French · Spleen and Ideal

Châtiment de l'Orgueil

The Punishment of Pride

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In those marvelous days when Theology
Eninen · prepositionpreposition marking temps
cesthosece · determiner, pluraldeterminer of temps
tempsdaystemps · noun, masculine, pluralobject of En
merveilleuxmarvelousmerveilleux · adjective, masculinemodifies temps
oùwhenoù · adverbintroduces relative clause modifying temps (when)
lathele · determiner, feminine, singulardeterminer of Théologie
ThéologieTheologythéologie · noun, feminine, singularsubject of Fleurit (next line)
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flourished with the most sap and energy,
Grammar«fleurit» — present or past? «fleurir» means 'to bloom, flourish'. The form «fleurit» is identical in the present and the simple past (passé simple) of this regular -ir verb; here the storytelling frame «En ces temps» and the later «On raconte» place it in the past — 'flourished'. «la sève» is the sap that rises in a plant, so Theology is pictured as a flowering tree at the height of its vigor.
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they tell that one day a doctor of the greatest,
Word«un docteur» and «des plus grands» Here «un docteur» is not a physician but a Doctor of the Church — a learned master of «la Théologie». The phrase «des plus grands» means 'among the very greatest': «des plus + adjective» is a fixed superlative construction ('one of the most...'). So this is one of the most eminent theologians of the age — which makes his coming fall the harder.
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— after having forced the indifferent hearts open;
Grammar«après avoir + past participle» «après avoir forcé» = 'after having forced'. The pattern «après + avoir/être + past participle» (the perfect infinitive) describes an action completed before the main verb. The em-dash opens a long parenthesis of three such clauses — «Après avoir forcé... Les avoir remués... Après avoir franchi» — all leading up to the doctor's outcry; read them as a single suspended sentence the dash will close at line s1-l8.
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having stirred them in their black depths;
GrammarAgreement of «remués» with «Les» This is a second perfect infinitive parallel to «Après avoir forcé», with «Après» understood again. The object pronoun «Les» (= «les coeurs») comes before «avoir», so the past participle «remués» agrees with it in the masculine plural — a preceding direct object triggers agreement. «remuer» = 'to stir, move, churn up'; he has stirred the hearts to their darkest depths.
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after having crossed toward the celestial glories
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strange paths unknown even to himself,
Grammar«à lui-même inconnus» «lui-même» is the emphatic reflexive 'himself'; «à lui-même inconnus» = 'unknown to himself', 'paths that even he did not know'. The adjective «inconnus» is plural to agree with «Des chemins». The object of «avoir franchi» — «Des chemins singuliers» — is held back to the start of this line, a poetic inversion that lets the line open on the mysterious 'paths' themselves.
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where the pure Spirits alone had perhaps come, —
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like a man climbed too high, seized with panic,
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cried out, carried away by a satanic pride:
Grammar«s'écrier» (to cry out) «S'écria» is the simple past of the pronominal verb «s'écrier», 'to cry out, exclaim'. This is at last the main verb of the whole sentence: its subject is «un docteur» back in line s1-l3, after which everything between the dashes was parenthesis. «transporté d'un orgueil satanique» = 'carried away / beside himself with a satanic pride' — the «orgueil» of the title, the deadly sin of pride that imitates Satan's own.
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"Jesus, little Jesus! I have raised you very high!
Grammar«guillemets» open the blasphemy The «guillemets» («...») are the French quotation marks; they open the doctor's four-line speech, which runs to the end of the stanza. «je t'ai poussé bien haut» = 'I have pushed / raised you very high' (passé composé of «pousser»), with the familiar «t'» («te») addressing Christ as an intimate. The diminutive «petit Jésus» and this boast are the blasphemy that the second stanza will punish.
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But, had I wished to attack you at the flaw
GrammarThe contrary-to-fact conditional «si j'avais voulu... ta honte égalerait ta gloire» is a past unreal condition: pluperfect in the «si» clause («j'avais voulu», had I wished), conditional in the result («égalerait», would equal). It states what would have happened but did not — 'if I had wanted to..., your shame would match your glory'. «au défaut de l'armure» runs on into line s1-l13: 'at the gap / weak point of the armor'.
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in the armor, your shame would equal your glory,
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and you would be no more than a laughable foetus!"
