French · Parisian Scenes

Danse macabre

Dance of Death

61 lines · 21 notes

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To Ernest Christophe
ÀToà · prepositionpreposition marking Ernest
ErnestErnestErnest · proper noun, masculine, singularhead of the phrase
ChristopheChristopheChristophe · proper noun, masculine, singulardepends on Ernest
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Proud, as much as any living thing, of her noble stature,
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with her big bouquet, her handkerchief and her gloves,
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she has the nonchalance and the easy carelessness
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of a thin coquette with extravagant airs.
Wordcoquette / désinvolture «une coquette» is a woman bent on charming and being admired; «la désinvolture» (s2-l3) is breezy, offhand self-assurance. The whole quatrain dresses the skeleton — «maigre», thin to the bone — in the manners of a flirt at a ball, the poem's central irony in miniature.
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Did one ever see at a ball a slimmer waist?
Grammarpassé simple + inversion «vit» is the passé simple (literary past) of «voir», with subject-verb inversion for the question: «Vit-on jamais…?» = 'Did one ever see…?'. Here «jamais», without «ne», keeps its older positive sense, 'ever'. The joke is bitter: no waist is slimmer than a skeleton's, because there is no flesh on it.
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Her exaggerated gown, in its royal fullness,
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tumbles down lavishly over a dry foot pinched
GrammarPronominal «s'écrouler» «s'écrouler» is the pronominal verb 'to collapse, to come tumbling down'. The gown's fabric cascades of its own weight «abondamment» (abundantly) to the floor. The relative «que pince / Un soulier» inverts the order — the subject «Un soulier pomponné» arrives only on the next line: 'a foot pinched by a bedizened shoe'.
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by a bedizened shoe, pretty as a flower.
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The ruffle that plays at the edge of the collarbones,
Wordune ruche (frill) Beyond its everyday meaning 'beehive', «une ruche» is a dressmaker's term for a gathered frill or ruffle of lace. Here it flutters «au bord des clavicules» — at the rim of the collarbones — the trim of a ballgown laid over bare bone.
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like a lascivious stream that rubs itself against the rock,
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modestly shields from ridiculous jeers
Wordles lazzi «les lazzi» (from Italian commedia dell'arte) are mocking gibes, coarse jokes. The frill «défend… des lazzi» — defends or shields the «funèbres appas» (the funereal charms) the skeleton wants to hide — from ridicule, like a coy woman guarding her modesty.
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the funereal charms she is keen to conceal.
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Her deep eyes are made of void and of darkness,
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and her skull, artfully coiffed with flowers,
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sways softly upon her frail vertebrae.
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O charm of a nothingness madly decked out.
Wordnéant / attifer «le néant» is 'nothingness, the void' — a key word in Baudelaire for death and emptiness. «attifer» = 'to dress up, to deck out' (often slightly mocking). The skull is a «néant» dolled up with flowers: emptiness tricked out in finery, the whole poem's vision in one line.
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Some will call you a caricature,
Grammar«aucuns» = 'some' Archaically and poetically, the plural «aucuns» means 'some, certain people' (the positive sense, with no «ne»). «Aucuns t'appelleront…» = 'Some will call you…'. The poet then dismisses them as «amants ivres de chair» — lovers drunk on flesh — who miss the elegance of the bare frame.
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who do not understand — lovers drunk on flesh —
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the nameless elegance of the human framework.
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You answer, great skeleton, to my dearest taste!
Grammar«répondre à» = to suit, to match «répondre à» here means 'to answer to, to correspond to, to satisfy' — not 'to reply'. «Tu réponds à mon goût le plus cher» = 'you suit my dearest taste'. The poet declares the skeleton, not the fleshly dancers, the thing he most prefers.
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Do you come to disturb, with your powerful grimace,
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the feast of Life? or does some old desire,
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still spurring on your living carcass,
Wordéperonner / encor «éperonner» = 'to spur on' (from «un éperon», a spur). «encor» is the poetic spelling of «encore» ('still, yet'), used to save a syllable in the alexandrine. The present participle hangs on «quelque vieux désir» of the previous line: 'or does some old desire, still spurring your living carcass, drive you…?'.
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drive you, credulous one, to the sabbath of Pleasure?
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By the song of the violins, by the flames of the candles,
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do you hope to drive off your mocking nightmare,
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and do you come to ask of the torrent of orgies
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to cool the hell kindled within your heart?
Grammar«demander à qqn de» + infinitive The construction is «demander à [the torrent of orgies] de [rafraîchir]» — 'to ask the torrent of orgies to cool…'. French uses «de» before the infinitive complement of «demander». The clause straddles the line break: «viens-tu demander au torrent… / De rafraîchir l'enfer…?».
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Inexhaustible well of folly and of sins!
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Eternal alembic of the age-old sorrow!
