# Don Juan aux enfers · Don Juan in the Underworld

Les Fleurs du mal · Charles Baudelaire · Spleen and Ideal

Source: https://1732studios.com/books/baudelaire/don-juan-aux-enfers. Data: https://1732studios.com/books/baudelaire/don-juan-aux-enfers.json.

**1** Quand Don Juan descendit vers l'onde souterraine  
When Don Juan went down toward the underground water
> «l'onde souterraine»: «onde» (f.) is a poetic word for water, wave, or stream — loftier than «eau». «souterrain/souterraine» means underground, subterranean. «l'onde souterraine» names the river of the dead (the Styx or Acheron), down which Don Juan is being ferried into hell.

**2** Et lorsqu'il eut donné son obole à Charon,  
And when he had given his coin to Charon,
> Past anterior «il eut donné»: «eut donné» is the passé antérieur — the literary tense built from the passé simple of «avoir» («eut») plus a past participle. After «lorsque» ('when') it marks an action completed just before another past action: 'and when he had given…'. It pairs with «descendit» in the previous line, both literary past tenses that lend the scene its archaic, ceremonial weight.

**3** Un sombre mendiant, l'oeil fier comme Antisthène,  
A grim beggar, his eye proud as Antisthenes,

**4** D'un bras vengeur et fort saisit chaque aviron.  
With an avenging, powerful arm seized each oar.


**5** Montrant leurs seins pendants et leurs robes ouvertes,  
Showing their hanging breasts and their open gowns,
> Present participle «Montrant»: «Montrant» is the present participle of «montrer» (to show). Opening the stanza, it describes the women in the next line — 'showing their breasts…, the women writhed…'. French often front-loads such participial clauses; read on to find the subject «Des femmes» they attach to.

**6** Des femmes se tordaient sous le noir firmament,  
Women writhed beneath the black firmament,
> Pronominal «se tordre»: «se tordre» is the pronominal form of «tordre» (to twist, to wring); turned inward it means 'to writhe, to twist oneself'. The imperfect «se tordaient» paints an ongoing, continuous motion — the seduced women writhing without end in the background of the scene.

**7** Et, comme un grand troupeau de victimes offertes,  
And, like a great herd of offered victims,

**8** Derrière lui traînaient un long mugissement.  
Behind him dragged out a long lowing cry.
> «un mugissement»: «mugissement» (m.) is the lowing or bellowing of cattle, from «mugir» (to low, to roar). Echoing «troupeau» (herd) in the line above, it turns the abandoned women into a bellowing herd of cattle — their grief reduced to animal sound that Don Juan does not deign to hear.


**9** Sganarelle en riant lui réclamait ses gages,  
Sganarelle, laughing, demanded of him his wages,
> Gerund «en riant»: «en» + present participle is the gérondif, describing how an action is done: «en riant» = 'while laughing, laughingly'. So «Sganarelle en riant lui réclamait» means 'Sganarelle, laughing, was demanding of him'. The indirect-object pronoun «lui» ('of him / from him') is the master from whom the servant claims his pay.

**10** Tandis que Don Luis avec un doigt tremblant  
While Don Luis with a trembling finger

**11** Montrait à tous les morts errant sur les rivages  
Pointed out to all the dead wandering on the shores

**12** Le fils audacieux qui railla son front blanc.  
The insolent son who mocked his white brow.
> «railler»: «railler» means to mock, to jeer at, to make fun of (here in the passé simple, «railla»). «son front blanc» — 'his white brow' — stands by metonymy for the father's old age and dignity; Don Luis is the father Don Juan scorned, now pointing him out among the dead.


**13** Frissonnant sous son deuil, la chaste et maigre Elvire,  
Shivering in her mourning, chaste and gaunt Elvira,
> Present participle «Frissonnant»: «Frissonnant» is the present participle of «frissonner» (to shiver, to shudder). Like «Montrant» earlier, it opens the stanza and modifies the subject that follows — «Elvire». «son deuil» means 'her mourning' (the grief, and the black mourning dress, of a widow).

**14** Près de l'époux perfide et qui fut son amant,  
Close to the faithless husband who had been her lover,

**15** Semblait lui réclamer un suprême sourire  
Seemed to beg of him one last smile

**16** Où brillât la douceur de son premier serment.  
In which the sweetness of his first vow might shine.
> Imperfect subjunctive «brillât»: «brillât» is the imperfect subjunctive of «briller» (to shine), recognizable by the circumflex on the «-ât» ending. The subjunctive appears because the smile is only wished-for, not real: Elvira begs a smile 'in which' the old tenderness might shine. This literary tense matches the poem's elevated, archaic register.


**17** Tout droit dans son armure, un grand homme de pierre  
Bolt upright in his armor, a great man of stone

**18** Se tenait à la barre et coupait le flot noir;  
Held the helm and cut through the black water;

**19** Mais le calme héros, courbé sur sa rapière,  
But the calm hero, bent over his rapier,

**20** Regardait le sillage et ne daignait rien voir.  
Gazed at the wake and did not deign to see a thing.
> «daigner» + infinitive: «daigner» means 'to deign, to condescend' and takes a bare infinitive: «daignait rien voir» = 'deigned to see nothing'. The negation «ne … rien» wraps the verb. The final image is Don Juan's whole character — supremely indifferent, refusing to so much as glance at the victims and judges crowding around him.

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