French · Spleen and Ideal

De profundis clamavi

Out of the Depths I Have Cried

14 lines · 11 notes

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1
I beg your pity, You, the only one I love,
J'Ije · pronoun, singularsubject of implore
implorebegimplorer · verb, present, indicative, first-person, singularmain verb of the sentence
tayourton · determiner, feminine, singulardeterminer of pitié
pitiépitypitié · noun, feminine, singulardirect object of implore
ToiYoutoi · pronoun, disjunctive, singularin apposition, direct address
l'thele · determiner, singulardeterminer of unique
uniqueonly oneunique · adjective, singularcoordinated with Toi, in apposition
quethatque · pronoundirect object of aime
j'Ije · pronoun, singularsubject of aime
aimeloveaimer · verb, present, indicative, first-person, singularrelative clause on unique
Word«implorer» — to beg, to entreat «implorer» is to beg or implore — a far more abject, prayerful verb than «demander». «J'implore ta pitié» = 'I implore / beg your pity'. The capitalized «Toi» ('You') addresses the beloved like a deity, and the line answers the Latin title «De profundis clamavi» — 'out of the depths I have cried' — the opening of Psalm 130, turning a lover's plea into a cry to God from the pit.
2
From the depth of the dark abyss where my heart has fallen.
Word«le gouffre» — the abyss, the pit «un gouffre» is a chasm, gulf, or abyss; «du fond du gouffre obscur» = 'from the bottom of the dark abyss'. It renders the Latin «de profundis» ('from the depths') into French, and «où mon coeur est tombé» — 'where my heart has fallen' — fixes the speaker at the very floor of the pit from which he cries upward.
3
It is a dismal universe with a leaden horizon,
Word«plombé» — leaden, lead-grey «plombé» is the past participle of «plomber», from «le plomb» (lead); as an adjective it means 'leaden, lead-coloured, ashen'. «à l'horizon plombé» = 'with a leaden horizon' — a sky the dull grey of lead, heavy and lightless. «morne» ('dismal, bleak, dreary') in the same line sets the deadened mood of this inner world.
4
where horror and blasphemy swim through the night;
GrammarVerb–subject inversion after «où» The verb «nagent» ('swim') comes before its subjects «l'horreur et le blasphème», an inversion common in verse after a relative like «où» ('where'). Read straight: «l'horreur et le blasphème nagent dans la nuit» — 'horror and blasphemy swim through the night'. The inversion lets the swimming motion arrive before the named things, so the abstractions seem to drift up out of the dark.
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A sun without heat hovers overhead six months,
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and the other six months the night covers the earth;
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It is a land more naked than the polar earth
GrammarComparative «plus … que» «plus nu que» = 'more naked than' — the standard comparative «plus + adjective + que». «un pays plus nu que la terre polaire» = 'a land more naked than the polar earth'. The image extends the six-month sun and six-month night of the lines above into an Arctic waste, and the next line strips it barer still.
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— neither beasts, nor streams, nor greenery, nor woods!
GrammarRepeated «ni … ni» — neither … nor «ni … ni …» is the correlative 'neither … nor', normally paired with «ne» on the verb; here the verb is dropped and the four «ni» pile up alone for force: 'no beasts, no streams, no greenery, no woods'. The em-dash that opens the line marks an outburst, and the fourfold negation empties the polar land of every living thing at once.
9
Now there is no horror in the world that surpasses
Grammar«il n'est pas de» = il n'y a pas de «il n'est pas d'horreur» is the elevated, literary form of «il n'y a pas d'horreur» — 'there is no horror'. After a negation «de» replaces the article «une». «Or» opening the tercet means 'now / and so', a turn in the argument: of all horrors, none «surpasse» (surpasses) the one named next.
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the cold cruelty of this sun of ice
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and this immense night, like the ancient Chaos;
WordChaos — the primordial void «le Chaos» is the formless void of Greek cosmogony, the gaping dark that existed before the ordered world. «semblable au vieux Chaos» = 'like the old / ancient Chaos'. The capitalized, personified word lifts the lover's frozen night to a cosmic scale: not merely dark, but the un-created abyss that came before light, beasts, and woods themselves.
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I envy the lot of the basest animals
Word«jalouser» — to envy «jalouser» is to envy or be jealous of (from «jaloux»); «le sort» here means 'the lot, the fate'. «Je jalouse le sort des plus vils animaux» = 'I envy the fate of the basest animals'. «vil» means 'base, vile, lowly' — the speaker has sunk so far he covets the existence of the meanest creatures, for the one mercy the next lines name.
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who can plunge themselves into a stupefied sleep,
GrammarPronominal «se plonger» — to plunge oneself «se plonger» is the pronominal of «plonger» (to plunge, to dive); with «se» it means 'to immerse / plunge oneself'. «se plonger dans un sommeil stupide» = 'to sink into a stupefied sleep'. «stupide» keeps its Latin force of 'stunned, numb, senseless' — the mindless oblivion the animals can reach but the wakeful, suffering speaker cannot.
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so slowly does the skein of time unwind!
Word«l'écheveau» — the skein of thread «un écheveau» is a skein or hank of yarn; «se dévider» is 'to unwind, to unreel'. «l'écheveau du temps lentement se dévide» = 'the skein of time slowly unwinds'. «Tant» fronts the line as 'so much / to such a degree', explaining the envy: time pays out so agonizingly slowly that endless wakefulness is the worst torment of the frozen pit.

The particulars

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