French · Spleen and Ideal

Confession

40 lines · 18 notes

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Once, only once, sweet and gentle woman,
Uneoneun · determiner, feminine, singulardeterminer of fois
foistimefois · noun, femininehead of the phrase
uneaun · determiner, feminine, singulardeterminer of seule
seuleonlyseul · adjective, feminine, singularmodifies fois
aimableamiableaimable · adjective, singularmodifies femme
etandet · conjunctionlinks the coordination
doucegentledoux · adjective, feminine, singularcoordinated with aimable, modifies femme
femmewomanfemme · noun, feminine, singularsubject of appuya (confession-s1-l3)
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your smooth arm upon my arm
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leaned (on the shadowy depths of my soul
GrammarPronominal «s'appuyer» + past historic «s'appuyer» = 'to lean, to rest one's weight'; the reflexive «se» makes it intransitive (the arm leans of itself). «s'appuya» is the passé simple (past historic), the literary narrative tense, marking the single completed gesture — her arm leaned on his, once.
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this memory has not in the least grown pale);
Grammar«ne… point» = emphatic «ne… pas» «point» is a literary, stronger negation than «pas»: «n'est point pâli» = 'has not in the least faded'. The parenthesis (which runs across two lines) interrupts the scene to insist that, unlike most memories, this one keeps all its colour.
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It was late; like a new-struck medal
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the full moon spread itself wide,
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and the solemnity of the night, like a river,
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streamed over sleeping Paris.
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And along the houses, under the carriage gateways,
Wordporte cochère A «porte cochère» is the large arched gateway of a townhouse, wide enough for a coach («coche») to pass through into the inner courtyard. The detail grounds the night precisely in old Paris — the cats slip through these dark archways.
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cats were passing furtively,
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ears pricked, or else, like dear shadows,
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accompanied us slowly.
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All at once, in the midst of the free intimacy
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blossomed in the pale light,
Wordéclore / éclos(e) «éclore» = 'to hatch, to open, to bloom' (of an egg, a flower, the dawn). «éclose» is its feminine past participle, agreeing with «l'intimité»: the intimacy has 'blossomed' into being under the moonlight — an image of birth that the deformed child a few stanzas later will turn monstrous.
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from you, rich and sonorous instrument in which vibrates
GrammarRestrictive «ne… que» across the line break «ne… que» means 'only', not a true negative: the «que» that completes it falls at the start of the next line. So «instrument où ne vibre / Que la radieuse gaieté» = 'instrument in which only radiant gaiety vibrates'. Note the inversion too — the verb «vibre» comes before its subject «la radieuse gaieté».
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nothing but radiant gaiety,
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from you, bright and joyous as a fanfare
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in the glittering morning,
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a plaintive note, a strange note
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escaped, all the while faltering
Grammar«tout en» + present participle «tout en» + a present participle stresses simultaneity, often with a hint of contrast: «tout en chancelant» = 'even as it staggers / all the while faltering'. «chanceler» = 'to totter, to waver'. The note slips out of the bright instrument already unsteady on its feet, foreshadowing the bitterness it carries.
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Like a sickly child, hideous, dark, unclean,
Grammar«enfant» as a feminine noun «enfant» can be masculine or feminine; the feminine adjectives «chétive… immonde» fix it as a girl-child here. «chétif/chétive» = 'puny, sickly, stunted'. The simile turns the strange note into a deformed daughter the family would hide away — the comparison that governs the next three lines.
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of whom her family would be ashamed,
Grammar«dont» = «de qui» + «rougir de» «rougir de» = 'to blush at, to be ashamed of'; the relative «dont» replaces «de qui», already carrying that «de»: «dont sa famille rougirait» = 'of whom her family would be ashamed'. The conditional «rougirait» opens the hypothetical scene that «aurait… mise» (next lines) goes on to complete.
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and whom, to hide her from the world, she would long have