Wordun alambic «un alambic» is an alembic — the still used to distill liquids. The skeleton, addressed as the «alambic» of «l'antique douleur» (ancient grief), is the vessel that endlessly distills humanity's oldest pain. The phrase inverts normal order: «De l'antique douleur éternel alambic» = 'eternal alembic of the ancient sorrow'.
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Through the curved lattice of your ribs
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I see, still wandering, the insatiable asp.
Wordun aspic «un aspic» is an asp, the venomous snake (the one Cleopatra used). Glimpsed «errant encor» (still wandering) through the cage of the ribs, the «insatiable aspic» is desire or appetite itself, never sated even in death — coiled where the entrails once were.
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To tell the truth, I fear that your coquetry
Grammar«craindre que» + subjunctive «craindre que» ('to fear that') governs the subjunctive: «trouve» is the present subjunctive of «trouver». «je crains que ta coquetterie ne trouve pas un prix» = 'I fear that your coquetry may not find a reward'. Here «ne trouve pas» is a true negative ('may not find'), not the optional expletive «ne».
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may not find a reward worthy of its efforts.
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Who, among these mortal hearts, grasps the mockery?
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The charms of horror intoxicate only the strong!
Grammarne… que = 'only' «ne… que» is the restrictive 'only': «n'enivrent que les forts» = 'intoxicate only the strong'. «enivrer» = 'to intoxicate, to make drunk'. The line states the poem's creed: only strong spirits can be thrilled rather than sickened by «les charmes de l'horreur».
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The abyss of your eyes, full of horrible thoughts,
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breathes out vertigo, and the prudent dancers
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will not gaze, without bitter nausea,
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upon the eternal smile of your thirty-two teeth.
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And yet, who has not clasped a skeleton in his arms,
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and who has not fed on the things of the tomb?
GrammarPronominal «se nourrir» in the perfect «se nourrir de» = 'to feed on, to nourish oneself with'. In the passé composé it takes «être»: «s'est nourri». «qui ne s'est nourri des choses du tombeau?» = 'who has not fed on the things of the tomb?'. The rhetorical question levels everyone — we all consume what death has touched.
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What does the perfume, the dress, or the finery matter?
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Who plays the squeamish shows that he thinks himself fair.
Grammar«faire le» + adjective = to act/play «faire le + adjective» means 'to act the…, to play at being…': «faire le dégoûté» = 'to play the squeamish one, to put on disgust'. The reflexive «se croit beau» = 'thinks himself handsome'. The point: whoever recoils at the skeleton is only flattering his own perishable flesh.
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Noseless dancing-girl, irresistible drab,
Wordbayadère / gouge «une bayadère» is a Hindu temple dancing-girl, a byword in the period for exotic, sensual dance. «une gouge» is an old, low word for a camp-follower or wench. The skeleton is hailed as both at once — alluring dancer and coarse harlot — and «sans nez», noseless, because the cartilage rots first.
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Go on, say to these dancers who play the offended:
GrammarImperative + «faire les» + adjective «Dis» is the imperative of «dire»; «donc» urges it on ('go on, do tell'). «faire les offusqués» repeats the «faire le» idiom (see s12-l4) in the plural: 'to play the offended, to act scandalized'. The skeleton is told to round on the prim dancers — and the long quotation that follows runs to the end of the poem.
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"Proud darlings, despite the art of powders and of rouge,
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you all smell of death! O musk-scented skeletons,
Word«sentir» = to smell of «sentir» followed by a noun means 'to smell of': «vous sentez tous la mort» = 'you all smell of death'. Under the powder and rouge, the living dancers already give off the odor of the grave — they are «squelettes musqués», skeletons that have merely perfumed themselves with musk.
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Withered Antinoüses, dandies with hairless faces,
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varnished corpses, hoary Lovelaces,
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The universal reel of the dance of death
Wordun branle / la danse macabre «un branle» is an old round-dance in which the dancers swing side to side. «la danse macabre» is the medieval Dance of Death, in which Death leads people of every rank — pope, king, peasant — away to the grave (the image that gives the poem its title). The «branle universel» is that dance, sweeping in everyone alive.
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sweeps you off to places that are not known!
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From the cold banks of the Seine to the burning shores of the Ganges,
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the mortal herd leaps and swoons, without seeing,
Wordse pâmer «se pâmer» is the pronominal verb 'to swoon, to faint with delight'. «Le troupeau mortel» (the mortal herd — all humankind, dancing) «saute et se pâme» — leaps and swoons with pleasure, blind to the trumpet of judgment gaping above them in the next lines.
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in a hole in the ceiling the trumpet of the Angel
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gaping ominously like a black blunderbuss.
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In every climate, under every sun, Death admires you
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in your contortions, laughable Humanity,
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and often, like you, perfuming herself with myrrh,
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mingles her irony with your madness!"

The particulars

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