Grammar«ne... plus que» — no more than «ne... plus que» means 'no longer anything but', 'nothing more than'. «tu ne serais plus qu'un foetus dérisoire» = 'you would be no more than a laughable foetus' — the conditional continues the unreal boast of line s1-l12. «dérisoire» = 'derisory, laughable, pitiful'; the «guillemets» close here, ending the doctor's blasphemous speech on its lowest insult.
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Immediately his reason departed.
Grammar«s'en aller» (to go away) «s'en alla» is the simple past of «s'en aller», 'to go away, leave' — a pronominal verb with the fixed particle «en». 'His reason went away', i.e. he lost his mind. Placed in a short, blunt sentence right after the speech, it delivers the «châtiment» of the title at once: the punishment for pride is madness, and it falls «Immédiatement».
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The brilliance of this sun veiled itself with a crape;
Word«se voiler» and «le crêpe» «se voila» is the simple past of «se voiler», 'to veil itself, grow dim'. «le crêpe» (masculine) is crape, the black gauze of mourning. The doctor's mind — 'this sun' — veils itself in mourning black, an eclipse: his radiant intelligence goes dark. Note the order «d'un crêpe se voila» (verb last), an inversion for the rhyme with «s'en alla».
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All chaos rolled into that intelligence,
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a temple once living, full of order and opulence,
Word«le temple» — the mind as a building «Temple autrefois vivant» is in apposition to «cette intelligence» — the mind is now called a 'temple once living'. «autrefois» = 'formerly, in the past'. The image runs through the next lines: a once-ordered, opulent temple under whose ceilings pomp had shone, now invaded by chaos. It sets up the abandoned-vault comparison of line s2-l7.
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beneath whose ceilings so much pomp had shone.
Grammar«duquel» and «avait lui» «duquel» = 'of which', the relative «de + lequel»; «sous les plafonds duquel» means 'beneath the ceilings of which (the temple)'. «avait lui» is the pluperfect of «luire» (to shine, gleam) — its past participle is «lui», a homonym of the pronoun. So 'so much pomp had shone' beneath those ceilings: the splendor is firmly in the past, before the mind fell dark.
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Silence and night settled themselves within him,
Grammar«s'installer» (to settle in) «s'installèrent» is the simple past of «s'installer», 'to settle in, take up residence' — silence and night move in as if they were tenants. The compound subject «Le silence et la nuit» takes the plural verb. «en lui» = 'in him / within him', the «lui» here being the man (or his mind-as-temple), not the «lui» of «avait lui» above — a deliberate echo across the rhyme.
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as in a vault whose key is lost.
Word«le caveau» — the sealed vault «un caveau» is a cellar or, more darkly here, a burial vault. «dont la clef est perdue» = 'whose key is lost', with «dont» standing for «de + caveau». The once-living temple of the mind has become a sealed tomb no one can reopen — the darkness is permanent. From here the poem turns to the ruined man wandering the fields.
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From then on he was like the beasts of the street,
Word«dès lors» — from then on «dès lors» = 'from then on, thenceforth' (more emphatic than «depuis»), marking the lasting state that follows the catastrophe. «semblable à» = 'like, similar to', and governs «aux bêtes de la rue» — 'like the beasts of the street', the stray animals. The proud Doctor of Theology is reduced to the level of an animal, the punishment fully ironic: he who climbed to the angels now sinks below men.
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And, when he wandered seeing nothing, across
Grammar«sans rien voir» «sans rien voir» = 'without seeing anything'. With an infinitive, the negation «ne... rien» is reduced to «rien» alone, placed before the verb: «sans rien voir», not «sans ne voir rien». «s'en allait» is the imperfect of «s'en aller» here in its sense 'to go along, wander off', the imperfect marking the now-habitual aimless roaming. The line runs on — «à travers / Les champs» — into the next.
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the fields, without telling summers from winters,
Grammar«distinguer X de Y» «distinguer A de B» = 'to tell A apart from B'. So «sans distinguer les étés des hivers» = 'without distinguishing summers from winters' — the broken man no longer registers the turning of the seasons. The plurals «les étés», «les hivers» make it the cycle of many years; «des hivers» here is «de + les», 'from the winters'.
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filthy, useless and ugly like a worn-out thing,
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he was the children's delight and laughing-stock.
Grammar«faire de X, Y» and «la risée» The construction is «faire de [X] [Y]» — 'to be / make Y out of X', reading 'he made for the children (their) delight and laughing-stock', i.e. he was their joy and their mockery. «des enfants» is «de + les enfants», 'of the children'. «la risée» = 'the object of mockery, the laughing-stock' (related to «rire», to laugh). The mighty theologian ends as a thing children laugh at — pride's final, complete «châtiment».

The particulars

The text: Les Fleurs du mal, Charles Baudelaire. Spleen and Ideal.
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