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shut away in secret in a vault.
GrammarConditional perfect + agreement of «mise» «aurait… mise» is the conditional perfect of «mettre» ('would have placed/put'), split across two lines. The past participle «mise» takes a feminine -e because its direct object «qu'» (= the child, «une enfant») comes before the verb. «mettre au secret» = 'to put in solitary confinement'; «un caveau» is a cellar or burial vault — the child is shut underground.
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Poor angel, it was singing, your shrill note:
Wordcriard(e) «criard» (from «crier», 'to cry out') = 'shrill, harsh, jarring'. Set right after «pauvre ange», it yokes pity to harshness: the shrill confession is also a wounded, angelic cry. The colon and the guillemet opening on the next line introduce the long song that the note 'sang'.
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"That nothing here below is certain,
Word«ici-bas» — life on earth «ici-bas» = 'here below', the world of the living as opposed to heaven («là-haut»). Each clause of the song that follows is launched by «Que» ('that'), reporting in indirect speech what the note 'sang' — that nothing on earth is sure, and so on to the end of the ninth stanza.
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and that always, with whatever care it paints itself,
GrammarConcessive «quelque… que» + subjunctive «se farde» «quelque… que» + subjunctive = 'however much…, with whatever…': «avec quelque soin qu'il se farde» = 'with however much care it paints itself'. «se farder» = 'to put on make-up, to disguise oneself' (reflexive); the subjunctive «se farde» is required by the concessive. The subject «il» is «l'égoïsme humain», named only in the next line by inversion.
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human selfishness betrays itself;
GrammarPronominal «se trahir» + subject inversion «se trahir» = 'to betray oneself, to give oneself away'. The subject «l'égoïsme humain» is held back until after its verb «se trahit» — a poetic inversion that lets the line land on the diagnosis: no matter how it disguises itself, human selfishness always shows through.
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that it is a hard trade to be a beautiful woman,
GrammarEmphatic «c'est… que de» + infinitive The frame «c'est un X que de + infinitive» throws emphasis onto the predicate: «c'est un dur métier que d'être belle femme» = 'it is a hard trade, being a beautiful woman'. «métier» = 'trade, craft, profession', so beauty is cast as grinding professional labour, not a gift.
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and that it is the routine drudgery
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of the mad cold dancer who swoons
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behind her mechanical smile;
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that to build upon hearts is a foolish thing;
GrammarInfinitive as subject The bare infinitive «bâtir» ('to build') is the subject of «est»: «bâtir sur les coeurs est une chose sotte» = 'to build on hearts is a foolish thing'. French uses a plain infinitive where English prefers a gerund ('building on hearts'). «sot/sotte» = 'foolish, silly'.
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that everything cracks, love and beauty alike,
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until Oblivion throws them into its basket
Grammar«jusqu'à ce que» + subjunctive «jusqu'à ce que» ('until') always governs the subjunctive: «jette» is the present subjunctive of «jeter» ('to throw'). «l'Oubli» (Oblivion), capitalized and personified, is the subject; «les» (love and beauty) the object. A «hotte» is the large basket a rag-picker or grape-harvester carries on the back — Oblivion gathers up the broken things like so much refuse.
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to render them back to Eternity!"
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I have often called back that enchanted moon,
Wordévoquer «évoquer» = 'to call up, to summon, to conjure' — used both of recalling the past and of an occultist raising spirits. The perfect «j'ai… évoqué» (with «souvent», 'often') tells us the poet has returned to this night again and again, summoning the moon, the silence, and the dreadful whisper.
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that silence and that languor,
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and that dreadful confidence whispered
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in the confessional of the heart.
Wordle confessionnal A «confessionnal» is the booth in a Catholic church where one confesses to a priest. «le confessionnal du coeur» — 'the confessional of the heart' — makes the intimate night itself a place of confession, and gives the poem its title: the beloved's whispered despair is a sin owned up to in the dark.

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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