinary 'filter'). It keeps the witchcraft running under the poem: even the strongest charmed potions «ne valent pas» — are no match for — her indolence.

**18** Ne valent pas ta paresse,  
are not worth your idleness,

**19** Et tu connais la caresse  
and you know the caress

**20** Qui fait revivre les morts!  
that brings the dead back to life!
> Causative «faire» + infinitive: «faire revivre» = 'to make (someone) live again, to revive'. French forms the causative with «faire» plus a bare infinitive where English needs 'make … live'. «les morts» ('the dead') is the object her caress acts upon — a power both miraculous and, in this love, vampiric.


**21** Tes hanches sont amoureuses  
Your hips are in love

**22** De ton dos et de tes seins,  
with your back and your breasts,
> «amoureux de» (in love with): «être amoureux de» = 'to be in love with'; the preposition is «de», not 'with'. Here «tes hanches» ('your hips') are «amoureuses de ton dos et de tes seins» — her own body parts desire one another, a closed circuit of self-delighting sensuality.

**23** Et tu ravis les coussins  
and you delight the cushions
> ravir: «ravir» means both 'to delight, to enchant' and 'to ravish, to carry off' — the same doubleness as English 'ravishing'. She so charms the cushions with her «poses langoureuses» that even the furniture seems seduced.

**24** Par tes poses langoureuses.  
with your languorous poses.


**25** Quelquefois, pour apaiser  
Sometimes, to appease

**26** Ta rage mystérieuse,  
your mysterious rage,

**27** Tu prodigues, sérieuse,  
you lavish, in earnest,
> prodiguer: «prodiguer» = 'to lavish, to shower, to give without stint' (the root of «prodigue», 'prodigal'). She does not merely give the bite and the kiss but pours them out extravagantly. «sérieuse» ('serious, in earnest', feminine) makes the cruelty solemn rather than playful.

**28** La morsure et le baiser;  
the bite and the kiss;


**29** Tu me déchires, ma brune,  
You tear me apart, my dark-haired one,
> déchirer: «déchirer» = 'to tear, to rip, to rend' — cloth, paper, or flesh. «Tu me déchires» = 'you tear me apart'. The violence sits beside «un rire moqueur» ('a mocking laugh'): she wounds and laughs, then soothes — the cruelty and tenderness braided together that the poem keeps reaching for.

**30** Avec un rire moqueur,  
with a mocking laugh,

**31** Et puis tu mets sur mon coeur  
and then you lay upon my heart

**32** Ton oeil doux comme la lune.  
your eye soft as the moon.


**33** Sous tes souliers de satin,  
Beneath your satin slippers,

**34** Sous tes charmants pieds de soie  
beneath your charming feet of silk

**35** Moi, je mets ma grande joie,  
I, I lay my great joy,
> Emphatic «moi, je…»: French doubles the subject for emphasis: the stressed pronoun «moi» ('me, as for me') set before «je mets» ('I lay') throws full weight on the speaker. The gesture is one of submission — he lays his joy, genius, and destiny down «sous tes souliers», beneath her slippers.

**36** Mon génie et mon destin,  
my genius and my destiny,


**37** Mon âme par toi guérie,  
My soul healed by you,
> Past participle + «par» (agent): «guérie» is the past participle of «guérir» ('to heal, to cure'), feminine to agree with «âme» ('soul'). «par toi» ('by you') names the agent, as in a passive: 'my soul healed by you'. The closing apostrophe turns the cruel idol into the one who also cures.

**38** Par toi, lumière et couleur!  
by you, light and color!

**39** Explosion de chaleur  
Explosion of warmth

**40** Dans ma noire Sibérie!  
in my black Siberia!

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