# Danse macabre · Dance of Death

Les Fleurs du mal · Charles Baudelaire · Parisian Scenes

Source: https://1732studios.com/books/baudelaire/danse-macabre. Data: https://1732studios.com/books/baudelaire/danse-macabre.json.

**1** À Ernest Christophe  
To Ernest Christophe


**2** Fière, autant qu'un vivant, de sa noble stature  
Proud, as much as any living thing, of her noble stature,

**3** Avec son gros bouquet, son mouchoir et ses gants  
with her big bouquet, her handkerchief and her gloves,

**4** Elle a la nonchalance et la désinvolture  
she has the nonchalance and the easy carelessness

**5** D'une coquette maigre aux airs extravagants.  
of a thin coquette with extravagant airs.
> coquette / 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.


**6** Vit-on jamais au bal une taille plus mince?  
Did one ever see at a ball a slimmer waist?
> passé 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.

**7** Sa robe exagérée, en sa royale ampleur,  
Her exaggerated gown, in its royal fullness,

**8** S'écroule abondamment sur un pied sec que pince  
tumbles down lavishly over a dry foot pinched
> Pronominal «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'.

**9** Un soulier pomponné, joli comme une fleur.  
by a bedizened shoe, pretty as a flower.


**10** La ruche qui se joue au bord des clavicules,  
The ruffle that plays at the edge of the collarbones,
> une 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.

**11** Comme un ruisseau lascif qui se frotte au rocher,  
like a lascivious stream that rubs itself against the rock,

**12** Défend pudiquement des lazzi ridicules  
modestly shields from ridiculous jeers
> les 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.

**13** Les funèbres appas qu'elle tient à cacher.  
the funereal charms she is keen to conceal.


**14** Ses yeux profonds sont faits de vide et de ténèbres,  
Her deep eyes are made of void and of darkness,

**15** Et son crâne, de fleurs artistement coiffé,  
and her skull, artfully coiffed with flowers,

**16** Oscille mollement sur ses frêles vertèbres.  
sways softly upon her frail vertebrae.

**17** Ô charme d'un néant follement attifé.  
O charm of a nothingness madly decked out.
> néant / 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.


**18** Aucuns t'appelleront une caricature,  
Some will call you a caricature,
> «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.

**19** Qui ne comprennent pas, amants ivres de chair,  
who do not understand — lovers drunk on flesh —

**20** L'élégance sans nom de l'humaine armature.  
the nameless elegance of the human framework.

**21** Tu réponds, grand squelette, à mon goût le plus cher!  
You answer, great skeleton, to my dearest taste!
> «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.


**22** Viens-tu troubler, avec ta puissante grimace,  
Do you come to disturb, with your powerful grimace,

**23** La fête de la Vie? ou quelque vieux désir,  
the feast of Life? or does some old desire,

**24** Eperonnant encor ta vivante carcasse,  
still spurring on your living carcass,
> éperonner / 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…?'.

**25** Te pousse-t-il, crédule, au sabbat du Plaisir?  
drive you, credulous one, to the sabbath of Pleasure?


**26** Au chant des violons, aux flammes des bougies,  
By the song of the violins, by the flames of the candles,

**27** Espères-tu chasser ton cauchemar moqueur,  
do you hope to drive off your mocking nightmare,

**28** Et viens-tu demander au torrent des orgies  
and do you come to ask of the torrent of orgies

**29** De rafraîchir l'enfer allumé dans ton coeur?  
to cool the hell kindled within your heart?
> «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…?».


**30** Inépuisable puits de sottise et de fautes!  
Inexhaustible well of folly and of sins!

**31** De l'antique douleur éternel alambic!  
Eternal alembic of the age-old sorrow!
> un 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'.

**32** À travers le treillis recourbé de tes côtes  
Through the curved lattice of your ribs

**33** Je vois, errant encor, l'insatiable aspic.  
I see, still wandering, the insatiable asp.
> un 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.


**34** Pour dire vrai, je crains que ta coquetterie  
To tell the truth, I fear that your coquetry
> «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».

**35** Ne trouve pas un prix digne de ses efforts  
may not find a reward worthy of its efforts.

**36** Qui, de ces coeurs mortels, entend la raillerie?  
Who, among these mortal hearts, grasps the mockery?

**37** Les charmes de l'horreur n'enivrent que les forts!  
The charms of horror intoxicate only the strong!
> ne… 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».


**38** Le gouffre de tes yeux, plein d'horribles pensées,  
The abyss of your eyes, full of horrible thoughts,

**39** Exhale le vertige, et les danseurs prudents  
breathes out vertigo, and the prudent dancers

**40** Ne contempleront pas sans d'amères nausées  
will not gaze, without bitter nausea,

**41** Le sourire éternel de tes trente-deux dents.  
upon the eternal smile of your thirty-two teeth.


**42** Pourtant, qui n'a serré dans ses bras un squelette,  
And yet, who has not clasped a skeleton in his arms,

**43** Et qui ne s'est nourri des choses du tombeau?  
and who has not fed on the things of the tomb?
> Pronominal «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.

**44** Qu'importe le parfum, l'habit ou la toilette?  
What does the perfume, the dress, or the finery matter?

**45** Qui fait le dégoûté montre qu'il se croit beau.  
Who plays the squeamish shows that he thinks himself fair.
> «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.


**46** Bayadère sans nez, irrésistible gouge,  
Noseless dancing-girl, irresistible drab,
> bayadère / 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.

**47** Dis donc à ces danseurs qui font les offusqués:  
Go on, say to these dancers who play the offended:
> Imperative + «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.

**48** «Fiers mignons, malgré l'art des poudres et du rouge  
"Proud darlings, despite the art of powders and of rouge,

**49** Vous sentez tous la mort! Ô squelettes musqués,  
you all smell of death! O musk-scented skeletons,
> «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.


**50** Antinoüs flétris, dandys à face glabre,  
Withered Antinoüses, dandies with hairless faces,

**51** Cadavres vernissés, lovelaces chenus,  
varnished corpses, hoary Lovelaces,

**52** Le branle universel de la danse macabre  
The universal reel of the dance of death
> un 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.

**53** Vous entraîne en des lieux qui ne sont pas connus!  
sweeps you off to places that are not known!


**54** Des quais froids de la Seine aux bords brûlants du Gange,  
From the cold banks of the Seine to the burning shores of the Ganges,

**55** Le troupeau mortel saute et se pâme, sans voir  
the mortal herd leaps and swoons, without seeing,
> se 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.

**56** Dans un trou du plafond la trompette de l'Ange  
in a hole in the ceiling the trumpet of the Angel

**57** Sinistrement béante ainsi qu'un tromblon noir.  
gaping ominously like a black blunderbuss.


**58** En tout climat, sous tout soleil, la Mort t'admire  
In every climate, under every sun, Death admires you

**59** En tes contorsions, risible Humanité  
in your contortions, laughable Humanity,

**60** Et souvent, comme toi, se parfumant de myrrhe,  
and often, like you, perfuming herself with myrrh,

**61** Mêle son ironie à ton insanité!»  
mingles her irony with your madness!"

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